Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Rather than opening with doctrine, Ven Jampa Gendun leads this 47-minute session from the 2008 Christmas Retreat as a sustained guided meditation — a systematic body scan that moves from the toes to the crown of the head. After settling breath and posture, he guides attention through the left leg, right leg, pelvis and trunk, both arms, neck, and head, inviting participants to notice whatever sensation is present — tingling, warmth, pressure, tension, or absence — without trying to change anything. The session closes by expanding awareness to the whole body as a single breathing field. A practical grounding session accessible to retreat participants at any experience level.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 CR.mp3
UUID: 5d98b82f-f551-4f74-86d4-094cbe3a1e7d
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Christmas Retreat (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2008 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.8 minutes
Words: ~2,691
And if it’s comfortable with your palms up, put your feet together and just then allow them to fall apart, to fall away from each other. The main thing is that you have a comfortable posture where you won’t need to move as little as possible over the course of the meditation. But by all means, if you want to shift your position, if it’s necessary to move, then do that. I guess the only rule Rule that we might make is if you fall asleep, please try not to snore too loudly or I might have to come up and wake you up. So take in a comfortable position and just bring your mind to the sensation associated with the natural breath, wherever you feel it most obvious and clear to yourself.
Perhaps the rise and fall of your abdomen, perhaps the air rushing in and out on your upper lip. The rise and fall of your chest. Focusing your attention on the breath. So during the course of this practice, there’s nothing that we need particularly to think about or there’s no place to go. This is simply a chance for yourself to rest, to give yourself a break from the doing mode of being. We lead very busy lives.
Just a chance to be, just be here now. If thoughts arise, just like a cloud moving through the sky, just note whatever distraction, thinking, and just let the cloud move on and return to the breath. Easy, gentle, in and out flow the natural breath. Just bring your mind back to the breath. And then we’re going to take a breath which is deeper than you normally take.
And following that breath into your nostrils and down your throat and through your lungs. And just by way of imagination, however you can you see it, you can sense it or imagine it, imagine that breath continues down the left side of your body and down the left side of your leg and the lower part of your leg all the way down to your foot. So breathing in on your next breath, breathing in deeply, following that breath down through the lungs, the left side of your body, and through your left leg, and down through your left leg, all the way down to the toes of your left foot. And we want to get in touch with, become aware of the sensations in the toes of the left foot, the big toe and the little toe and all the the toes between. Perhaps there’s a sensation of of tingling or throbbing or warmth.
Tingling or throbbing or warmth. Perhaps there’s no sensation at all. Become aware of the absence of sensation. Simply becoming aware of whatever is there without trying to create create any particular experience. The sensations in the toes of your left foot, paying attention, focusing your awareness on those sensations.
Just open without any judgment. What you feel in your big toe and your little toe? All the toes. Placing the entirety of your attention in the toes of your left foot. Curious.
What’s there in the sole of your left foot. The sole, perhaps the pressure pressing down on the floor if you’re sitting. Maybe the air against your sole of your left foot or the throbbing of the circulation. And the heel of the left foot. Perhaps it’s pressing down on the floor.
The upper part of the left foot, the instep. Get all the way down to the flesh and to the bone. And the ankle of the left foot. Becoming aware of the shin of the lower left leg. What’s that like?
What do you experience there? In the back of the leg, the calf, the muscle, the surface, but all the way down deep into the flesh, the way to the bone. What’s there? What’s that like? The of the knee.
The upper part of the knee. And the back of the knee. And the sides all the way down to the joint, experiencing the knee. Bringing awareness to the upper left leg from the knee up to the groin, up to the hip. First on the surface, what does the skin feel like?
Then down deep into the thigh, into the bone penetrating awareness. Experiencing your upper left leg, what’s that like? Expanding the scope of your awareness to include the entirety of your left leg, from the tips of your toes, all the way up to the groin, up to the hip, experiencing whatever is there in the entirety of your left leg. Whatever sensation, whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant or lack of sensation, being aware of just that. And now imagining that on your next breath, breathing in breathe that breath coming flowing down into your left leg, the entirety of your left leg, as if you’re breathing into your left leg.
