Mindfulness Restful Awareness
Step by step meditation
Preparation stage
Relaxing The Mind, Body and Focus
1) Sit relaxed with a straight back, and breathe normally
2) Relax your body’s muscles
3) Feel your mind as a tense muscle and relax it
4) Release all focus, be unfocused and relax
5) Stay in unfocused and relax state
6) When finished, take one minute to come out slowly
This meditation centers on deeply relaxing both body and mind without trying to focus on anything. A key idea is to feel your mind as if it were a muscle, just like the muscles in your body. When that mind-muscle is tense—like when you overthink or feel confused—it’s using effort and causing stress. Normally, in daily life, our focus jumps from one object to another, keeping this mind-muscle tight and busy.
The purpose of this practice is to learn to relax that mind-muscle fully, just like you relax your physical muscles after tension. You start by sitting upright with a relaxed body and breathing naturally, which prepares you to feel the tension in both body and mind.
Then, you consciously relax your body’s tension, and more importantly, you feel your mind’s tension as a muscle and let it melt away—like ice turning to water, flowing down and dropping to the earth. As the mind-muscle relaxes, your whole body relaxes deeper.
Next, you release your focus entirely, letting your attention melt and widen into a state of unfocused, open awareness. Nothing is singled out or held onto, and your mind rests in total relaxation. This unfocused state is steady and stable, free from flickering or distraction.
When your session ends, you gently come back over about a minute, keeping that calm, relaxed feeling as you re-engage with the world.
Unconditional Smile Meditation
1) Find a relaxed position and sit comfortably.
2) Close your eyes and breathe naturally in and out.
3) Become aware of your body and mind in a state of total relaxation.
4) Be awareness of your gentle, sincere, and unconditional smile.
5) Continue smiling for as long as you wish.
6) When finished, take one minute to come out slowly
The Unconditional Smile Meditation aims to help the mind find stability and rest in one place, rather than constantly seeking happiness through external conditions. Typically, our minds are like monkeys, jumping from one thought or sensation to another, always searching for happiness in external sources. However, the nature of our mind is to continually seek happiness because it cannot find lasting contentment in one place.
The practice of Unconditional Smile Meditation involves creating a sense of happiness within our mind and body, allowing the mind to remain centered without relying on external conditions. By cultivating this inner smile, we train our minds to understand that true happiness can come from within, not from external circumstances.
Through consistent practice, this meditation helps us realize that happiness is not dependent on changing external conditions. It allows us to rest in the unconditional happiness that resides within our being. As we smile unconditionally, we become aware of this inner joy, calming the mind and stabilizing our mental state.
By training our mind to experience happiness from within, we begin to understand that true contentment is always accessible, no matter the external circumstances. This practice lays the foundation for a calmer, more centered mind, capable of finding peace and happiness within itself.
Stabilizing The Monkey Mind
Be Aware and feel the calmness of your resting hands
1) Sit in a relaxed in a erect meditation posture
2) Breathe naturally
3) Bring your palms together, resting them in front of your body
4) Be aware of the calmness and stillness of your resting palms
5) Stay in this state for as long as you like
6) End the meditation by taking a few minutes to get out
7) Slowly open your eyes and return to your normal state
Be Aware of The Whole Bodily Breathing
1) Sit in an erect in a comfortable meditation posture
2) Breathe normally
3) Be aware of the body breathing in its movements
4) Remain in this state for as long as you wish
5) End the meditation by taking about a few minutes to get out
6) Slowly open your eyes and return to your normal state
Mala Meditation Technique Outline*
1) Find a comfortable position
2) Scroll the mala beads at a comfortable speed
3) Be aware of the hand scrolling of the beads
4) As you continue, allow your breath to gradually slow down
5) Take one mala bead after each exhalation. Rest in inhalation
6) Once your breath becomes almost still, stop scrolling
7) Rest deeply in calmness, stilness and awareness
Stabilizing the Monkey Mind is about calming the restless, jumping mind we all know too well. Like a lively monkey swinging from branch to branch, our mind constantly jumps from one thought to another, rarely standing still. This restless energy makes it hard to find peace or focus. The purpose of these meditation techniques is to gently tame this wild monkey, transforming it from a naughty, uncontrollable creature into a calm and sweet companion that listens.
To calm the monkey mind, we need to offer it something it enjoys—an object of focus that naturally holds its attention. This might be the calm resting of your hand, the rhythm of your bodily breathing, or the tactile movement of mala beads sliding through your fingers. Each serves as a steady anchor, a string holding the monkey in place. By training the mind to settle on one point, it stops leaping around, becoming still and peaceful.
Just as a monkey will eagerly stay near its favorite treat, so too does the mind remain attentive when given the right “banana.” Because every mind is unique, having a variety of focus objects ensures you can find the one that resonates with your own restless mind.
