The other day I thought about creating a self-guided meditation. Instead of Sam Harris’s voice giving me instructions, I would record my own instructions. Even better, I could create the audio by recording a bunch of snippets, and then annotating them with time stamps. An app would produce an audio file with the snippets placed at the appropriate times.
Alternatively, the app could create an audio file with a somewhat random selection of those snippets.
But to start, here’s my own idea for a guided meditation, just for me:
Take your seat, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths.
Now extend your attention as far as you can in every direction, and be as aware as you can of a much of the universe as you can.
Extend your attention to the furthest points in space and the most distant parts of time.
Now let your attention drift inward to your galaxy, and your solar system, and your planet, and your town, and your body.
And now let yourself become more aware of your body in space, and let that awareness resolve into a cloud of sensations.
And among those sensations are the sensations of breathing, so let your awareness focus on the sensations of breathing.
And now focus on the sensations of breathing at your nostrils.
And now expand your awareness to include your visual field, the darkness behind your eyes. Stare intently into the part of that field that’s in front of your face.
Now expand your awareness to include the part of your visual field that’s at the periphery of your visual field….
… and further expand it to include the part of the field’s that behind your head.
Now return your attention to the sensations of breathing.
Now each time that your breathing transitions between inhaling and exhaling become aware of any thoughts that begin to arise in consciousness.
Each time a thought arises, just observe it closely and allow it to pass away.
….
