Welcome to this meditation.
So there's an ancient observation older than any philosophy or tradition,
And that is that water always finds its way,
Not by force,
Not by rigidity,
But by yielding,
Flowing,
And trusting the nature of its own movement.
So today,
We practice being like water.
So you're welcome to find a position that feels both comfortable but also awake for you,
Whether that's seated,
Lying down,
Or even standing.
There's no right way to be here.
If it feels natural,
You're welcome to close your eyes or let your gaze settle somewhere low and unfocused,
Whatever feels easiest for you.
And we start by simply arriving,
Arriving to the practice,
Not trying to get anywhere,
And just noticing where you already are.
And without changing anything yet,
See if you can simply notice your breath as it is right now.
Not the breath you think you should have,
But the one that is actually here in this moment.
Now gently widen your attention to include the body as a whole,
The weight of it,
Where it meets the surface beneath you.
You might notice areas that feel at ease or areas that feel dense or held or a little contracted,
Perhaps somewhere in between,
Or maybe not much at all.
Whatever you notice or don't notice is welcome here.
And you're welcome to breathe into and through this whole body,
If that feels good for you.
And what about the mind right now?
Noticing if it's busy or moving quickly between thoughts.
Is it quieter,
Foggy,
Or sharp?
And you don't need to change the weather of the mind.
Just take note of it.
The way you might glance out a window and observe the sky.
And underneath all of that,
Is there a mood or an emotional tone to this moment?
Not as a label that you have to name,
Perhaps just a texture or a coloring,
Something you might call open or guarded,
Restless or weary,
Content,
Or something harder to describe.
You don't need to fix it or explain it.
Just acknowledge that it's here too.
And finally,
Just taking a moment to notice this present moment,
The sounds around you,
The temperature of air on your skin,
And the particular quality of right now with whatever you find.
And so this is where we begin.
Not somewhere better,
But here.
So there is something water knows that we often forget.
Water doesn't resist the shape of what it holds.
Pour it into a bowl and it becomes a bowl,
Into a river and it becomes the river.
It doesn't argue with the container.
It doesn't insist on a shape it had before.
Can you let yourself settle a little more fully into the shape of where you are?
Not holding yourself up from the inside so much as letting the surface beneath you do its job.
Breathing in and breathing out.
You might feel that as a slight softening,
Release somewhere in your back or the shoulders or the jaw.
You might not feel much at all and that's entirely fine.
The invitation is simply to consider it.
Water also has a way of finding the lowest place.
Not because it's weak,
But because it's wise enough to go where it naturally belongs.
The Tao Te Ching says that nothing in the world is as soft as water and yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard and rigid.
So where in your body might something be held up right now?
Some effort that doesn't actually need to be there,
At least in this moment.
It might be in the hands,
A slight grip,
Or around the eyes,
A subtle squint or strain,
Or in the chest where we so often brace ourselves against what we're feeling.
If you find anything like that,
See if you can simply notice without rushing to change it.
And then,
Gently like water finding its level,
See if that area could drop or soften or loosen its grip just a degree at a time.
There's no need to force this.
Water doesn't always force,
It flows,
It moves through.
Now let your attention move back to the breath again,
But this time notice the breath as a kind of flowing in,
Like a tide that is never once needed or minding to return to shore.
And taking a nice inhale in,
Notice how the body opens to receive.
And as you exhale,
Notice how the body releases without holding back.
Can you trust the exhale the way water trusts the downward slope?
Not deciding to let go,
Just releasing.
Water doesn't carry the shape of the last container into the next one.
It arrives fresh each time.
What would it feel like to arrive here in this breath without the shape of the last moment,
The last conversation,
The last worry,
The last version of yourself that you were maintaining?
And you don't have to answer that cognitively,
Just let the question land somewhere in the body and see if anything stirs.
Again,
Breathing in and breathing out.
And now bring your attention,
When you're ready,
To your hands.
Rest them open if that feels comfortable.
Palms up or down are simply soft and unclenched.
Water in an open palm doesn't stay because it's forced to.
It rests there briefly,
Held by nothing more than a gentle surface.
Notice what it's like to hold something lightly,
To not grip,
To allow the possibility that what matters in your life might be best held like this.
Open.
Present.
And without the tension of clutching.
And now if you're willing,
You're welcome to bring to mind something you've been working against lately.
Maybe a circumstance,
An emotion,
A version of events that you wish were different.
You don't need to solve it here,
But see if you can possibly notice where it lives in the body.
Does it create tightening somewhere?
A sense of heaviness?
Or heat?
Or maybe a kind of numbing,
An absence?
And so what would water do,
Meeting this obstacle?
It wouldn't pretend the rock wasn't there.
It wouldn't shame itself for not passing through.
It would simply move around,
Continue,
Find another way.
And so see if you can let your breath be water around whatever that thing is right now.
Not dissolving it.
Not fixing it.
Just flowing alongside of it.
And perhaps as you breathe very gently,
Notice if anything softens.
Even slightly,
Even for a moment.
Water at its deepest is still.
Beneath every current,
Beneath every wave,
There is a depth that the surface never disturbs.
See if you can sense that in yourself right now.
As we begin to move towards the close of this practice,
You're welcome to take one full conscious breath in a way that feels right for you.
And start to let the awareness of the room and the space you're practicing come back to you.
The sounds.
The sights.
The feel of the air and the weight of your body.
And when you're ready,
Let your eyes open ever so gently and slowly.
And so I'll leave you with one or two questions to carry with you if you'd like.
Not to answer immediately,
But to let settle the way water settles in a still place.
So where in your life are you working harder than water would?
And what might happen if you trusted the yielding?
Thank you so much for working with this practice.
May we all be well and may we all be free.
