Thank you to those who joined us for the first Journey You Own Meditation Gathering. Here are some highlights of the session.  

Intention for the Session: Open Curiosity

Our first session began with providing some groundwork for our upcoming series, presenting different broad categorizations of meditation, and setting an intention for our practice together. This series will create space to explore different meditation techniques monthly, stemming from cultures and traditions in which I have practiced. I noted that there may be seasoned practitioners and teachers in the audience and then invited everyone to approach these sessions newly, with an open curiosity, letting go of any notion of what meditation “should” look like. 

The Shamatha Practice

We chose to begin our series with a shamatha practice or peaceful-abiding practice originating from various schools of Buddhism. This practice cultivates awareness by placing an anchor on the breath or sensations of the body.  As thoughts arise, we gently return to this anchor or object of meditation. Over time, this practice leads to a calming of the mind. It has been considered a foundational practice and in some traditions, is combined with other methods that explore the nature of the thoughts that arise (i.e., vipassana or insight practices).  We will explore some of these other practices in the upcoming months. 

We have recorded a short introduction to shamatha & vipassana (6:33), which can be listened to below. 

We touched on the seven point posture in meditation.  In our sharing session after the meditation, we heard from participants about their practice. This included a share about guided imagery to improve sleep and using the technique of pausing before daily activities, including sending emails, as a good way to center oneself.   

A recording of a shamatha meditation practice session can be found below (16:56).

About JYO Meditation Gathering

The Journey You Own Meditation Gathering is a free sitting meditation session to create a shared, supportive space to explore grounding practices. This one-hour session happens every last Thursday of the month, held online via Zoom.

Free registration can be found here.

We look forward to sitting with many of you next month in the community.  

Featured Image by Rob Yelland