Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Zen koan opens this 38-minute session from Khensur Rinpoche: “How do I prepare for death?” — “Learn how to live.” “How do I learn to live?” — “Prepare for death.” From that paradox, Rinpoche argues that dying gracefully and living gracefully are the same skill, and that meditation is the practical tool for developing it. He uses the poem “Autobiography in Five Parts” — walking into the same hole five times — to frame the learning process, then gives step-by-step instruction in mindfulness of breathing: natural breath, physical sensations as the focus object, counting sequences building from one-to-five up to one-to-ten, and a noting technique for handling distraction without repression or indulgence. He closes by leading the group into loving-kindness practice. Accessible to general audiences with no prior Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 A of D 1993 08 07.mp3
UUID: 6ab12b27-14cc-4607-9073-6217d0256de2
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Art of Dying Workshop (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-08-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 38.2 minutes
Words: ~6,026
And there’s a certain fear around this, around change in general. What to say of the big change or the radical change of lifestyle at the end of our life. So I think whatever we might learn over the course of the day or the next two days around death is applicable to life. You know, I don’t think learning about death, about terminal issues is a means of helping us to live a greater quality of life. There was a a student went to a Zen master and he said to the master, How do I prepare for death?
And the master said, Learn how to live. And of course, the student, asked in reply, how shall I learn to live? And the master said, prepare yourself for death. So in in facing terminal issues and preparing ourselves for death, I think, it’s very a paradoxical occurrence takes place. That is to say that to be able to die gracefully is to be able to live gracefully.
In fact, they’re one and the same thing. Death is very much a summation about how we lived our life and that we’re going to die very much as we have lived. So in looking into death and and working with our fears around death, the level of dread that we all have at some level around death, we can lead a much more productive life. A life which is which is centered around what is important. We can get back in touch with central values and guidelines that we’ve, in our finest moments have set for ourselves that quite often we get out of touch with through the seemingly practical necessities of having to deal with our everyday lives or everyday issues.
So I think, you know, what we’re doing is learning. There’s a learning process. And there’s a short poem that I’d like to share with you. It’s kind of describing this learning process and what what needs to take place. You know, that there has to be some, you know, very much in terms of Buddhism, it’s not so much what we do but why we do what we do which is going to determine the quality of the outcome.
That is to say something about our motivation or intention. So it’s not so much that we can learn to learn about the mechanics of death or the various specific processes which take place, but trying to develop a particular type of attitude which is most important in in a way of approaching death, our own death and also the death of those around us. And not only the big death at the end of this life, but the small deaths which occur over the course of our lives. Being open to something new, some kind of change. So this is This is an autobiography in five parts.
Number one, I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Number two, I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place But it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Number three, I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there. I still fall in it. It’s a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am.
It is my fault. I get out immediately. Number four, I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.
Number five, I walk down another street. So there’s some kind of learning, isn’t there? And hopefully, you know, the You know, it’s not so much the things and the people about us which causes our problems, but our opinions about them. Maybe we can begin to shift some of our opinions, our ideas, beliefs, our assumptions, the premises upon which we operate concerning death. I am going to be talking about death and the nature of perhaps our present awareness and the way to become aware of death and to begin to deal with the level of dread that perhaps, probably, we all have around it, but perhaps at present we are unaware of.
A tool that we can learn in that we can make use of in the learning process is simply meditation. There’s nothing particularly mystical about meditation. It can become very profound and very unusual in terms of our normal habitual mind states, only in terms of that relative to that. But I think most of all meditation is a way that we can begin to learn about ourselves. That we can revolt against this process of this external orientation that we’re very much habituated to concerning ourselves with the people and the situations and relationships about us almost entirely and revolting against that externalization process and becoming aware of this dimly lit inner world.
You know, if we’re going to talk about death, essentially we’re talking about mind. Very much in Buddhism we’re not concerned the death we’re concerned about how our mind is coping with this process, how our mind is coping with change in general transition change. And so we we don’t we’re talking about how our mind is operating at a very fundamental fundamental level. And we don’t operate our minds very well because we don’t know how they operate. So I think very much meditation is a is a means a method of learning about ourselves and most fundamentally the nature of our mind and how it works.
