Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this guided meditation session, Venerable Thubten Chodron leads practitioners through a foundational practice structured in three parts: a body scan to release physical tension, the setting of motivation rooted in compassion for all beings, and breath awareness meditation. She begins by systematically scanning sensation from feet to head, releasing tension in the shoulders, jaw, and abdomen. She then frames the practice within a Mahāyāna context, encouraging students to cultivate their own positive qualities not for personal benefit alone but as a path to eventually helping all sentient beings. Finally, she guides sustained, non-forced breath awareness, emphasizing contentment with simple sitting and the natural arising and passing of each breath. The session concludes with an invitation to move into analytical meditation practices from the Lamrim and a reminder to dedicate merit. Suitable for beginners and established practitioners alike.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 GM.mp3
UUID: c4ebf354-1595-4f0f-9a89-09449127d30c
Teacher: Thubten Chodron Guided Med
Collection: Guided Meditation (Thubten Chodron Guided Med)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~785
Before we begin the actual meditation, we’ll do a brief body scan to relax our body, and we’ll set our motivation. And then we’ll do the breathing meditation. So begin by feeling yourself sitting here on the cushion. Bring your mind to where your body is. Be in your body sitting here on the cushion.
And then be aware of the sensation in your feet and in your legs. And if there’s any tension there, then let that go. And be aware of the sensations in your abdomen, your pelvic area, your belly. If there’s any tightness, then let it relax. So especially your stomach, let your stomach relax.
Don’t hold any tension in your stomach. Then be aware of the chest, your arms, and shoulders. And if there’s tension, let it go, especially your shoulders. Let your shoulders relax. You don’t need to scrunch them up.
Now be aware of the sensations in your neck, your face, your jaw. Let any tightness there go. So let your jaw be relaxed, your facial muscles be relaxed. So your body posture is very firm in meditation position, but it’s also very much at ease. It’s also very relaxed.
And having prepared your body, then let’s prepare the mind as well by generating a good motivation. And so think that I’m going to meditate in order to recognize and let go of my faults, my weaknesses, and also in order to recognize and enhance my good qualities and abilities. But I’m not going to do this for myself alone because I live in a world in which I’m completely dependent on the kindness of other living beings even just to stay alive. And so I don’t want to do my spiritual practice or anything else in my life just for my own benefit. I wanna make it for the benefit of all living beings.
And so, especially, if through this practice, I can progress along the path to enlightenment and eventually become a fully enlightened Buddha, then I’ll have the compassion, the wisdom, the skillful means to be able to effortlessly and spontaneously be of great benefit to each and every living being. And so it’s for that long term goal that we’re doing our meditation today. And so Thinking like this, place your meditation very firmly within the framework of being of service to other living beings. And now we’ll go on to do the breathing meditation. So become aware of your breath.
Let your breathing pattern be as it is. So breathe normally and naturally. Don’t force it. Don’t deep breathe. Just let your breath be however it wants to be, but become aware of breathing.
Be aware how your breath keeps you alive, connects you to the rest of the universe. Be aware of the various sensations sensations that occur as you breathe in, the various sensations that occur as you breathe out. You may want to focus your attention as you do that at the tip of your nose and your upper lip and just watch the sensations of the breath going in and out from there. Or alternatively, you may wanna focus at your abdomen and be aware of the rise and fall of your abdomen as you inhale and exhale. So choose one of those two places, but don’t go back and forth between them.
Be aware if there’s a pause between one breath and the next. Be aware of all the different things that are going on as you inhale and exhale. Each breath is something new that hasn’t happened before. So be very aware and very appreciative of each breath. As you watch your breath, be completely content just to sit here and breathe.
You don’t have to be anybody. You don’t have to do anything. So let yourself actually be content. Let yourself be happy just to sit here and breathe. Other things enter into your field of awareness, a sound or a thought or a feeling in your body, just be aware of it, but don’t get involved in it.
Just note that it’s there, but don’t give it any energy. And instead, let your attention rest on your breath. So I’ll have some minutes of silence now to do that. And then when you’re ready, begin one of the analytic meditations in the Lam Rim. Now, if you’d like to continue your meditation session, you can do one of the analytical meditations on the path.
You’ll find these on the other CDs in this set. When you’ve finished your meditation session, be sure to recite the dedication prayers found in the booklet. You can also hear them on the last track of this disc.