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This is the 10 % happier podcast.

0:06

I'm Dan Harris. I

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always love it when a company that

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500 -500. Hello,

3:02

everybody. Happy Friday. Time for our

3:04

guided meditation. As you may know,

3:06

we're just wrapping up an April's worth of

3:08

episodes featuring some of our friends over

3:10

at the Waking Up app. Lots of

3:12

great teachers over there, including Henry

3:14

Shookman, Diane Musho Hamilton, and of

3:17

course, Sam Harris. Also

3:19

on the app you can now hear a

3:21

lengthy series, an eight

3:23

hour series all about the

3:25

Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path featuring

3:27

Sam and me and today's

3:29

guided meditation teacher Joseph

3:31

Goldstein. Today we're going

3:33

to bring you one of the guided

3:35

meditations that Joseph recorded as part

3:38

of the Eightfold Path series. This

3:40

meditation focuses on how not to concentrate

3:42

so much on your breathing that you basically

3:44

forget to breathe, which is a real

3:46

thing that really does happen to some people.

3:48

So let's settle in now with Joseph. And

3:51

after the meditation is over, I'll tell you about how

3:53

to get a 30 -day free trial over on the

3:55

Waking Up app. The

3:57

beginning practice of many

4:00

meditations is

4:02

calming the mind and

4:04

collecting the attention as the

4:06

first step. And

4:10

very often, a

4:13

very convenient object of awareness

4:15

as we are first beginning

4:17

to calm the mind and

4:19

collect the attention is to

4:21

work with the breath. It's

4:23

a very natural process. Everybody's

4:26

breathing. We don't

4:28

have to particularly look for it. So

4:31

settling into the awareness of the

4:33

breath, we can see

4:35

as a foundational meditative exercise.

4:39

But sometimes people find

4:41

that by focusing on

4:43

the breath too much,

4:45

they sometimes find it

4:47

difficult not to control

4:49

it in some way,

4:51

or influence the breathing

4:53

process. And in this

4:55

particular practice of vipassana, It's

4:58

not a breathing exercise,

5:00

it's an exercise in awareness.

