This is the 15-minute lake meditation.
So this meditation is done in a laying or reclining position and begins by paying attention to sensations of contact and support as you lay here.
Noticing where your body is making contact,
How your weight is distributed on the floor and sensing into the body,
Feeling the feet,
Legs,
Lower and upper body,
Arms and your shoulders and your head.
And when you are ready,
Bringing awareness to breath,
The actual physical sensations,
Feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out.
Letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change or regulate it in any way.
Just allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace,
Knowing there's nothing for you to do,
Just allowing a sense of being complete,
Being whole in this very moment,
Just letting your breath be your breath.
As you rest here,
Letting an image form in your mind's eye of a lake or a body of water,
Large or small,
Held in a receptive basin by the earth itself,
Noting in the mind's eye and your own heart that water likes to pool in low places,
It seeks its own level,
Asks to be held and contained,
So letting this image of the lake gradually come into greater focus,
Even if it doesn't come as a visual image,
Allowing the sense of this lake and feeling its presence.
And the lake you're invoking may be deep or shallow,
Blue,
Perhaps even muddy or clear,
And with no wind,
The surface will be flat,
Mirror-like,
Reflecting trees,
The sky and clouds,
Holding everything in itself momentarily.
Wind may come and stir up the waves,
Causing the reflections to distort and disappear,
But then sunlit light may sparkle in the ripples and dance on the waves in a play of shimmering diamonds.
When night comes,
It's the moon's turn to dance on the lake,
Or when the surface is still,
To be reflected in it along with the outline of trees and shadows.
In winter,
The lake may freeze over,
Yet be teeming with movement and life below the surface.
As you rest here breathing,
And as you establish this image of the lake in your mind's eye,
Allowing yourself,
When you feel ready,
To bring it inside yourself completely,
So that your being merges with the lake,
Becomes one with it,
So that all your energies in this moment are held in awareness with openness and compassion for yourself.
In the same way as the lake's waters are held and accepted by the basin of the earth itself.
Breathing as the lake,
And feeling its body as your body,
Allowing your mind and your heart to be open and receptive moment by moment,
To reflect whatever comes near.
Experiencing moments of complete stillness,
And other moments perhaps when the surface is disturbed or choppy,
And reflections are lost for the moment.
And through it all,
As you lay here,
Simply observing the play of the various energies of your own mind and heart,
The fleeting thoughts and feelings,
Impulses and reactions,
Which come and go as ripples and waves.
Noticing the effect of your thoughts and feelings,
Do they disturb the surface and the clarity of the mind's lake?
Do they muddy the waters?
And is that okay with you?
Isn't having a rippling or a wavy surface part of being a lake?
Might it be possible to identify not only with the surface of your lake,
But with the entire body of water,
So that you become the stillness below the surface as well,
Which at most experiences only gentle undulations,
Even when the surface is choppy.
And in the same way,
In your meditation practice and in your daily life,
Can you be in touch not only with the changing content and intensity of your thoughts and feelings,
But also with the reservoir of awareness itself,
Residing below the surface of your mind.
The lake can teach this and remind us of the lake within ourselves.
If you find this image of the lake to be useful and of value,
You may want to use it from time to time to deepen and enrich your meditation practice.
You might also invite this image of the lake to empower you and guide your actions in the world as you move through the unfolding of each day,
Carrying this vast reservoir of mindfulness within your heart.
We can be the lake in silence now,
Affirming our ability to hold in awareness and in acceptance right now all our qualities of mind and body,
Just as the lake sits held by the earth.
And remembering that we can continue to hold the image of the lake on our own at any point,
And being with the lake in its storms and its moments of peace.