Importantly, this practice doesn’t yet reveal the deeper awareness that lies within. Instead, it clears away the turbulent clouds of distraction, allowing the clear sunlight of awareness to shine. When the monkey mind stops jumping, the sky of your mind clears, and you can begin to see your true self more clearly—calm, spacious, and free.
Rest within as Awareness
Self-inquiry into Awareness
1) Sit in a relaxed and comfortable meditation posture
2) Ask within yourself:
Am I aware? Is this awareness the same as it was before?
3) Rest on the sensation of sameness of awareness
4) Practice as long as you feel comfortable
5) End the meditation by taking a few minutes to gently exit
Rest as Awareness in Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep
1) Sit in a relaxed meditation posture
2) Remind yourself to “take a break and a pause” from life
3) Relax your mind’s muscle
4) Breath in/ out using the internal palate with mouth closed**
5) Rest your awareness on the calmness of your hands (see above)
——-6) Go deep into the silent of unconscious and ignorance of sleep
7) Recognize the sameness nature of awareness all the way
8) Go deeply into deep sleep
9) Be aware that your sense of “I” fades away
10) Remain in this state as long as you possible
——-11) End meditation by taking 5 minutes to get out
12) Slowly open your eyes and return to waking
** This is called the “Ujjayi Breath” occurring in the sleep state
In the flow of daily life, we so often mistake ourselves for the body, the thoughts, the emotions—forgetting the silent awareness that witnesses all. We become entangled in the story of who we believe we are, chasing after fleeting experiences, never quite at peace. Yet through the simple practices of Self-Inquiry into Inner Awareness and Rest as Awareness, we are gently called home to what we have always been.
Self-inquiry asks, “Who am I? Who is aware of all this?” Not to find an answer in thought, but to feel into the presence that watches—formless, wordless, untouched. Awareness cannot be described, only sensed, like a silent knowing that is always here. We turn within, not to grasp it with the mind, but to rest in it, to merge with it, to recognize its quiet, unshakable presence.
As we rest in awareness, we find our true roots—stable, peaceful, still. We realize that suffering arises because we cling to what is ever-changing: feelings, sensations, and passing moments. We long for the unchanging, yet we search for it in the wrong places, grasping at what is destined to slip away. The truth is, what we seek is already within: awareness itself is the unchanging. By recognizing this, we stop chasing what fades and instead rest in what remains.
Peace, stillness, and the capacity to let go are not things we create—they are the natural rays of awareness itself, like sunlight shining from a steady source. When we realize ourselves as awareness, we naturally let go of all that comes and goes, for we know: whatever has the nature of change will vanish.
As this recognition deepens, we begin to carry awareness into all stages of experience—waking, dreaming, and even dreamless sleep. In each state, we see that awareness remains while all else changes. This reveals our true nature: we are not the body, the mind, or the fleeting emotions—we are the silent, formless presence that cannot be pointed to, yet can be known by simply being.
In this realization, we are healed. We no longer grasp for the fleeting. We rest in the peaceful, changeless stillness of awareness—free from suffering, at home in the present moment, and whole within ourselves.
Calming Fear and Anger
Dissolving Emotional Turbulence (fear and anger)
1) Sit in a comfortable, relaxed meditation posture
2) Breathe naturally, inhaling through the mouth, out through nose
3) Bring awareness to the chest area from shoulder to shoulder
4) Hold your awareness steady there without shifting
5) Breathe fresh, clean air in through your mouth
6) Allow yourself to feel uncomfortable feeling dissolving
7) If discomfort remains, move your body/shoulders back and forth
8) Continue this process until the uncomfortable feeling fades
Visualisation – Witnessing Inner Fear (or anger)
1) Sit in a comfortable, relaxed meditation posture
2) Breathe normally
———–3) Start to visualize fear (such as ghost-like figure/someone shouting)
4) Allow these to come closer, become more intensified
5) At the peak of fear, ask yourself, “Who is aware?
6) Turn inward and recognize that awareness
7) Become it and rest on it for a while
———–8) (Repeat step 3 – 7 as long as possible)
9) End the meditation by taking a few minutes to gently exit
When fear and anger arise, they come from specific causes—conditions and interpretations that link these emotions to situations around us. Understanding this is the first key: fear and anger don’t appear out of nowhere; they have a source, like electricity flowing through a wire to power a machine. If we cut that wire by stopping the association and meaning we give to those situations, we prevent fear and anger from growing inside us. We focus on the feelings themselves, isolated from the outside triggers.
Next, it’s crucial to observe these emotions from the perspective of awareness. When we watch fear and anger like we watch a river flowing by, we realize that we are not those emotions—we are the awareness noticing them. This separation is powerful because it means the feelings don’t define or control us. We remain untouched observers even as fear and anger pass through.
There’s a deeper understanding that our mind has three states: waking, dreaming, and dreamless. Fear and anger often arise from the subconscious or dreaming mind, where thoughts and emotions flow uncontrollably beneath our surface awareness. Instead of trying to control these emotions in the waking mind—an often impossible task—we guide them back into the dreamless state, a deeper unconscious where emotions dissolve into stillness. Focusing attention on the chest area, between the shoulders, helps the mind and body enter this dreamless state and release these feelings.