And then on the exhalation, imagine as if you’re breathing out from your left leg, upward and out through your nostrils. Breathing into that left leg, breathing out from the left leg. The breath flowing into the left leg and out from the left leg outward. In through the nostrils and down to your left leg and out from the left leg, upward and out through your nostrils. Breathing into the left leg and out from the left leg.
And on the next exhalation, following the breath upward and out, just letting go of your left leg and allowing it to dissolve in your mind’s eye. And taking an intentionally deeper breath than you normally do, following that breath down through your throat, lungs, along the right side of your body, the upper right leg, lower right leg, all the way down to the toes of your right foot. Breathing in deeply into the toes of your right foot. Breathing in deeply into the toes of your right foot and focusing your attention, your awareness on the toes of the right foot. The big toe and the little toe and all the toes between.
Becoming aware of the sensations, whatever you’re experiencing in the toes of the right foot. Just being curious. Curious. What’s there? It’s interesting.
And the sole of your right foot, whatever sensations are present. The heel, your right foot. The upper part of the right foot, the instep, but as well into the bone flesh of the right foot. And the ankle. And the shin of the right foot, the right leg, the lower right leg.
What’s that feel like? What’s there? In the back of the lower right leg, the calf, the muscle, going deep into the flesh, all the way down to the bone. It’s a journey of discovery, trying to find out what’s there, experiencing whatever is present. What’s it like?
In the front part of the knee. The sides of the knee. The back. All the way down to the joint. And the upper right leg from the knee up to the groin, up to the hip on the surface, experiencing that.
But as well going deep into the thigh, the flesh. Expanding the the scope awareness to include the entirety of your right leg, from the tips of your toes all the way up to the groin, up to the hip, the whole of your right leg. What’s your right leg like? Sometimes we forget. And we’ll take an intentionally deeper breath than normal, following that breath down from the nostrils through the throat down through the lungs.
Breathing all the way into the right leg. And imagine as if you’re now breathing out from your right leg, following the breath upward through the lungs, outward through the nostrils. Breathing in and down to the right leg. Breathing out and upward and out from the right leg. Breathing into the right leg and out from the right leg.
The entirety of the right leg. And on your next exhalation, following the the breath upward from your right leg and outward and just letting go of your right leg, allowing it to dissolve in your mind’s eye. And taking an intentionally deeper breath than normal and following the breath down through your nostrils, through your throat and lungs, all the way down to the lower pelvic area, the way down to your buttocks. Experiencing what is there, maybe the pressure of the chair, the floor, whatever sensations are present in the area of the buttocks. In region of the genital, and the area between the hips and the hips themselves.
And the lower back. Sometimes a place of we experience some uncomfortableness, some pain often. Being open to whatever experience is there without any judgment. Become aware of the sensations in the lower back. Accepting whatever’s there without having to change things, without having to make things different.
In central region of your back. What’s that like? Within the abdominal cavity, the stomach and all the various organs in the lower part of the stomach area. And the stomach muscles, the surface of the abdomen. The surface of the chest, the breast, the skin.
And going into the chest, perhaps you’ve experienced the throbbing of the heart, the beating of the heart, the expansion and contraction of the rib cage, whatever sensations are present in the chest. In the area of the shoulders, in between the shoulders up to the base of the neck, Quite often there’s some tension there. Just being open without any resistance, without having to make it any different. Just experiencing whatever is there in the shoulders. And expanding the scope of our awareness to include the entirety of the trunk from the buttocks up to the shoulder that trunk.
And as if breathing out from the entirety of your trunk upward and outward. Breathing into the trunk. Breathing out from the trunk upward and outward. Into the trunk and out from the trunk. And on the next out breath, letting go of the trunk, just allowing to dissolve in your mind’s eye.
And taking a slightly deeper breath and following it down through your nostrils and down through your throat. And it’s going to move through the shoulders of both arms and down the upper part of both arms, the lower part into your hands, the way down to your fingertips of both hands. Following that breath, bringing awareness to the fingertips of both hands. Fingertips of both hands. Maybe you experience some kind of throbbing, some tingling, whatever is there.