So that in this through this learning process we begin to gain some control. We begin to, be able to take some kind of a direction. Our preferred outcome. What street do we want to walk down? So meditation is a tool amongst our array of tools.
You know, think if someone were to build a house and they only had a hammer, what kind of house could they build? What, you know, what kind of possible structure could you could you create out of if you had just had one simple tool that you applied to every task that needed to be done? So I think, you know, we meditation isn’t the the an end all, but it is a useful method amongst our array of tools for for achieving the quality of life that we are all seeking. Know, significant relationships with others, with comfortable homes, stylish clothes, you know, lots of the material goodies of life. These all contribute to what we call a quality life.
But still we, you know, these things are very much in a way, from one perspective, they’re neutral. The, you know, the one analogy that can be used is that they’re like a knife in the sense that a knife in the hand of a a thief, of a of a murderer is, destructive. It can be it can take life. That same very knife in the hand of a surgeon can be life enhancing. It can be beneficial.
It can be it can give life. So it’s not so much the, you know, as I mentioned, the things and the people about us which determine the quality of our experience, but the attitudes, the opinions, our ideas, the assumptions that we’re operating from. And these we have to become aware of in terms of learning about our own selves and learning about our own mind. And one means we can which is a very useful means, a very profound means, is through the process of meditation. So I’m going to talk a little bit about meditation.
And one of the most simple methods of simple minded means of becoming sane is, is the meditation on mindfulness of breathing. You know, we can stop acting, stop speeding and do nothing. And whenever I say this, it’s, it I think it, when people first hear this, stop acting, stop speeding, do nothing, I think it it doesn’t it feels perhaps a little bit uncomfortable. To do to do nothing sounds like you’re being lazy. And we have this idea that I shouldn’t be lazy.
And I would agree, I would also go on to say that I don’t think anyone in this room can do nothing. I think only great masters can do nothing. And therefore, you know, what do we mean by do nothing? Maybe I’ll read a quote by an American, a Tibetan master who lived in the United States for many years. He’s talking about meditation.
The world can be explored. It is workable wherever you go, whatever you do. But I would like to plant one basic seed in your mind. I feel that it is absolutely important to make the practice of meditation your source of strength, your source of basic intelligence. Please think about that.
You could sit down and do nothing. Just sit and do nothing. Stop acting, stop speeding, sit and do nothing. You should take great pride in the fact that you’ve learned a very valuable message. You can actually survive beautifully by doing nothing.
So I think, you know, what does he mean by doing nothing? That sounds very strange, think. You know, relative to our our habitual attitudes of inquisitiveness, ambition, competitiveness, this, You know, I sometimes I wonder why they cause, human beings. I I think it’d be more appropriate to call them human doings that we’ve lost the, you know, we’ve lost the ability simply to be be in the moment. I think it’s quite reasonable and rational to set goals for oneself and and skillfully and effectively implement the means to achieve those goals.
I think this this is a necessary component of leading to a quality of life that however we may conceive of it. But on the other hand, perhaps we fall into some extreme in this in this in this respect that we’ve in this, in implementing these means, in in our goalism of life, we’ve lost the ability to be. That we’re complete in the moment, that the situation is enough. I’m okay and I can simply dwell in the moment. Know, like even when we see perhaps a beautiful sunset, it’s some somehow we have to act upon that.
We we simply cannot be in relationship to that sunset and enjoy the aesthetic moment that we have to write a poem about it or we have to we wanna take a photograph of it or we want to tell a friend about it. Even in the moment as we’re watching it, we have to somehow It’s as if we want to consume the sunset. It’s not enough, you know, this inability to accept change in in a way I think. We want to hold onto something. We want to give it a name such that we can begin to manipulate this habitual pragmatic way of being as opposed to what I call an aesthetic way of being.
So I think what I mean by doing nothing is to is in contrast or relative to a habitual way of doing. This continual and habitual acquisiteness, you know, manipulative, competitive you know, we seek our sense of identity in having, in owning, in manipulating as opposed to being. And I think very much meditation one of the facets which is is very profound, is perhaps not apparent, is that we begin to reroute our sense of identity and being as opposed to becoming. And I think this is what we might mean by doing nothing. Nothing relative to our habitual mindset that we usually express in our everyday life.
