Meditations
Although meditation is best learned by attending classes and receiving instructions from a teacher, listening to audio recordings of guided meditations can be an effective way to get started. They can also provide motivation and inspiration for cultivating a regular meditation practice. These guided meditations by Phillip Moffitt were recorded at the Marin Sangha and Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Meditations
In this guided meditation, we observe how sounds arise and fall away into the ocean of silence. Without grabbing hold of any particular sound, we rest in “knowing sound.” We note the difference between the experiences of sound and silence and how sound bursts out of silence.
Paying attention to mindfulness itself, we notice the quality of being present, not what our sense gates experience. Is it supportive? Harmonious? Alive? We also notice our relationship to silence. Are we protective of it? Leaning on it? Do we cling to the silence? Can we rest in silence without clinging to it?
In this meditation, you directly experience the physical sensation of breath and the felt experience of a single breath.
The object of this meditation is to cultivate a sense of relaxed attention through relaxing the body.
In the Theravadin Buddhist tradition, this practice begins with the meditator cultivating loving-kindness towards themself, then their loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all sentient beings.
Allowing the body to “rest” on the Earth, you then follow the breath at whatever point is easiest.
This meditation focuses on experiencing the “earth element” in the body and how the Earth supports it.
Practicing “bare attention,” you learn to not add your interpretation to the experience of sound arising and passing.
In this dharma talk given at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Phillip gives instructions for practicing vipassana meditation.
Systematically scanning the body from head to toes develops “awareness of the body in the body.”
