Hello,
This is Amma.
For many of us,
And I do not count myself as an exception,
Equanimity is not an easy practice.
In spite of patience of my monastic sisters and friends,
I found learning about equanimity extremely difficult.
I didn't understand it.
It wasn't something that was part of my personality.
But when I lived in the bush in Australia,
In a tiny little hut,
The land around me showed me how.
They taught me.
And eventually,
I had a little bit more understanding.
And so,
I offer this guided meditation as a support for you at this time.
So please take about 15 minutes and turn off your devices.
It's easier if you can be in a place that's quiet and undisturbed.
And while you're listening,
Allow yourself to be in a posture that is really comfortable,
Whether that's sitting or standing or lying down.
And take a couple of minutes and adjust your posture so that you can be comfortable,
Relaxed,
At ease.
Now,
I'd like to invite you to imagine being a mayfly.
A mayfly is a little bug.
It's an insect.
And it just only lives for one month.
Its entire lifespan is one month.
That's all it has.
So imagine being a mayfly.
Imagine what you might be interested in.
Imagine what you're not interested in,
What doesn't concern you at all.
And just begin to get a feeling for what your life might be like as a mayfly.
From the time you first emerge,
You start to feel how your wings work and crawl.
You start to get interested in the kinds of things mayflies are interested in.
The invitation is to use as many of your senses as are available to you.
What would things look like as a mayfly?
What would it feel like in your body as a mayfly?
Would you have thoughts as a mayfly?
What would you think about?
Would you have impulses and instincts?
What would they be like?
How would you move?
So using your imagination and all of the senses that are available to you,
Just step into the world of what it would be like to be a mayfly.
And as you do this,
Notice the impact on you.
What do you sense?
What do you feel?
What do you notice?
Now allow this image to come to a close.
And take a couple of breaths and feel your own body,
The shape of your body and the weight of your body.
Notice the breath coming in and the breath going out.
And now I'd like to invite you to imagine being a tortoise.
Imagine being a tortoise.
One of these old tortoises that live a couple hundred years.
It's got a shell on its back.
And it's situated in such a way that when you feel timid or scared,
You can withdraw all the way into your shell.
So that your shell provides safety for you.
You don't walk that fast,
But you can walk.
And when you get to be a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old,
You're big.
You can weigh a couple hundred pounds.
So imagine what that might be like to be a land turtle,
A tortoise with a shell on your back.
And what it might feel like to walk.
And to have lettuce and carrots and other things that you like to eat.
In over a period of a hundred and fifty years,
The kinds of things that you'd be interested in.
And things that you'd not at all be interested in.
And again,
Using your senses,
Imagining,
Seeing,
Feeling what your body might feel like.
What it might be like to put yourself into a tortoise.
A hundred and fifty years is a long time.
And that's a common age for an elder tortoise.
They can get older.
Two hundred years.
So just feel into what it feels like for you.
And now I want to invite you to allow this image to come to a close.
Come back to your own body.
Feel your shape.
Feel your weight.
Feel where you are situated.
Take a couple of breaths.
And now I'd like you to imagine being an ancient redwood tree.
That's three thousand years old.
Your roots spread out many hundreds of feet.
And your trunk goes up three hundred and fifty feet into the sky.
You've been in the same place your whole life.
And in three thousand years,
You have seen many,
Many seasons.
Young lovers have come and have sat at the root of your trunk and read poems to each other.
Their children have come with their lovers and their children have come with their lovers for many,
Many generations.
You've seen all kinds of wild animals come and take a nap at the root of your trunk.
There have been birds that have landed in your branches and made nests.
You've seen civilizations come and go.
Generations come and go.
In three thousand years,
How many storms,
How many droughts,
How many fires have you been through?
Allow yourself to feel what it might feel like being an ancient tree.
With your roots structurally connected with other trees.
With their pathways of nutrition shared amongst the roots to the community of trees.
Just imagine what it would be like and what you would have seen for three thousand years as a tree.
Now allow this image to come to a close.
Come back to your own body.
Notice how your body feels now.
Take a couple of deep cleansing breaths.
Now I'd like you to imagine being the earth herself.
Six billion years old.
Initially just a bubble of gas.
And then fire.
And then cooled.
And then eventually the first life started to emerge.
After land.
Seeing continents moving.
Mountains coming and going.
As the earth,
You have borne witness to every single life.
And every single death.
As the earth,
You have been present for every act of sanctity.
Every miracle.
And you have witnessed every single unkindness.
You've been present for every birth.
And every death.
Breathe into what it feels like to be the earth.
To know geological time.
In tens of thousands of years.
What does it feel like to have the earth as a witness for everything that has happened since the beginning of time.
It is perspective.
It is span.
See what that perspective and span feels like for you.
Now.
In your own body.
In your own heart.
In your own mind.
And check.
And see for yourself.
If you are alive and present.
Connected with perspective.
Or if perspective does something else.
Makes you numb.
Or compartmentalized.
Or unfeeling.
Check.
And see for yourself.
What perspective does.
And know that you can come back to remembering.
Whenever it is helpful.
And so when you hear the sound of the bell.
Gently come back to your own body.
Your breath.
Where you are.
And notice.
What you notice.
Now.
