#844: Be Still — Guided Meditation with Zen Master Henry Shukman

This episode is part of a series called Meditation Monday. The teacher, Henry Shukman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach Sanbo Zen, and now, he’ll be your teacher. In addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday I’ll bring you a short 10-minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode series, you’ll develop a Zen toolkit to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness in your daily life. Henry’s app, The Way https://thewayapp.com/tim, has changed my life since I first started using it. Unlike other meditation apps, where you’re overwhelmed with a thousand choices, The Way is a clear step-by-step training program guided entirely by Henry. Through a logical progression, you’ll develop real skills that stick with you. I’ve been using it daily, often twice a day, and it’s lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of my podcast, you can get 30 free sessions by visiting https://thewayapp.com/tim and downloading the app. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Tim Ferriss?

  Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is a brand-new experiment called Meditation Monday. That means, in addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday, I will be bringing you a short 10-minute-or-so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode series, you'll develop a Zen toolkit specifically to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness in your daily life. The teacher, Henry Schukman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach what is called Sambo Zen, and I have found this particularly interesting and effective. And now, he'll be your teacher. I've been using Henry's

• 0:40Tim Ferriss?

  app, The Way, once, often twice a day, and it has lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of the show, you yourself can get 30 free sessions by visiting thewayapp.com/tim. So if you like what you hear in these meditations, which will be valuable in and of themselves, you can get 30 free sessions by going to thewayapp.com/tim. And for the time being, please enjoy this Meditation Monday with Henry Schukman.

• 1:08Henry Shukman?

  Hello, and welcome to this meditation with me, Henry Schukman. I'm really delighted, and honored, and quite humbled to be offering this to you. This is the first of a little set of four meditations, and it's designed to help you find a moment of peace in the midst of a busy day, or possibly at the end of a long, tiring day, or before your day starts. Any time you feel a little intervention to help your nervous system would be a good thing for you. So we're just gonna do a simple body scan, basically, which grounds us, centers

• 1:49Henry Shukman?

  us, brings us back into the heart of our own being, which then helps us to function and perform better in the course of our day with more peace and a better-regulated nervous system. So come into any comfortable seated position. If you want to recline, no problem. Lie down, if that's available to you. That's also just fine.

• 2:15Henry Shukman?

  I'm going to assume that you're sitting

• 2:18Henry Shukman?

  in the guidance that I offer, so just get comfortable. Close your eyes or lower your gaze, let your hands rest in your lap, or on your thighs, or perhaps by your side. We're going to start with a little, very short poem, just to bring us in. Only be still. Only be still. It doesn't matter where you've come from, it doesn't even matter where you think you want to go. For now, all that matters is your being still.

• 2:58Henry Shukman?

  Whatever catastrophe, or grief, or yearning, or hope, or promise, has brought you here, to this very seat, just now, put them aside, set them aside. For now, all that matters is your being still.

• 3:23Henry Shukman?

  So let your body become still.

• 3:32Henry Shukman?

  Yeah, many of us carry some tension in our jaw. So see if you can let your jaw slide forward and down

• 3:43Henry Shukman?

  just a little bit, it may only go a millimeter. That can make all the difference.

• 3:51Henry Shukman?

  Release the jaw.

• 3:57Henry Shukman?

  Can you find a kind of softness in your throat?

• 4:05Henry Shukman?

  Jaw and throat, soft at ease.

• 4:11Henry Shukman?

  Let your arms hang, be slack, be loose.

• 4:23Henry Shukman?

  Bring your awareness now into your chest area, your rib cage, and see if you can just get a taste of it being warm and soft, like warm wax.

• 4:39Henry Shukman?

  Just a general sense of warmth and softness

• 4:45Henry Shukman?

  in the upper body, especially the chest area.

• 4:55Henry Shukman?

  And likewise, the belly. Let the belly be soft and warm.

• 5:02Henry Shukman?

  And loose.

• 5:08Henry Shukman?

  Sense the pressure of your upper body in your buttocks, where they meet the seat.

• 5:17Henry Shukman?

  Let them relax. Let your hips spread just a little tiny bit.

• 5:25Henry Shukman?

  Looseness is our guidepost here. Becoming softer and kind of floppier in the body, even while we may be sitting upright.

• 5:41Henry Shukman?

  Now, the upper legs, let them also be warm and soft. They don't need to be doing anything right now.

• 5:51Henry Shukman?

  Just at ease.

• 5:55Henry Shukman?

  And the lower legs, let them also be soft, relaxed.

• 6:05Henry Shukman?

  Ankles and feet, at ease.

• 6:12Henry Shukman?

  Hands. Hands are slack, limp, resting.

• 6:23Henry Shukman?

  Face, let face be soft.

• 6:29Henry Shukman?

  Let the whole head, the cranium, the top of the skull, the back of the skull, the sides of the skull, whole head at ease, resting.

• 6:46Henry Shukman?

  So now the entire body is still at rest, at ease.

• 7:00Henry Shukman?

  Perhaps you can get a sense of the whole body being enveloped in a warmth, in a kind of energy field of warmth,

• 7:17Henry Shukman?

  or as if in a subtle cloud of ease and warmth.

• 7:25Henry Shukman?

  That you're granted this possibility just now of having your whole body find its way to restful ease.

• 7:49Henry Shukman?

  Okay, we'll gently come out of the meditation now, so bring some movement into your fingers. Just wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes, open your eyes, raise your eyes.

• 8:02Henry Shukman?

  Come back into the space that you're in.

• 8:07Henry Shukman?

  Great, thank you so much for joining me in this little mini-journey into the ease that's actually always here waiting for us if we just learn a few skills to help us tap into it. Next time, we'll be exploring how doing less can help us do more. Thank you very much indeed for joining me.