Mona Lisa Mona Lisa, smile alittle smile for me...

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Posture, proper sitting; is our foundation. Every time you sit, to practice even the simplest of instruction, begin with getting your posture right. Practice, practice, practice. But don't get uptight. Every minute is built upon the last.

We begin today with the building block of the Inner Smile Meditation, our Mona Lisa smile.

Without going into great detail, your assignment for today, if you choose to accept it, is to smile. Find your posture. Relaxed but straightened spine. Let you hands fall upon or beyond your knees, palms down. One deep breath, in and out through the nose, let your breath find its natural, unforced ryhtym. Tip of the tongue lightly placed behind your top teeth.

Bring to mind a thought or person that creates an unforced smile upon your face. Study the transformation that the smile brings to your face, your eyes. Notice all of the subtle changes that are physically created by the form of a smile upon your face. The changes will become more obvious the more you practice the set up. 1) posture 2) relaxed spine 3) breathe 4) smile. All four require a degree of concentration on your part. The higher the concentration, the greater your power of awareness. Yes, yes, this posture is good. Ah, spine relaxed. Breathing, breathing, breathing. The smile...what do you notice?

Tell me.

Comments

Rowan said…
well, I guess the first thing was trying to decide the person who makes me smile .... I'd start with one and then begin to frown, so flip to another... :) when I found the right person, I started to wonder if thinking about this person is truly meditation as of course, my mind isn't clear then...so then I'd start the whole cycle again: sit tall, breathe, think of someone good, smile....
9:05 AM
Anonymous said…
Who to pick wasn't much problem for me; in fact, the moment I thought, "OK, who makes me smile?" the question answered itself.

What I noticed other than that was relaxation; it felt like every muscle in my body just uncranked two or three notches. Smiling might make a pretty good replacement for the whole "Now relax this....Now relax that" routine.
6:07 PM
tao1776 said…
Remember, we are trying to become aware of the warmth, the relaxation, the physical and mental changes that occur when our faces are transformed from non smile to smile.
In time, you will realize that this orb is moveable via your intention. Where the mind leads, the chi will follow.
Practice the posture, the breath, the smile, the awareness. In time, these steps will fade away to the point of just being natural.
9:39 AM
De.vile said…
Theres some sort of clarity. A mommentary erasing of everything other than that phase.
9:26 AM
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