Fear and anger also show up as energy in the body, often making us hold our breath. Conscious breathing—inhaling fresh energy and exhaling the stuck, disturbing energy—helps flush out these emotions and supports their return to the unconscious mind.
To build resilience, we can practice visualizing fear and anger as external forces approaching us, then simply witnessing them without reaction. This exercise trains us to stay calm and aware, strengthening our ability to face these emotions in real life without being overwhelmed.
Together, these insights and practices form the foundation for transforming fear and anger: cutting off their external sources, observing them as awareness, guiding them to dissolve in the dreamless mind, and releasing their energy through breath. These are the principles behind the two exercises—Dissolving Emotional Turbulence, which focuses on breathing and releasing energy, and Visualization Witnessing Fear, which trains calm observation. Through consistent practice, we learn to move beyond fear and anger, returning again and again to the steady peace of awareness.
What is meditation?
Meditation is about becoming familiar with one’s own awareness. It is the practice of recognizing that we are not our body, mind, emotions, or any passing experience, but the egoless, unchanging, and ever-present awareness itself. Meditation is not about seeking or achieving something new, but about knowing ourselves as this awareness and resting effortlessly in it amidst all changes.
This awareness remains steady through all stages of the mind—waking, dreaming, and dreamless states. When we rest in this awareness, calmness and stillness naturally arise—not as goals to reach, but as natural expressions of our true nature.
Meditation invites us to go deeper within, to remember what has always been present. We learn that we are not our thoughts, feelings, or personality, but the timeless presence in which all experiences appear and disappear.
By recognizing ourselves as awareness, we stop clinging to the fluctuations of the mind and body. We free ourselves from suffering caused by identifying with what is temporary. Meditation is the gentle return to our original being—the awareness that has always been here, quietly witnessing all.
“Meditation is to recognize (or know) oneself as the egoless, unchanging, and ever-present awareness,
and to rest effortlessly in it amidst all changes.”
Defined by Huan Minh Vuong
Meditation Routine
Step-by-step guide
- Meditation posture
- Wishful thinking for the good of all sentient beings
- Practicing yoga postures (asanas)
- Practicing breathing techniques (pranayama)
- Sitting meditation – mala meditation technique
- Rest in The Corpse Pose (Savasana)
- Sitting meditation – plant a seed in the subconscious mind
- Sleep meditation – rest in awareness in sleep (yoga nidra)
- Finish session
Basic insight – tips and ideas
Advices for meditation:
- Meditation is about seeing/ resting in awareness
- Thoughts are not the focus-point, but awareness
- Dullness is a sign of releasing stress
- Sleepiness is a sign of releasing stress
- Just sleep in meditation if you're tired
- If the body feels uncomfortable then adjust it
- Let go of meditative experiences to progress
- Feel irritated then pause and take fresh air
Duration of meditative session:
- 05 min. duration (beginner meditator)
- 10-20 min. duration (mid-levels meditator)
- 20-90 min. duration (advanced meditator)
- 02-04 min. duration to exit meditation
Locations, level of difficulties:
- Meditate alone at home (beginner stage)
- Meditate alone in nature (mid-levels stage)
- Meditate in group (advanced stage)
- Meditate in town and city (superior stage)
Sounds for meditation – YouTube:
Background music played at a low volume helps calm subconscious activity, minimizing distractions during meditation. Practitioners are encouraged to select sounds that help to stay calm and centered.
Meditative experiences (not to hold on !):
- Tingling sensation on the face, like a crawling worm
- A warm sensation behind the back or in the spine
- Body suddenly bursts into spontaneous laughter
- Body bursts into tears, as if emotions are being released
- Sensation of unconditional happiness/ joy fills the body
- Feeling of floating, as if the body disappears
- Deep sense of peace or stillness, as if time has stopped
- Bodily movements, such as swaying or subtle rocking
- Vivid flashes of light or colors appearing in the mind’s eye
- Overwhelming sense of love/ compassion from the heart
- Sense of merging with space, as if the boundaries dissolve
- Sensation of energy running everywhere in the body
- Sensation of energy moving through the bod
- A feeling of the breath comes to stand still
- Feeling as if the breath is breathing itself
- Hearing subtle sounds, like ringing, humming
- Sensation of the body expanding, growing larger
- A sense of intense gratitude, as if every moment is a gift
- Experiencing visions, images, or symbolic patterns arising
- Feeling of being embraced by a loving, unseen presence
- Perception of the body as an empty shell, hollow and light
- Forgotten memories bubbling up into awareness
- Lose track of time where an hour feels like moment
- Sensation of bodily heat/ cold without external cause
- Hearing ocean waves, birds singing, music virtually
- Feel expanded, growing bigger above physical body
- Feel shrinking, becoming tiny than your physical body
- Profound understanding, as if a deep truth is revealed
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