Introduction to focused breathing

- [Instructor] This is an audio course. Thank you for listening. ( gently chiming) (somber music) - Sounds True presents, guided meditation, essential practices to cultivate love, awareness and wisdom. With the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Jack Kornfield. (somber music) - [Instructor] In the business and complexity and stress of our lives. A regular sitting meditation practice is enormously helpful. It reconnects us with a stillness inside, it centers us. It brings us a sense of ease. As we sit in meditation, it allows the inner wisdom of the body and heart to show itself. It allows us to live our life from a deeper understanding. The most common meditation for a regular practice, is mindfulness. Mindfulness of the breath and mindfulness of the body. These are the place to begin and from the ground of mindfulness of breath and body, then we become mindful of feelings and thoughts in the play of life. Mindfulness, is a quality of presence and ease. It is a wakefulness that knows what's here. Mindfulness has kindness and spaciousness in it. Seeing what arises without judging. This is fear. This is love. This is joy. This is anger. Mindfulness knows it all and rests in a kind and spacious heart. In this meditation, you will learn to sit with the graciousness and ease and kindness of a Budha. Let yourself work with this practice. Find a suitable place for regular meditation. It can be wherever you can sit easily with minimal disturbance. A corner of your bedroom or any quiet place at home. Find a regular time for meditation that suits your schedule and temperament. If you're a morning person experiment with sitting before breakfast, if evening fits your temperament or your schedule better try that, first. Begin by sitting 10 or 20 minutes at a time. Later you can sit longer or more frequently if you choose. Daily meditation, is a way to return to ourselves, to center ourselves, to connect with our heart. It can become like bathing. It can bring a cleansing and a calming to your heart and mind.