What I would like you to begin with is concentration. This is a very simple technique. I want you to find a quiet place in your house. If you have a forest nearby, go to a forest nature is perfect meditation. Walk into a forest, walk into the wilderness, find a spot. Sit down, calm yourself down.

The meditation technique that I'm going to be teaching you is called the awareness of breath. This is the technique that Buddha used to achieve enlightenment. Which is to focus on the breath on your breathing without forcing your breath, or having any kind of control over your breath, is this merely being aware of your breathing so as as you proceed throughout your day, I want you to have a conscious attention on your breathing. You can practice this anywhere you can practice this in the office, you can practice this, sitting in a cafe, to be aware of your breathing. Now as you start to become conscious of your breathing you, you will find that your breathing stabilizes. It's calm, stop.

Breathing is a very important part of meditation. So the first step is to be conscious of our breathing. To be aware of our breathing, that's step one. Now we move to step two. In step two, we hold our focus on a single object. Now this could be a flame of a candle, it can be a tree, it can be a plant, something stationary, something that is not moving a lot.

This begins your journey towards concentration. So make a practice. Do this Concentration technique at least 10 minutes a day. Find that quiet place find that forest or that park where you are not going to be disturbed. And find an object on which you can hold your attention while being aware of your breath. And let me know how you feel.

Go ahead and post any questions that you have on to this wonderful group on Facebook. So please, if you haven't already, go ahead and join that group. Let me know how it works out for you. So we're going to begin with this stage. How do we now take this concentration technique and awareness of breath towards the state of mind? Where do we go from here?

Once we are aware of our breath, and we have good concentration on that single object, and we have learned to concentrate and to hold a thought on a single thought and the thought is that object So he thought is the awareness of the object. Do not try to think about the object, purely observe the object, the flame of the candle, or the object that you have chosen. Be aware of your breath and hold your concentration on that object and just be aware of its presence. Don't try to think about the color of the flame or the flowers in the tree. Try and reduce those thoughts. At first, you're going to find that it's going to be a little difficult for you to kind of create that level of concentration.

It's okay. The idea is to limit our thought processes to the subject. so that we may later drop this talk. So essentially, we've taken all our incessant paths to Universal thoughts that we are Living in and focus that on to this one object. We let go of these universal unwanted thoughts. Now it may have that other thoughts come into your mind as you're concentrating on this object.

Again, this is not to be forced. This is a practice. So it builds over time. Do not try and force yourself. If thoughts arise, be conscious of those thoughts, allow them to come. Do not engage with them and then allow them to leave by bringing your concentration back to the object of your awareness.

So to recap, we are going to be moving into the awareness of the breath. You're going to be conscious upon breathing and we're going to be consciously aware of an object so as to eliminate the incessant thoughts that are running in our mind. Just be aware of this one single object in front of us. Why being conscious or breathing, not to be forced to thought is not to be forced, the breathing is not to be forced via trying to build an awareness here. So this is purely observational, there is no thinking required. If thoughts do come if you begin to think, very gently move back to the object of concentration, and resume your awareness of the breath.

So let's begin doing this 10 to 15 minutes a day, or however long you would like to practice it. And then we'll move on to the more advanced stages of meditation, which is now how do we get from this concentrated state, to the state of knowing. The meditation technique that we're going to be using is the awareness of breath now, goodbye. Sure to be able to sit in meditation is the Lotus Pose, which is when you have your legs crossed, your hands, resting gently on your knees. You can outstretched your arms as well. Whatever position is most comfortable to you, you can find a comfortable chair to do this.

I'm going to be sharing with you the yogic way or the way of yoga, which is the way that Buddha used for enlightenment. A seating posture when you sitting in a lotus position, your energy centers, also known as the chakras are perfectly aligned. So this allows for the spiritual energy to flow from the root right up to the crown in the most efficient way. So we're going to just practice sitting here, like this with our hands on our knees. And just being aware of the breath. Again, we are not forcing the breath.

You're just allowing it to flow to go in and out. It's very important to breathe with your diaphragm. It is very important to breathe with your tongue. This is something that you're going to be exploring in the next lectures, which is the correct way of breathing. I want you to breathe with your stomach. Not with your chest.

So as you breathe, fill in your stomach with air. Let's begin with two or three deep inhalations deep breaths. As you inhale, make sure that you're not able to hear the sound of your breathing. It should be without sound, so you know you're not forcing yourself to breathe. You're going to gently fill up our stomach with air. I'd release it very gently.

There is no sound being made while it goes in and while it comes out it's best to close your eyes while you're doing these deep breaths. Now your resume normally breathe And just be aware of your breath going in and out. I want you to focus your attention to the middle of your forehead, the perceived third eye. This area is known as the third eye. Don't try and force your eyes to go there. Just keep your attention gently on the forehead as you continue to be aware of your breathing Just sit comfortably for as long as you can, just holding your focus your concentration, this is the concentration that you have gathered in your previous exercises by concentrating on a single object.

Now you focusing on the third eye, just being aware of the energy and your forehead. Again, as I said, we need to build up this concentrated energy by by being able to focus on a single object. So as we are able to build a concentrated abilities by focusing on a singular object It will allow us to move our focus to that third eye and to hold our focus there for a long period of time. So again, you sit comfortably, you close your eyes, we begin with a few deep breaths, about three or four deep breaths should put you in a calming state. Once you've achieved the calming state, we continue to be aware of our breathing, but moving our attention to a third eye and just simply being this is the practice of meditation. With practice, you will begin to experience that all you're doing is you're sitting and being aware of your breathing and focus On your third eye, let go of any thoughts that might come.

Thoughts will come. Allow them to come. Thank them and let them go. Do not hold on to any thoughts. The only thoughts that you have right now is your breathing and your focus on the third eye, you have replaced that object with a point within ourselves within our forehead that'd be simply sit. For as long as that discomfortable your attention might go to your back or to a point in your body which is aching.

Try and be aware of it and try not to take action towards it. In most cases the sensation will go away. But again, as I said, this is a practice this is something that builds over time so do not expect immediate results. You will start to see the results in the way your brain patterns and your thought patterns begin to change. And that is what we are going for. That is the first fleeting experiences have a blissful existence.

Go ahead and practice let me know if you have any impediments in your practice. Let me know what you're struggling with. Welcome to this most profound journey you will begin to see that the quality of your thoughts leads Change as you continue this practice, this will truly allow you to select the thoughts that you want to entertain in your brain. Meditation that allow you to live a more mindful and aware existence. It is a method which has been used for thousands of years by ancient sages in order to achieve enlightenment and I tell you this, it is needed now, more than ever, the lives that we're living need for us to have a handle on the brain. Remember, the mind is a beautiful servant, but a terrible master.

This one simple practice. The awareness of breath meditation will completely and profoundly change your life. Make it a point to practice At least 10 to 15 minutes a day. More later