Guided Meditation is a form of Dharma teaching. The meditations offered here encompass some of the key practices I convey in my teachings, and are based on my experiential understanding. It is best to tune into guided meditations when you are in a secluded place and properly set up for meditation.
Anapanasati -- Mindfulness of Breathing
I teach Anapanasati from the Pāli Canon discourse where the Buddha gives these instructions (MN 118). They include 16 distinct instructions that flow together in a beautiful set designed to cultivate both samatha (serenity) and vipassanā (insight), as well as the Seven Factors of Awakening. They can be done prescriptively, but are more deeply understood as descriptive.
Guided Meditation - Tetrad 1
Guided Meditation - Tetrads 1 and 2
Guided Meditation - Tetrads 1 2 3 and into 4
Guided Meditation - Tetrad 4 no end bell (This last one assumes you have established your mind in the first three already)
The Elements
Dharma practice entails softening our highly conceptual views, starting with our way of seeing the body. Learning to experience the physical body as Elements is the beginning of a process that leads to freedom. It opens up to many insights, including not-self (anattā).
The Elements (This recording includes about 1 min of the pre-meditation teachings, in which I point to the "whole-body" method I encourage for experiencing the Elements)
Contemplating the Elements
The Elements and Not-Self
The Brahma-Vihāras
The four heart qualities can be deliberately cultivated and also appear on their own as Dharma practice removes the veils that obscure their expression. These are mettā (goodwill / kindness), karunā (compassion / sympathy), muditā (appreciative joy), and upekkhā (equanimity). We must each discover how they manifest in our own heart-mind, and not rely on ideas or ideals of what they should look or feel like. When properly practiced, these qualities are onward-leading, continually going deeper.
Guided Meditation: The Four Brahma-Viharas and Beyond
This meditation is a "grand tour" of the heart qualities for a group that had practiced them for some days already.
Radiation of Muditā
One form of brahma-vihara practice is to radiate these qualties outward. Typically one would begin with metta and proceed in order, but this guided meditation is for the third brahma-vihara, mudita.
Additional / Older Guided Meditations
These are less formal instructions than the above, and are often related to a Dharma talk that followed the sitting.
Seeing the Body Freshly (42 min)
Mindfulness of Thought (21 min)
Sitting with the Vitality of the Dharma (35 min)
The Path Will Take You Whenever You are Ready (34 min)
"Get Small" (26 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. An exploration of the details of experience. Meditation begins at 3:35)
"Get Big" (36 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. An exploration of creating a large awareness. Meditation begins at 1:32)
Focus on Change (36 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. Liberation through noticing change. Meditation begins at 11:58)
Stay Connected but Do Nothing (41 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. Letting go of "for" and "against". Meditation begins at 7:48).
Present without Manipulation (28 min)
These are less formal instructions than the above, and are often related to a Dharma talk that followed the sitting.
Seeing the Body Freshly (42 min)
Mindfulness of Thought (21 min)
Sitting with the Vitality of the Dharma (35 min)
The Path Will Take You Whenever You are Ready (34 min)
"Get Small" (26 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. An exploration of the details of experience. Meditation begins at 3:35)
"Get Big" (36 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. An exploration of creating a large awareness. Meditation begins at 1:32)
Focus on Change (36 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. Liberation through noticing change. Meditation begins at 11:58)
Stay Connected but Do Nothing (41 min; part of Widening the Range daylong. Letting go of "for" and "against". Meditation begins at 7:48).
Present without Manipulation (28 min)