Even when we try to do nothing, even when we we can’t do anything holy. You know, it’s very it’s interesting that the word holy with a w and with an h have the same root. To do something the totality of our being to one single act. You know, generally, even when we’re trying to be lazy, we can’t quite we can’t do that totally. You There’s a part of us which feels guilty about being lazy.
We do it as kind of in a in a fragmented sense. So another valuable message that we can get from meditation is that through the simple minded act of watching our breath, for example, we can we can train ourselves. We can learn how to do something totally, wholly. You know, bringing our entire being to a single simple act. You know, what constitutes our being of mind and body.
And centering around a one act, you know, without any division, without any fragmentation as we normally do. So there’s a great learning process going on and beginning to note the quality of our own mind, the various states which arise. I think, you know, we could go on, I think, and describe it in in many fashions. But I think it might be more most useful and because of the limited time just to proceed in learning how to do a simple method of mindfulness of breathing and allow you to learn through your own experience about what it can offer to you. But also in terms of gaining some kind of control over our mind.
You know, one of the it was brought up this morning that some people want to learn how to die. You know. And no matter what we may learn intellectually, if we’re not able to bring it to bear at the moment that it’s needed, it is as if it were no use. And so it is quite necessary if we are going to use our knowledge and our skills that we are developing, what we have learned about ourselves in the death process, at those moments when it is of greatest necessity, when it is applicable, when it is of greatest use, that we are going to have to be able to make to be to have some control to be able to use this information. And therefore this our meditation acts as a to facilitate this process.
The very fact of learning how to concentrate, to calm the mind, is going to act as a means whereby we can implement whatever we’ve learned, the various techniques, our understandings and our skills, when they’re most useful, when appropriate, when they need to be applied. So we’re going to learn a very basic meditation but because it’s basic doesn’t mean that it’s simple or that it’s not profound. It’s simply a platform from which we can begin to learn about ourselves, use other techniques as a basis of and from, and begin to find some peace in our lives, to begin to bring our mind to rest and gain some control over the processes of our thinking, over the various emotions and feelings which are continually rising. So mindfulness of breathing. And I’m going to explain it very briefly and perhaps in such a way that you can explain it to others to help them because I think it’s very practically useful.
Many of our problems, a great deal of our thinking is pathological. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed that. It’s unproductive. You know, Buddhism places great high value on our ability to think clearly and effectively. But there are there are times when the thinking process is not applicable.
There are other modes of being. There are other ways of using our mind which are more appropriate in certain situations at certain times. And it is as if this machine has gotten going cranked up and we can’t turn it off. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed that. And it becomes very it becomes counterproductive.
It’s not in our own best interests quite often. So being able to choose the quality the the mental approach to a situation gaining some control. Mindfulness of breathing. So we’re going to as the name notes or denotes, it’s going to be the focus of the meditation is on the breath. And breath is something that we can’t see.
But we can what we can see or that is to say experience or feel physically are the physical sensations associated with the natural breathing. So first I guess I emphasize this word natural breathing. We’re not trying to alter the breath in any way. Neither make it longer or shorter. Whatever breath is there, that’s the breath that we are going to work with.
And we are going to begin to focus upon the sensations which naturally arise in the course of breathing. You know, the chest rises or falls or the abdomen rises and falls according to whether one breathes from the chest or the belly. So there’s the expansion and contraction of muscles. There’s the cloth rubbing against your skin. Perhaps you can become aware of the air rushing in and out on your upper nostril, inside your nose, depending upon the shape of your nose.
So all of these various physical sensations taken together become the focus of our awareness. That is when we say mindfulness of breathing, the word breathing is equated with these physical sensations associated with the breathing. And we’re we’re going to be mindful of them. One area of Buddhist psychology, one in in terms of categorization of mental states, divide mental states up into six primary or main central minds eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousnesses. And fifty one secondary consciousnesses or functions of mind, distinct ways in which mind operates upon objects.
Amongst these fifty one secondary mental factors, the two main ones which we use in the course of meditation are mindfulness and awareness Mindfulness and awareness. So these aren’t exotic. They’re not, they we know they’re not particularly Buddhist. You you don’t have to, you know, become a member of Buddha House in order to get these. We all have mindfulness and awareness.
