Meditation 2: Subtle or Gross

A room that can be darkened and is away from noises. Less lawnmowers but they can still happen.

This can be in a straight-back chair or a cushion. Sit on a cushion that is twice or thrice as tall as the cushion for your ankles when cross legged. Hands resting on top of each other with thumbs slightly touching. Slightly tilt forward and erect your spine/head like a string is pulling it tightly upwards from the top of your head. Conversely, don’t over tense. Strike some sort of balance.

You need to not constantly adjust or immediately tend to what your mind/body activates. Discomfort is needed to tune your neutrality. Sit with the discomfort, if able, to see the other-side. No matter what shows up, it is an opportunity to tune your neutrality and non-reactive programming. Code in what you want but this is the primary purpose of meditation.

Start with the very top of your scalp. In the beginning this will be “gross” (large area) sensations that will likely light up with awareness. Almost like you are wearing a tight hat or beanie in sensation. “Subtle” is like a pin prick or laser beam surface area. Much more narrow and will be achievable with progress.

Each part of your scalp will receive a due amount of attention with no rush or force of sensation. Systematically traversing the entire surface area of your scalp with an adequate pause to truly witness what arises. Don’t rush (although a quick large area scan down the body and back up is a great primer for a more thorough scan the second time around).

Now do the same for your face, ears, jaw and chin.

Now do the same for your left arm, starting at the shoulder joint and down through your fingers.

Now do the same for your right arm.

Now do the same for the top of your neck, systematically moving left to right, like mowing a lawn, across your neck, chest, back, abdomen and all the way down to your tail bone. Pause at each square inch.

Now do the same for your left leg starting from where it appends to your body and moving through to your toes.

Now do the same for your right leg, to each individual toe.

Continue to slowly scan your body (This could take 1hr for 1 direction).

If no sensation, subtle (pinpointed) or gross (whole portions of body), move on to the next part of your body.

Slowly scan your body (part by part, pinpoint by pinpoint) from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. Reverse the order of body parts to traverse back to the top of the head.

The sensations are going to get intense and then they may disappear. Be neutral to what ever happens. Memories might pop up, your mind may do some out-there things, be neutral and sit your mind.

It really is this simplistic but few can do it. Can you?

It is okay if your mind wanders for the entire length of the meditation. Upon seeing that it has wondered, sit your mind. You may need to return to Meditation 1 as your concentration may not be mature today. Don’t get frustrated with regression, all meditation is good.

This is the next progression. Have you ever felt your brain? Start scanning in there spatially/systematically. Do the same throughout every part of your body when in that area for the body scan. Think of this as moving from 2 dimensional body scans to 3 dimensional body scans. It is a top to bottom, bottom to top dealio. Don’t miss/skip any part of your body.