Guided Meditation: Short Scripts for 5 and 10 Minutes

By Tim Yu, Founder & Editor · Published 2 November 2026

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A guided meditation is a meditation led by spoken instructions, from a teacher, a recording or a script you read, with silences left for you to practise in. Below are six short guided meditation scripts in our own words, with rough timings: a 5-minute and a 10-minute breath meditation, loving-kindness, a body scan, and a morning and an evening sit. Each says whose instruction it follows, or that it is our own, because Buddhist traditions guide meditation very differently.

Jump to a script: 5 minutes · 10 minutes · loving-kindness · body scan · morning · evening

What a guided meditation is

A guided meditation has two parts: words that name a step, and silences to practise it in. As Insight Meditation South Bay, founded by Shaila Catherine, says of its recordings, “moments of silence allow time for you to practice the instructions.”

Recorded guidance is modern. In S. N. Goenka’s ten-day courses, “The teaching is given through recordings of S.N. Goenka” (dhamma.org); for the first MBSR course, begun in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn “recorded a few guided meditations” on cassette (Lion’s Roar, 2025).

How to use these scripts

Each script gives lines to say, rough clock times and pause marks such as (three breaths): stay silent that many breaths before the next line, and if in doubt, leave more silence. Use a script in one of three ways:

• Read it, then practise it from memory, glancing back between steps.
• Record it in your own voice, leaving the pauses as silence, and play it back.
• Read it to someone else, or to a group (see below).

The Thai Forest teacher Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu warns against turning meditation “into an exercise in clock-watching”; our meditation timer rings a bell at the end. Posture is in our step-by-step guide to meditating, session length in how long to meditate; for a moving practice, see walking meditation.

Reading a script to someone else

Practise the script yourself before you lead it. Speak in your ordinary voice, a little slower than conversation, and do not rush the silences; they are the practice. Offer each line as an invitation (“you might notice…”), not an order. Tell listeners at the start that they may keep their eyes open, shift position or stop at any time. Promise nothing about what they will feel.

A 5-minute breath meditation (mindfulness of breathing)

This mindfulness meditation script follows the first two steps of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118), “mindfulness of breathing”, where the meditator simply knows the breath. In Bhikkhu Sujato’s translation:

Sujato’s “heavily” and “lightly” render the Pali “long” and “short”, which Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu and Thich Nhat Hanh keep, as these scripts do.

Traditions differ on touching the breath. Sōtō Zen says “Do not try to control your breathing”, and Plum Village, “We don’t need to control the breath in any way”; Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu says that if it feels uncomfortable, “adjust the breath so that it’s more comfortable”. This script leaves it alone. Our breathing pacer, by contrast, is a modern aid that shapes the breath.

1. 0:00. Sit in a way you can keep for five minutes, back upright. Let your eyes close or lower. (three breaths)
2. Feel the weight of the body on the seat. (three breaths)
3. 0:45. Find the breath where it is easiest to feel: the nostrils, the chest or the belly. Don’t change it. (five breaths)
4. As this breath comes in, know that it is coming in. As it goes out, know that it is going out. (five breaths)
5. 2:00. Is this breath long or short? Rough or smooth? Just know it as it is. (ten breaths)
6. Found yourself thinking? That’s fine. Notice where the mind went, and come back to the next breath. (about a minute)
7. 4:30. Let the breath go. Feel the whole body sitting. When you are ready, open your eyes.

A 10-minute breath meditation

The longer script adds MN 118’s third and fourth steps, “experiencing the whole body” and “stilling the physical process”; Sujato notes the stages are “not meant to be done deliberately, but to be observed and understood as the natural process of deepening meditation”; Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu treats them as skills to train. All sixteen steps are in our guides to ānāpānasati and the Ānāpānasati Sutta.

Readings differ: Buddhaghosa takes “the whole body” as the whole of each breath, its “beginning, middle and end” (Visuddhimagga VIII.171), and Sujato’s notes read it as the breath too. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu’s note finds that reading “unlikely in this context”: here awareness is extended “to fill the entire body”. Step 4 follows him; to follow Buddhaghosa, stay with each breath from start to finish.