The fingers and thumbs of both hands. And the palms of your hands. Perhaps they feel moist, warm, cool, sensations, feelings. In the back of your hands, the the skin on the surface, that is well deep into the the bones and the flesh of the hand itself. Your wrists.
Your forearms, the lower parts of both arms on the surface, but as well into the flesh, all the way down to the bone. What do your forearms feel like? How do you experience them? Being curious, kind of interest. What’s it like?
And the elbows. On the upper arm, again, on the surface, the muscles into the flesh, deep into the bone. Becoming aware of the entirety of both arms. Experiencing both arms, whatever’s there. And breathing in down into both arms and as if breathing out and upward from both arms.
Breathing into both arms the entirety of both arms. Breathing out from the entirety of both arms upward and out. And on the next out breath, following the breath upward and out, letting go of both arms, just allowing them to dissolve in your mind’s eye. And taking a slightly deeper breath and following that breath to the back of your neck, becoming aware of the sensations in that area of your body, the back of the neck. It’s a place where we quite often hold a great deal of tension and tightness.
Just without any resistance, having to make it any different. Just being open without any judgment to whatever’s there. Open to whatever you experience in the back of the neck. It might be tightness. It might be tension.
That’s okay. Just experience just that. The back of the neck. What’s that feel like? In your throat.
Perhaps you can sense the air rushing in and out through the throat or the movement of swallowing. And the front part of the neck. Bringing awareness to your jaw first where the jaw hinges into the skull. Bringing awareness down through the jawline. All the way to your chin.
And your lower lip. And the gums of your teeth. Your tongue. The floor of your mouth, the bottom part of your mouth, The back of the mouth where the throat begins. And the roof of your mouth, the hard palate.
In your upper lip, perhaps you can sense the air rushing in and out of your nostrils. Your nose? Is there a sensation there or is there an absence of sensation? Be aware of either. And your cheekbones and cheeks.
Your ears. The back of your head, and the sides. And your eyes, And the point between your eyebrows, sometimes we hold tension there. How do you experience that spot? And your forehead.
Moving deep into the brain with inside the cavity of the cranium. And your scalp, the crown of your head. And becoming aware of the entirety of your head and neck from the base of your neck to the crown of your head. Whatever sensations, however you experience that entire part of your body. Just be aware of that.
Breathing into the entirety of your head and neck and as if breathing out from the entirety of your head and neck into that area and out from that area. And on the next out breath, breathing out, following that breath with your awareness, letting go of the head and neck, just allowing it to dissolve. And taking a slightly deeper breath and following that breath, and we’re going to follow it down through your neck, your lungs, through the lower part of your body, into both legs, down to the tips of your toes. But as well, following the breath down through your shoulders, to your arms, to the tips of your fingers, fingers, and as well, following the breath into the crown of your head. We want to follow the breath and imagine that it’s suffusing the entire body from the tips of your toes, the tips of your fingers, to the crown of your head.
Becoming aware of how that breath flows into every cell of the body. Every part of the body suffused with the breath. Becoming aware of the entirety of your body. From the tips of your toes, from the tips of your fingers to the crown of your head. Becoming aware of the entirety of your body.
Breathing into the entirety of your body. Breathing into the entirety of your body. Breathing out from the entirety of your body. The whole of your body is breathing in and out. There’s just breath and body.
The body breathes in. The body breathes out. There’s just the breath in the body experiencing whatever is there. The breath in the body. Like this vast open sky, breath and the body breathing.
Entirety of your body. The breath suffusing the entirety of your body, experiencing the entirety of your body, the whole of the body. Stay with the entirety of the body, the experience of the breath, the entirety of the body. Just awareness, acceptance, and openness. Becoming aware of some predominant sensation feeling within the body, the pressure of your buttocks on the chair, on the cushion, on the floor, your back on the floor.
Just becoming aware of some particular sensation. And you might want to, you know, wiggle your toes, wiggle your fingers, become aware of the sounds about you, the cars rushing down Port Rush Road. And then opening your eyes and becoming aware aware of where you are in the room. Just taking your time. There’s no hurry.
Don’t get up quickly. Just take your time.