Mindfulness simply most is memory, a recollection. That which holds objects, holds mental objects like telephone numbers. If you want to remember what your house looked like when you were ten years old, you can recall it and you can hold it in your mind, some kind of mental image. So mindfulness is that which holds mental objects, objects of mind. And awareness is other words for awareness are attentiveness or introspection, a knowing quality, a watchfulness, an awakefulness of the mind.
It it knows objects. For example, you know, the mindfulness would be analogous to my hand holding the book. And awareness would be the the ability to know that if I’m holding the book or not, how tightly I’m holding the book, how loosely I’m holding the book, whether I’ve lost the book. So in the course of meditation, we we develop, cultivate these two mental factors which we all presently have. How are we doing for time?
Okay, great. In in helping us to develop these two faculties of mind, these two factors of mind, mindfulness and awareness, we can use techniques. And they’re only techniques. You know, they’re they’re supports that we can use or not use according to our discretion once we learn about our own capacity and the way our mind operates. We can we can make use of them when and how if if in fact they are useful to ourselves.
There’s nothing mystical or sacred about them. It’s a means to help us develop these two mental factors of mind. You know, very much that we have a factor of mindfulness, it’s perhaps the our our mindfulness is not developed. Probably not to a great degree. It’s like the you know, a baby, though it has five fingers, it has a certain capacity.
It it has not developed the dexterity to pick up a very fine object, say a pen. But it has the the necessary coordination to pick up a gross object, say a block or rattle. So initially perhaps our mindfulness is not, what would you say, dexterous enough to pick up a very fine object, say the sensations, or hold be able to hold itself easily to a fine object such as the physical sensations associated with the breath. So we give it a grosser object, more to hold onto, something which is more stimulating. The mind naturally tends toward that which is most interesting and more than not in our environment, within whatever kinds of stimulations are coming at us, sensations are being experienced.
More than not, the most interesting is that which is most stimulating. And so if we give the mind a greater stimulus, is easier to hold the mind there because the mind will be more interested, attentive to that object. So we give it a a grosser object. And that we do in terms of mindfulness by simply counting the breaths. And then breathing in naturally, breathing out, we count mentally, not verbally, but mentally in.
One. I’d be mindful of what I’m saying. Breathing in, breathing out two. In out three, in out four, in out five. Having gotten to five, come back down to one.
In out one, in out two, in out three, in out four, in out five, in out six. Having gotten to six, come back to one. One through seven, one through eight, one through nine, one through ten. You know, if over the course it’s definite that your mind is going to wander or probably will wander, that it’s going to be distracted. And the the moment you become aware that your mind is distracted, then bring the mind back to the sensations, to the breath, to the breath.
Beginning that particular sequence of numbers again, if you’re counting one through six and you find that during that course of counting to one through six your mind is wandered, then begin that particular sequence of counting again one through six. You know, think it’s also important the attitude that we bring to this practice of meditation. We it’s something meditation is something to help us to solve our problems, most basically, I think. And we can’t allow it to become something just another activity amongst all our various other activities. But over and above that, we can’t allow it to become something more that we can find ourselves insufficient, that we can’t quite do as well as we might like.
It’s not it can become something that we another something that we bash ourselves with to prove our insufficiency. You know, we all it is something to help us to, you know, we all have some wounds and we need to heal those wounds and we don’t need to to to cause ourself more harm, especially harm through those methods which are which are which are only there as a means to heal our wounds. So there’s a certain quality of an attitude toward the process in ourselves that we I think is useful to to develop in the process of meditation. You know, the to we need some kind of discipline. But it has to be a disciplined discipline in a sense of some kind of gentle discipline.
And so, you know, when we it’s almost for sure that your mind is going to be distracted, okay, or or wander. So we have to do two things. One is that we have to develop determination that I’m going to bring my mind back to the breath. The moment I become aware that my mind has wandered, that I’ve been distracted, you know, no matter what, how exotic, the object of our distraction might be, you know, even if God is about to speak to you, you know, I’ll get back to you later, God. I gotta get back to the breath.
