Meditation: Like an Empty Bowl.

In the Empty Bowl Meditation, time stops.

Meditation fosters positive changes in one’s personality and behavior.  Whether you are seeking general relaxation and stress reduction or want to explore the pathway to higher states of consciousness, a daily practice is most beneficial.  While there are many techniques to quiet the mind, the Empty Bowl Meditation emphasizes breath awareness and the natural stops at the end of each inhalation and exhalation.  In these two stops, time stops.  You are surrounded with peace and love.  You become like an empty bowl.  By practicing this meditation morning and evening for 15 minutes, the inner and outer will merge.  Everything will happen to you.

To practice the Empty Bowl Mediation, sit in a comfortable position with palms up and open, placed on your knees, like empty bowls.  If this is not comfortable, you may practice this mediation in the prone position. 

Open your mouth slightly and touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth, behind your front teeth.  Breathe naturally and notice the rhythm of your breath.  Notice the tip of your nose.  Be aware of the air as it travels through your nose, cool air going in; warm air going out.  Sit quietly, observing your breath for about 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, follow your breath.  Follow the air as it travels through your nose, throat, heart, diaphragm, deep down into the belly, behind the belly button where there is a natural stop.  Stay in this stop for a few seconds.  Then follow the breath on exhalation as it travels up from the belly behind the diaphragm, heart, throat, out through the nose until it reaches a place outside your body about 9 inches in front of the nose, the second stop. In these two stops, your breath stops.  Time stops.  In these two stops, only existence is present.  You are surrounded with peace and love.

Source:  Dr. Vasant Lad, The Ayurvedic Institute, Empty Bowl Meditation (Kevala Kumbhak) Handout, 1994, 2005.