10 minute guided meditation with Stephen Batchelor

[Aloka]

A ten minute guided meditation with secular buddhist teacher Stephen Batchelor.






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[woodscooter]

I'm not usually a fan of guided meditation. With the introduction that Stephen Bachelor gives here, I was expecting the meditation to include something connected with the turmoil the world finds itself in, or some embedded message.

But it was a plain and simple ten minutes of breathing-focussed calm and acceptance. I can certainly recommend this meditation to anyone who would like to try it.

There's no agenda other than peace. Thank you, Stephen.

[philg]

Personally I spent many years of guided meditation at the Buddhist centre, with a number of different people undertaking the guiding bit. At its best, it is a kind of performance art, knowing when to talk and when to stay with the silence. They all used bells, well, singing bowls, to show when to move on to different stages in the meditation. What they did depended on the meditation, whether the session was about the meditation or whether it was a meditation before moving on to discussion group or whatever. it also depended on whether we were all long-term meditators or whether some people new to meditation were present.

If you look at this meditation of Stephen's, he could have talked more or less at each stage, judging whether to let the silent bits carry on so that the meditation could be forty minutes or so or whether to talk around each stage a bit more. I miss 'live' guided meditations as I don't go to the centre any more. Although I have a few recorded ones on various media, it isn't the same as being with someone guiding your meditation, but it is worth a try if you can't get to a live session.