Counting is optional. The Visuddhimagga (VIII.190–195) has the beginner count from one up to between five and ten, only “until, without counting, mindfulness remains settled on the in-breaths and out-breaths”. Dōgen, quoted by Sōtō Zen, called counting a beginner’s method of the “Hinayana” (his term), though Zen also teaches a breath-count exercise, sūsokukan (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

1. 0:00. Settle as in steps 1 and 2 of the 5-minute script.
2. 1:00. Know the breath, long or short, without shaping it. If you like, count out-breaths from one to ten, then begin again; lose count, start at one. (about two minutes)
3. 3:00. When the breath holds your attention on its own, let the counting go.
4. Breathing in, let attention widen from where you feel the breath to the whole breathing body. Breathing out, stay with the whole body. (silence until about 6:00)
5. 6:00. With each breath, let the breath and whatever is busy in the body calm of their own accord, without forcing or holding anything. (silence until about 9:00)
6. 9:00. Let go of the method. Rest a few breaths with nothing to do, then open your eyes.

A short loving-kindness meditation script

The Karaṇīya Metta Sutta (Snp 1.8) wishes happiness to all beings, “seen or unseen”, but gives no order of people. The order here is Buddhaghosa’s (Visuddhimagga IX.8–12): yourself, then “a teacher or his equivalent”, a dear friend, a neutral person, a hostile one. An objector in the text notes that passages on mettā in the Vibhaṅga, the Paṭisambhidāmagga and the Metta Sutta never mention oneself; Buddhaghosa answers that the self is “an example”, citing the Buddha’s verse “Who loves himself will never harm another” (IX.9–10, quoting S I 75). The full method is in our guide to loving-kindness meditation; the metta generator builds your own sequence. About seven minutes.

1. 0:00. Sit comfortably and let a few breaths come and go. (five breaths)
2. 1:00. Bring yourself to mind. As I want to be well, so does everyone. May I be free from ill will. May I be safe from harm. May I live with ease. (three breaths; say it twice more) (Our wording, loosely after the Visuddhimagga’s “free from enmity, affliction and anxiety”.)
3. 2:00. Someone you respect, a teacher or anyone whose goodness you admire. May you be free from ill will. May you be safe from harm. May you live with ease. (three breaths; twice more)
4. 3:00. A dear friend. Picture their face. Offer the same wishes. (three breaths; twice more)
5. 4:00. Someone neutral, a person you passed today. (three breaths; twice more)
6. 5:00. If you are ready, someone you find mildly difficult. If resentment comes, go back to your friend for a few breaths, then try again; Buddhaghosa advises returning to the earlier persons (IX.14). Or stop there today. (three breaths)
7. 6:00. Let the wish spread to everyone, “above, below, all round” (Snp 1.8, trans. Sujato). May all beings be happy. Rest there.

A short body scan

The body scan is a modern method. Jon Kabat-Zinn made it MBSR’s first meditation, drawing partly on a retreat “in the tradition of U Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka” (Lion’s Roar, 2025). Anālayo argues that although the scan “as such would presumably have been unknown in early Buddhism”, it appears to have developed, through vipassanā taught in Myanmar, from one reading of the third step of mindfulness of breathing (Mindfulness, 2020). This script follows MBSR’s general route, from the feet to the head. Origins and fuller steps are in our body scan guide. About six minutes.

1. 0:00. Lie on your back or sit upright. Feel the body resting on whatever holds it. (three breaths)
2. 0:30. The feet: toes, soles, heels. Feel what is there: warmth, pressure, tingling, or nothing much, which counts too. (five breaths)
3. 1:15. Ankles, calves, knees, thighs. Feel them; don’t try to relax them. (five breaths)
4. 2:00. The hips, the belly rising and falling, the back, the chest, the shoulders. (ten breaths)
5. 3:30. Both arms, from the shoulders to the fingertips. (five breaths)
6. 4:15. The neck, the jaw, the face, the scalp. (five breaths)
7. 5:00. Let go of the parts and feel the whole body at once. (silence) Then move the fingers and open your eyes.

