This practice is about non-striving and flowing.
Our lives and our practice unfold just like a river.
Imagine if we could live our lives like water,
Like a river,
Not fighting against the currents,
Moving in perfect harmony,
No resistance,
No pushing away,
No clinging,
Just a natural unfolding,
A true understanding of the wisdom of surrender.
Can we truly flow with what's here right now?
Water's force doesn't come from dominating,
But through its softness.
How can we flow?
Just by being fully and completely in the present moment.
There are no shoulds in this practice.
We just unfold,
Just unfolding in the nowness of our own flow right now,
Whatever is here.
And our lives unfold in moments.
You can't step into the same river twice.
We just flow.
We find our way around the many obstacles in our lives,
Just like a river finds its way around the multitude of obstacles that clog up the river,
Getting in the way of its flow.
It finds a way.
It finds a way past them.
So in this practice,
We'll just flow.
We're not attaching to an outcome.
We're not attaching to some should or should not.
We're not trying to achieve anything.
We're just sitting.
We're just allowing the situation to be just as it is right now.
In the words of Irish poet John O'Donoghue,
I would love to live like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.
By the surprise of what unfolds,
Whatever that is.
Whether we flow freely during the practice,
Or whether we encounter obstacles,
Thoughts,
Sensations that get in the way,
Or emotions that might be here today.
Obstacles that the river encounters,
Blockages,
Log jams,
Mud,
Silt,
Sandbanks.
And just finds its way around all of them,
In the surprise of its own flow.
Let's just sit with the breath for a few moments,
In the posture which you're already taking.
Being awake,
Being aware and alert to what's happening right now.
Just sitting with the breath.
Letting the breath unfold in its natural rhythm,
Its natural state.
Just like the flow of the river.
This flowing breath can be your anchor whenever the mind gets busy and distracted.
It can always come back to the flow of the breath.
Sitting with its natural flow,
There's no should with the breath.
We don't have to breathe deeper or longer just because we're meditating.
Just sitting and being with the breath exactly as it is right now.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Each breath arising and passing away in its own flow.
And just like not stepping into the same river twice,
We can't breathe the same breath twice.
So just recognising the uniqueness of each breath,
Breath by breath.
Each breath,
A pure moment of presence.
We can't breathe in the past.
We can't breathe for the future.
We can only breathe right now.
Recognise the presence of each breath,
The presence of each breath.
The presence of each flowing breath as we breathe in and as we breathe out.
And just sitting with the breath in silence,
The silence of its flow,
Just for a few moments.
You know,
Gently letting go of the focus on the breath,
The flowing breath.
It's inviting you to bring the awareness now to the body.
The body as it is sitting or lying here today.
And tuning in if it's possible.
To the flow,
Flux and change of internal body sensations.
The movement of sensations.
The uniqueness of each heartbeat.
Perhaps even getting a sense of flow of blood in the body through tingling in the hands or the feet.
And noticing how all of these sensations aren't permanent.
It might be a sense of movement of sensation in the body.
Even stiffness and tension doesn't necessarily have to be permanent.
You might sense waves of movement,
Waves of sensation as they come and go.
As they also flow,
Arise and disappear.
And perhaps there are external sensations.
Sensations of temperature or perhaps wind.
Or perhaps just a sensation of clothing on the skin.
Sitting here and observing the flow and the flux of life in the body right now.
And gently letting go of the observance of the body.
Noticing the emotional mood right now.
Calmness.
Openness.
Frustration.
Sadness or something else.
Just opening to the emotional world that's here for you right now.
It might help you to label the emotion.
Sadness is here.
Anger is here.
Joy is here.
Notice what happens when we label the emotion.
Notice what happens when we just allow the emotion to flow.
When we allow the emotion to flow in our observance of it.
Does it change?
Does it soften?
And noticing now,
Are there any thoughts about what's here?
About the emotions,
Sensations that might be here?
What thoughts are here?
Thoughts are going through the mind right now.
And maybe it's even possible just to step back a little and take a look at these thoughts,
This flow of our thinking process.
Can we just step back and maybe observe our thoughts coming and going?
Just like we observe the coming and going of fallen leaves on the river as they flow by us.
Or just as we step back behind a waterfall and observe its flow,
We can also observe the flow of our thoughts.
We can allow our thoughts to flow,
But we don't have to be caught up in their current.
What happens if we can do this?
And inviting you now just to open up very,
Very slowly the awareness to include everything.
Your thoughts,
The emotions that might be here,
Sensations of the emotions and other sensations in the body,
The breath.
Can we step back and observe it all?
Can we surrender to what's flowing in front of us in our lives?
Surrender to the present moment,
Whatever it contains.
Can we step back and allow each moment to flow just as it is?
Like a river not knowing when it will reach the sea,
It flows from source to mouth and is just present.
As it flows,
It doesn't care when it will reach the open sea.
Can we just surrender into the life we have now?
Not knowing what the future might be and being okay with that,
Just knowing how we're flowing now in this moment in time,
In this moment of the current of our lives.
Just surrendering to the flux and flow of our experience right now.
I would love to live like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.
Thank you.
