Below is a guided practice audio and transcript on the “16 Steps of Basic Meditation” by Swami Veda Bharati

1. Draw all your senses to yourself. Bring your mind’s attention to the seat you are sitting on.
2. Sit with your head, neck and spine erect.
3. Draw around yourself three circles of light, so that no samskara invades from outside and enter you. Resolve that the mind should not cross these protective lines of light.
4. Let your mind dwell within yourself. Be aware of the temple of God that is your body.
5. Relax your mind. Let the mind be free of all wrinkles. Let the entire mind that permeates your whole body, relax. Let the mind dwelling in all the limbs and organs relax and thereby, letting limbs and organs relax. Let the mind in your forehead relax. Relax your forehead – relax your eyebrows – relax your eyes – relax your nostrils – and gently observe your breathing for a few breaths. Relax your cheeks – relax your jaw – the corners of your mouth – relax your chin – your neck straight – relax your neck muscles – relax your shoulders – shoulder joints – upper arms – elbows – lower arms – wrists – hands – fingers – fingertips. Breathe as though your breath is flowing through the finger tips – washing out all the tensions. Relax your fingertips – relax your finger joints – relax your hands – wrists – lower arms – elbows – upper arms – shoulder joints – shoulders. Relax your throat center of consciousness. Relax your chest muscles. Relax the heart center of consciousness. Gently observe your breathing. Relax your stomach. Relax the navel center of consciousness. Relax your lower abdomen – relax your thigh joints – thighs – knees – lower legs – ankles – feet and toes. Breathe as though your whole body is breathing – from your crown to the toes – and the foundation, adhara, to your crown. Relax your toes, relax your feet, ankles, lower legs, knees, relax your thighs – thigh joints – relax the lower abdomen. Relax the navel center of consciousness and the surrounding organs. Relax your stomach. Relax the heart center of consciousness and the surrounding organs. Relax your chest. Relax the throat center of consciousness and the surrounding organs. Relax your shoulders – shoulder joints – upper arms – elbows – lower arms – wrists – hands – fingers – finger tips. Relax your finger joints – hands – wrists – lower arms – elbows – upper arms –shoulder joints – shoulders – relax your neck muscles – relax your chin – jaw – corners of your mouth – relax your cheeks – nostrils – eyes and eyebrows. Relax your forehead.
6. Breathe as though your whole body is breathing, your mind, prana, breath, from the crown to adhara, foundation, and the toes, from there all the way to the crown, slowly, gently, smoothly, every cell of your body breathing, every cell of your body breathing. Breathing the subtle breath. Slowly, gently, smoothly.
7. Then come to seat of your prana, the navel center of consciousness. Observe the gentle rise and fall of your stomach and the navel area.
8. Here, take a word like So-ham, or the name of your ishta, your favorite name for God, or your personal mantra. Exhaling, thinking that divine name, inhale, thinking the divine name. Observing the gentle rise and fall of that area, your stomach and navel gently pulling in as you breathe out, how gently relax as you breathe in.
9. Observe the pathway of the breath, from the navel to the nostrils, nostrils to the navel, a slow, slim breath, a narrow channel, along a being of light, with the divine name, ascending and descending. Maintain the flow, a very slim smooth channel.
10. Now, with the same divine name, feel the flow and the touch of breath in your left nostril. Feel the breath in your right nostril.
11. Feel the breath, the flow and touch of the breath, in both nostrils. Breathing gently, slowly, smoothly – No jerk in your breathing – Thinking the same thought of the divine name. When you come to the end of the breath, let there be no pause, immediately begin to feel the next breath. Continuous cycle of awareness of the breath flow, continuous cycle of a thought of the divine name.
12. Now even ignore the breath awareness. Let the divine name or the mantra gently arise as a thought in the mind. Not in the mouth, not on the tongue, only in the mind. Same thought, same thought. Same mind wave. Observe the presence of the name in the mind.
13. And now, cease even this observation. Let your mind become a chamber of silence. Absolutely still. Only silence.
14. From this pool of silence, again, calm mind, divine name and the breath. Observe how breath, mind and the name are flowing together as a single stream. The entire mind becomes an even flowing stream.
15. Resolve in your mind that you seek no benefits from this meditation. If any benefits, may they accrue to the countless myriad human beings who are in ignorance and in suffering. May they be enlightened. May their suffering be alleviated. As to yourself, say, “Thy will be done. Not mine.” Observe the mind, free of all claims of ego, lightened and surrender to the divine being. The stream of consciousness, flowing.
16. Observing the flow, without breaking the feel of that flow, gently open your eyes. You may warm your hands, rub your forehead, hands, feet, without changing the state of your mind. You may change the position of your body.