5:03

And so we want to let

5:05

the breath find its own natural

5:07

rhythm. There's no

5:09

such thing as a wrong breath. One

5:14

way that helps allow

5:16

the breath to find

5:18

its own natural rhythm

5:20

is instead of initially

5:22

zeroing in on the

5:24

breath wherever we may

5:26

be watching it, whether

5:28

it's the air passing

5:30

the nostrils or the

5:32

movement of the chest

5:34

or the abdomen, instead

5:37

of zeroing in on

5:39

the sensations of the body

5:41

breathing, for many

5:43

people it's helpful to use

5:45

as the frame for this

5:47

the awareness of the whole

5:49

body. And a

5:51

phrase that is actually found in

5:54

the discourse the Buddha gave, on

5:56

mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness

5:58

of the body, there's

6:00

a phrase in which he

6:02

says, be mindful, and

6:05

then in the equivalent of quotes, there

6:07

is a body. So

6:09

it's almost as if that

6:12

phrase, there is a body,

6:14

could be used something as

6:16

a mental node or mental

6:18

label or gentle reminder, there

6:21

is a body. Settling

6:23

into the awareness of

6:26

your body sitting, sitting,

6:30

and perhaps occasionally

6:32

repeating that phrase, there

6:34

is a body. And

6:39

then within that larger

6:41

frame, simply become

6:43

aware of the

6:45

sensations of the body

6:47

breathing. Not

6:50

necessarily narrowing the

6:52

attention, but

6:56

letting the awareness of

6:58

those sensations happen within

7:00

the larger frame, the

7:03

awareness of the whole body. It's

7:14

sometimes helpful to

7:16

make a very soft

7:18

mental note or

7:20

mental label with each

7:22

breath in, out. will

7:26

rise and fall

7:28

if you're feeling the

7:30

sensations of the

7:32

abdomen or the chest

7:34

moving as the

7:36

body breathes. The

7:38

noting is a way

7:40

of helping to

7:43

connect the attention to

7:45

the breath and

7:47

sustaining the attention for

7:50

the entire duration

7:52

of the breath. Resting

8:03

in the larger frame, there is

8:05

a body, and

8:08

then within that, simply

8:10

be aware of the

8:12

sensations of the body

8:14

breathing. perhaps

8:16

with soft

8:18

mental note, in,

8:21

out, rising,

8:23

falling. If

8:31

you're using the noting, remember

8:34

to keep it very soft. It's

8:36

almost like a whisper in the

8:38

mind. The

8:41

primary attention should be on

8:44

the feeling of the sensations

8:46

of the breath, wherever

8:49

you may be feeling it. and

9:39

repeating that phrase,

9:41

that a body,

9:44

as a way of reminding

9:46

yourself to settle back

9:48

into a full body awareness

9:51

within which the feeling

9:53

of the breath is happening.

10:23

you you

10:41

You notice at times that

10:43

the mind begins to gets lost

10:45

in thought. As

10:49

soon as you become aware

10:51

that the mind has been carried

10:53

away with some other object, simply

10:56

notice that and very gently

10:58

return to the breath. It's

11:01

a question of simply beginning

11:03

again. The

11:54

key There elements of

11:56

developing greatest steadiness

11:58

of mind with the

12:01

breath. involves two particular

12:03

qualities. The

12:05

first is the connecting

12:07

of the attention or the

12:09

awareness with the beginning

12:11

of each breath, and

12:14

then sustaining the

12:16

attention for the duration

12:18

of that half -breath.

12:23

Connect and then sustain

12:25

the attention. Connect

12:28

with the beginning of the

12:30

out breath and sustain the

12:33

attention for the duration. Relaxation

12:46

is an important part of

12:49

the practice. So

12:52

we want to relax into the awareness

12:54

of the whole body. There is a

12:56

body. The

12:58

body will be breathing naturally

13:00

by itself. So

13:03

there's nothing we have to do in

13:05

order to breathe. Simply

13:08

be in the awareness of

13:10

the whole body and feel

13:12

the sensations of the body

13:15

breathing, connecting with

13:17

the beginning of the

13:19

breath. sustaining

13:21

the attention

13:23

until the end

13:25

of that

13:27

half -breath, connecting

13:31

with the out -breath, sustaining

13:34

the attention. And

13:54

when you're enlightened, you

13:56

can open your eyes

13:58

and reconnect with everyone

14:00

around you. Thank

14:07

you to Joseph. Again, the

14:09

meditation you just heard is part

14:11

of a series that I was

14:13

part of producing over on the

14:15

Waking Up app, all about the

14:17

Noble Eightfold Path. Joseph Sam and

14:19

I spent a work week together

14:21

in Maine recording that series, and

14:23

it's just been posted. If you're

14:25

interested in a full -on app

14:27

experience, which I can yet provide

14:29

over on DanHarris.com, you can sign

14:31

up for the Waking Up app

14:33

at wakingup.com slash 10 percent. That's

14:36

wakingup.com slash T -E -N -P -E -R -C -E

14:38

-N -T, and you'll get a free

14:40

30 -day trial. I'll put a link in the

14:42

show notes. Just so you know, if you buy

14:44

a subscription via that URL, you will be supporting

14:46

me and my new little venture because Sam and

14:48

I have a profit -sharing deal. And if you can't

14:50

afford the app, just let them know over at

14:52

Waking Up. They'll hook you up for free, which

14:54

is, of course, the same policy I have on

14:56

my sub -stack. Before

14:58

I go, I just want to thank everybody

15:01

who worked so hard on this show. Our

15:03

producers are Tara Anderson, Caroline Keenan, and Eleanor

15:05

Vasili. Our recording and engineering

15:07

is handled by the great folks over

15:09

at Pod People. Lauren Smith is our

15:11

production manager. Welcome back to Lauren. She

15:13

just got back from a maternity leave.

15:15

Marissa Schneiderman is our senior producer. DJ

15:17

Kashmir is our executive producer. And Nick

15:19

Thorburn of the Van Islands wrote our theme.