And bring, without waiting to finish the shopping list or the fantasy or whatever it might be, without judgment with respect to oneself, immediate or the object of which would distracted you, simply bring the mind back to the breath. You know, this and also in the sense of a nonjudgmental quality. You know, some people meditation and working with their mind simply becomes another means of agitating, of finding themselves insufficient. Know, they have a sense, oh, everybody in this room is blissed out except me. Well, there’s something wrong with me.
And it it becomes counterproductive. And so without judging ourselves, getting up giving up that whole mindset which necessary to achieve, of setting kind of some kind of standards for ourselves, comparing ourselves to how we imagine others might be progressing, Simply working with your own mind, but working with it in the context of a gentle discipline and without judgment about oneself and the quality of what one is doing, but simply doing the work. And then things will go well. Awareness, a technique that we can use to develop awareness. And I think it’s a very useful technique we can use outside of our sitting meditation.
It’s something which can be of great use in our lives in general. And this is the quality, the technique of noting. You know, that emphasizing to our minds what we what where our attention is being directed from moment to moment, becoming aware of the present situation, how it’s unfolding, and what what we are working with. You know, many people they they I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, probably, you know, the nature of our our society is such that they can eat an entire meal, say lunch. And they would come back from lunch, say they’re back to work or whatever, back from to their their whether it be out of their home or in the home.
And they say, do you have for lunch? Oh, what do I have for lunch? And they don’t quite remember, you know. They’re they’re while they’re eating lunch, their minds are somewhere else. They they aren’t quite sure what it is they’re they’re they’re involved in from moment to moment.
Life passes unnoticed, unexperienced to a large degree. We either live in terms of our past histories, work, you know, in terms of these we dig out these archives of old films and we’re continually running those and or we’re playing with images and ideas and kind of juxtaposing them to think about possible future fantasies. And we very seldom exist within the present moment. And a life goes by very much in, as it were, in a half sleep or some kind of trance. This factor of this ability to note, this training, helps us to become aware of the state of our mind and what we’re involved in.
You know, we’re breathing in, breathing out. We breathing in, we know that we’re breathing in. We emphasize that fact by simply noting mentally in. Breathing out, we know that we’re breathing out. We emphasize that that fact that we know that we’re breathing out by noting out.
So, you know, now that we’ve we’ve developed a pattern of noting and counting, in out one, in out two, in out three, in out four, in out five, in out one, in out two, out three, six. And, you know, as I mentioned, it’s sure that your mind is going to be distracted, that your mind is going to wander. The moment you become aware, whatever it was, maybe it’s an external object, maybe a car goes along the street, hearing. Just note hearing. The moment you become aware, hearing.
Maybe, some pain, maybe it’s an internal object, some pain in the knee or the back. Pain. Feeling. Feeling. Feeling.
Maybe it’s a thought. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. We can we can we begin simply to to note where it was that we were distracted and we bring our mind back to the breath and we continue to note.
You know, it’s interesting. You know, quite often you hear this, it’s almost a catchphrase about what people say about letting go, letting go, letting go. You know, generally, you know, we we are we think we’re very important people and therefore our thinking must be important and every thought must be quite important. And so we take every thought extremely important, and we take it very seriously. And we, as it were, get caught.
We You know, some people’s minds are are like velcro, I think, or some like sandpaper. You know, if you if you take a piece of silk, it’s always catching and rub it and you drag it across a piece of sandpaper, it it catches on every particle. Other people people’s minds are like polished marble, I think. You know, you take you take that same piece of silk and you run it across and it just slides across. And have you ever noticed that that some people are life are life is very problematic?
Other people they seem to glide, flow through life. And I think one way we can begin to flow a little bit smoother, we can begin to polish down our sandpaper minds by developing this ability to let go. And this we can do through this process of noting. The basic understanding that is to be used in noting is that we we neither want to repress nor indulge the thinking process. You know, if we indulge, then of course we’re lost.
We’re we’re often are some kind of fantasy where we’re lost at the present moment. On the other hand, if we try to repress, then that very energy that we expend to repress a thought is going to rebound back at us. Our mind is going to be even more agitated than it was before. To repress a particular chain of thinking, a train of thought, we have to use other conceptions, more types of thinking. And these have to be even more powerful than that previous train of thought.
