In this exercise you become like an empty bowl, and when you become an empty bowl, all is still in the present moment.

Empty bowl meditation mp3

Sit comfortably and quietly with your palms up and open and placed on your knees, like empty bowls. Open your mouth slightly, and touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth, behind the front teeth. Closing your eyes if you feel comfortable doing so.

Begin by paying attention to your breath. Let your lungs breathe with no effort on your part. Simply watch the movement of your breath. Inhale. Exhale.

During inhalation, the air touches the inside of the nostrils or mouth. Be aware of that breath.

During exhalation, again air touches the nostrils or mouth. The ingoing air may feel cool, the outgoing air warm. For a fraction of a second, enter into your nose. Sit in the nostril and watch your breath: ingoing, outgoing, ingoing, outgoing. Let your lungs do their job.

You are simply sitting and watching. Practice this for a moment. Ingoing, outgoing; sitting and watching.

After a few minutes, follow the breath. When the lungs inhale, go with the air into the nose, to the back of the throat, the trachea, lungs, heart, diaphragm. Go deep down behind the navel, where you will experience a natural stop. For a fraction of a second, the breath stops. Stay in that stop, and then when the lungs exhale, again follow the breath as it reverses its course. Come up from the navel to the diaphragm, heart, lungs, trachea, throat; back to the nose then out of the body.

During exhalation the air goes out of the body to about 10 centimetres in front of the nose, where there is a second stop. Again, stay in that stop for a moment.

These two stops are very important. The first stop is behind the navel, the second outside the body in space. As your awareness rests in these two stops, time stops, because time is the movement of the breath. When breath stops, mind stops, because mind is the movement of the breath. When the mind becomes quiet, you simply exist, without body, without mind, without breath.

In that stop, you become like an empty bowl, and when you become an empty bowl, all is still in the present moment. Sitting quietly in the stop, the stop as a door: a door to tranquillity and peace surrounding you.

Present moment stillness… as you sit as an empty bowl… tranquillity and peace surrounding you.

And when you are ready, bringing your awareness back to your body sitting on the chair or cushion. Opening your eyes and moving forward with your day… imprinted with the sense of stillness and peace.

Please feel free to download the MP3 for your own personal use.

Exercise 15: Empty bowl meditation

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6.67 mb]

Download text instructions for the exercise [ 36 kb]

Other mindfulness exercises

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12 comments

Comment by hugaplanet

hugaplanet Reply June 20, 2014 at 4:25 pm

Absolutley wonderful to use with young people, however using the word erect in the mountain mindfulness, caused them to collapse in laughter!
- Comment by Jess [Living Well Staff]
  
  Jess [Living Well Staff] Reply June 20, 2014 at 4:25 pm
  
  Oh, wow! Did not even think of that. Thanks for the feedback, will have to have a think about this one!
Comment by Anonymous

Anonymous Reply June 20, 2014 at 4:42 pm

I like it. It is helpful and you people should add more of meditation.
Comment by matt

matt Reply August 15, 2014 at 6:28 pm

it helps me relax (breathing exercise). I can not download it, any ideas on how I can get it done.
Thanks
- Comment by Jess [Living Well Staff]
  
  Jess [Living Well Staff] Reply August 18, 2014 at 12:02 pm
  
  Hi Matt,
  Find the link that says Download the mp3. Right click on this link, and find the option that says something like “Save target as” or “Save link as.”
  You will then be given the option to save the mp3 file to your hard drive.
  Hope that helps.
Comment by Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie Reply January 8, 2015 at 8:31 am

I want to thank you for posting these, especially as they are free. I want to learn to practice greater mindfulness this year, now I have all these lessons on my iPod – a wonderful resource.
Comment by marjan

marjan Reply February 3, 2015 at 8:47 pm

hello.I am marjan.I am from IRAN.Iam psychology student.I want using mindfulness for therapy., but i am confused in which feild can use it.I am in last term of university & i want to working on mindfulness.please sujest me a topic .
thanks alot.
Comment by luis

luis Reply October 16, 2015 at 4:46 am

Me gustaría recibir informacion.Gracias
- Comment by Jess [Living Well Staff]
  
  Jess [Living Well Staff] Reply October 16, 2015 at 12:37 pm
  
  Hi Luis,
  Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately no one at Living Well speaks Spanish, so the information on this website is all we can provide you with. I hope you find it helpful. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Comment by maria cristina sgoti

maria cristina sgoti Reply March 15, 2016 at 1:42 pm

ADOREI AS TECNICAS, COMO FAÇO PARA TELA-LAS EM PORTUGUES O MP-3…SOU DO BRASIL…
- Comment by Jess [Living Well Staff]
  
  Jess [Living Well Staff] Reply March 21, 2016 at 12:06 pm
  
  Hi Maria, I’m so glad you’ve found these techniques helpful! Unfortunately we only have the MP3 exercises in English. Perhaps an ACT or mindfulness practitioner (counsellor or therapist) in your area would be able to teach you some more exercises. Best of luck!
Comment by Christopher

Christopher Reply March 25, 2020 at 5:20 pm

I have followed every step of this post. Wow, I felt so calm so soothing while doing this. Every morning I will try this meditation. The empty bowl meditation technique is really useful.