BONUS: Sam Harris Guided Meditations and Lessons

Tim Ferriss (0:00)

Hello, ladies and germs, this is Tim Ferris, and welcome to an ultra short, commercial-free edition of The Tim Ferriss Show. This is a companion episode to a longer episode with Sam Harris that came out at the same time as this episode, so I encourage you to check that out. This is for those who want to jump right into the guided meditations and lessons from his app, Waking Up, which I've been incredibly impressed by. You can check it out at wakingup.com, and you will find Lessons 2.17 and 31, so Days 2.17 and 31 for different styles of meditation practice, even though in the app itself there is a longer logical progression, it's very gradual, and you will find lessons including the logic of practice.

So with that having been said, please enjoy these guided meditations and lessons with Sam Harris.

Sam Harris (0:56)

Welcome to Day 2 of the Waking Up Course. Once again, take a seat, either in a chair or cross-legged on a cushion. It's good to sit as comfortably as you can. And it's usually best to be sitting as straight as you can. Now close your eyes and become aware of the sensations of sitting. Feel your arms at your sides. And perhaps take a few deep breaths. Just allow gravity to settle you into your seat. Now, as you did yesterday, become aware of the sensations of breathing. Notice where you feel the breath most clearly, either at the tip of the nose or in the rise and falling of your abdomen or chest. It doesn't matter where you pay attention to the breath, and you can change your focus from session to session if you like. But for the moment, just pick one spot and focus there.

Thank There's nothing especially significant about the breath, but it's something you always have with you, and it's as good as any other sense object as a basis for training your powers of attention. Eventually, the practice will incorporate everything that arises in consciousness.

Just feel the mirror sensations of breathing, from the beginning of the inhalation to the pause between breaths and follow the exhalation to the end. Try to cover the breath with your awareness. And once again, there's no need to control your breathing. Just let it come however it comes.

What we're doing here is sharpening the only tool you really have, your mind. This is what you take with you in any situation in life. This is what determines how you respond to emotional stress and physical pain and every other difficulty you encounter. This is the basis for every decision you make and every interaction you have with other people. And as you begin to observe it, you will notice, perhaps with growing amazement, that your mind is totally out of control. And as you try to pay attention to the breath, you'll begin to notice that the primary obstacle to your paying attention is thinking. Thoughts continually arise, and you forget that you are even trying to meditate at all. And this happens over the course of mere seconds. Just try to count the next 10 breaths without getting distracted. You can silently in your mind count one on the inhalation, and one again on the exhalation, and then two. See if you can get to ten.

Unless you have a lot of concentration, you probably were unable to tell how precarious your awareness of the breath actually was, how your attention was being buffeted on all sides by discursive thought. Now, the goal isn't to stop your thoughts or to suppress any emotion that might arise along with them. It is rather to notice these mental events clearly and to experience them fully, more fully, in fact, to recognize them as appearances in consciousness the moment they arise. But that is generally a very difficult thing to do in the beginning. So for the time being, the moment you discover that you're thinking, just observe it and come back to the breath.

In this final minute of the meditation, just start again.

Just feel the next breath as it comes.

Well, just take a moment to take stock of how you're feeling, whether you're tired or restless or calm. Whether your experience was pleasant or unpleasant isn't really the point. What you're learning here is a new skill. And unless you're coming to this course already knowing how to meditate, you can't expect to be able to do it well in the beginning. And as the practice develops over the next days and weeks, you'll see that you do less, not more, than you normally do. You're not adding an artifice to your experience in the present moment. Rather, you're simply becoming less distracted. The purpose of meditation is to discover what your mind is like when you're no longer perpetually identified with the contents of your thoughts. And to make progress, you simply need to be willing to begin again. And we will do that tomorrow, on day three of The Waking Up Course. Welcome to day 17 of The Waking Up Course. As you get comfortable in your seat, you might keep your eyes open for the beginning of this session. And take a few deep breaths. And just let yourself settle into the feeling of resting in space.