A morning meditation

A short sit with one intention for the day. This script is our own arrangement, not a traditional form; waking routines are in our guide to a Buddhist morning routine. About five minutes.

1. 0:00. Before you reach for anything, sit on the bed’s edge or your usual seat. (three breaths)
2. Feel the breath, in and out, just knowing it. (five breaths)
3. 1:00. Notice what kind of morning it is in the body: heavy, rested, hurried. Don’t fix it. (five breaths)
4. 2:00. Ask: what is one good thing I mean to do today? Keep it small: a patient word, a kept promise. (five breaths)
5. 3:00. Breathe with that intention. If you know the gāthā “Breathing in, I calm my body”, use it here. (about a minute)
6. 4:30. Stand slowly, and do the day’s first task with attention.

An evening meditation

This script adapts Advice to Rāhula at Ambalaṭṭhika (MN 61), where the Buddha tells his son, “After you have acted with the body, you should check on that same act” (trans. Sujato). MN 61 concerns checking deeds before, during and after them, not a bedtime review. The script promises nothing about sleep (see mindfulness for sleep); if you lie down, aim to stay awake. About eight minutes.

1. 0:00. Sit, or lie on your back. (ten breaths, just knowing them)
2. 1:30. Recall the day from waking until now, without stopping on any scene (our addition, not MN 61’s). (about a minute)
3. 3:00. Pick one thing you did or said today. Ask, as MN 61 does: did it lead to hurting myself, others, or both? (five breaths)
4. If it did, name it plainly and decide what you will do; MN 61 tells Rāhula to reveal such a deed to “the Teacher or a sensible spiritual companion” and to restrain himself in future. (five breaths)
5. If it did not, be glad of it: MN 61 says to “live in rapture and joy because of this”. (five breaths)
6. 5:30. Close with goodwill to yourself, to someone you met today, and to all beings. (silence until about 8:00)

How the traditions guide meditation differently

Our guide to Buddhist meditation compares methods; here is what each tradition tends to guide.

Many Theravāda and insight-meditation teachers give breath and mettā practice step by step; Goenka’s courses move from the breath to “observing sensations throughout the body” by the fourth day.

Sōtō Zen gives a voice little to lead: “Do not concentrate on any particular object or control your thought.” In the meditation hall a bell is rung three times to begin zazen and once to end it. Sōtō’s account describes no spoken guidance during the sitting. Rinzai students may work with a koan.

Tibetan practice includes liturgies, or sādhanas, of visualisation and mantra recitation. Some Vajrayāna texts are restricted, Lotsawa House notes, to “those who have received the requisite empowerments, transmissions and instructions”: not material for a do-it-yourself script.

Plum Village guides with short verses, its mindfulness gāthās. Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation of MN 118 phrases every step as a line to say on the breath: “Breathing in, I calm my whole body.”

RAIN (Recognise, Allow, Investigate, and N) is modern, “first coined by Michele McDonald”, whose N is Non-Identification; Tara Brach’s version makes it Nurture. Our RAIN tool applies it to anger.

From guided practice to silent sitting

Teachers who give step-by-step instruction also say when to let a support go. Insight Meditation South Bay suggests brief recordings, then continuing “in silence for as long as you wish”. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu advises beginning with his six steps, in order, “so as to have a clear roadmap in mind each time you sit down to meditate”, and dropping any meditation word, such as buddho, once you can stay with the breath; the Visuddhimagga drops counting once mindfulness settles. One path, our own suggestion: lengthen the pauses in your recording, then guide yourself from memory, then sit with only the timer’s bell.

If a meditation stirs up distress

Stop. Open your eyes, feel your feet on the floor, and take a few ordinary breaths; you need not finish a script. Our guide to meditation problems covers what to do next, including when to seek real human support. Difficulties are not confined to retreats: in a study published in 2017, of 60 Western Buddhist meditators chosen because they had had them, 17 met them in daily practice; the authors stress that their sample cannot show how common such experiences are (Lindahl and colleagues, PLOS ONE).