And so we’re simply building up a conglomeration of thought, a, what would you say, using more and more weights to keep down to repress the previous, forces which were operating. And it doesn’t work very well. We end up with an extremely agitated and uptight mind. But so if we can take a position of neither indulging on the one hand, getting caught up identifying what the thinking process or whatever the feeling was and the emotion was. And this is gonna be quite useful in the in the course of working with change in in the death process, that we can develop some kind of space by neither indulging or that on the other hand repressing.
If we can create some kind of perspective, some kind of neutral stance. And the way that we can do this, that we can let go. To let go of a thought is simply not to identify with it. And the way that we can identify with it is simply to note it, to be aware it’s there. But one doesn’t have to take a position with every thought that arises within our minds.
Our thoughts will arise, they will abide for a time, and if they’re neither repressed nor indulged, they will cease of themselves. This is the very nature of thought, the nature of all impermanent phenomena. This is like the waves on an ocean. They rise out of the ocean, they abide, they move along the water for a while, and then they return to the depth of their source. And like with our thinking process, our feelings, and our emotions, we can simply by taking a neutral position without having to identify with them, without having to take any position with respect to them, whether good or bad, all of these judgmental qualities that we usually apply to our processes, internal processes, they will cease to themselves.
A feeling can arise, a thought can arise, an emotion can arise. And if one can simply note anger, anger, if one can take that neutral observatory position, then that will the emotion will cease of itself. You know, it’s yeah, anyway, I’m running out of time. So okay, we’re going to try to practice this ability mindfulness of breathing. We’re going to take as an object of our meditation the breath, the physical sensations associated with natural breathing.
We’re going to make use of a technique of counting, that is counting your breaths one through five, one through six, one through seven mentally not verbally, we’re going to make use of the technique of, noting. Noting the in knowing that you’re breathing, whatever the mind is involved in from that moment to moment, we want to simply note. Ideally it’s in the breath. Breathing in, you know that you’re breathing in, note in. Breathing out, knowing that you’re breathing out, emphasizing this fact by noting out.
If it is distracted, like to the chimes, tingling in the wind, then hearing. If it’s an internal object, pain, thinking, feeling. Then bring the mind back to the breath. And as far as physical posture, you know, a purpose of firm but comfortable physical posture. So we’re going to work with mindfulness of breathing for ten minutes, and then we’ll do a loving kindness meditation together.
I think the basis of all spiritual practice or the basis of all psychological growth is in the context of love and compassion. And I think we can learn how to be more loving and more compassionate. This is a method that we can use to cultivate those qualities, we haven’t maybe there will be a chance to go into the necessity for loving compassion in our everyday lives and why it’s necessary to lead a quality life. So if you’ll take a comfortable, firm position. So we’re going to meditate on mindfulness of breathing.
And then subsequent to that, I’ll lead you through a meditation on loving kindness. And I guess just a word because we had And we did have lots of time, but now we’re running behind time. Funny rest of it. Used to I used to be a very quiet person. Believe it or not.
People change. Where was that? Yeah. Know, words the words I love you or love are not love. Love is an emotion, a state of mind, a pattern of thinking.
And so the words that I use to describe and that I use to induce that you are following are not sufficient in themselves. Know, the you know, when somebody points to the moon, you don’t get hum up in their finger. You look to what is being indicated. So with that also applies to ourselves. In the course of the the analytic meditations where where some we’re using thought, we’re using thinking in words, those those are signposts, those arrows which are directing us toward a particular state of mind.
So using our creativity, our imagination, our experience, trying to evoke, become skillful in being able to induce those particular states of mind as as as are appropriate. So don’t be satisfied with simply repeating words in your mind, but try to get to the feeling beyond which the words are trying are expressions of or indicating or directing our minds toward. So if you take a firm, comfortable posture, and perhaps first we can get in touch with our bodies, just, you know, noting noticing any tensions, any tightnesses, especially around the neck and shoulders. We carry a lot great burden there, a lot of weight. And bringing your awareness to those areas where you feel tightness, some kind of tension, and consciously relaxing, softening.
You can almost imagine a tension moving down and out of your body into the into the floor. The body becoming comfortable. It feels good. Muscle soft, relaxed. A sense of physical well-being.
And then bring your mind to the breath. Just the gentle, easy, in and out flow of the natural breath using the techniques of counting and noting.