Accepting Life

In this meditation, we pay attention to sounds, thoughts, and feelings in the body, and see if we can accept them as they are. If we can accept what's happening in this moment, then we are accepting life.

Transcript

Settling into your posture and taking some deeper breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth in through the nose and out through the mouth feeling how your body expands as you breathe in and feeling how it softens as you breathe out on the next out breath, Closing your eyes if you haven't done already feeling the weight of the body sinking down into the chair into the floor cleave to hold together and to split apart at one and the same time it's like the shock of being born breathing in this world while lamenting for the one we've left no one needs to tell us that we are already on our way no one has to remind us of our everyday and intimate embrace with disappearance we were born saying goodbye to what we love we were born in a beautiful reluctance to be here not quite ready to breathe in this new world we are here and we are not we are present while still not wanting to admit we have arrived not quite arrived in our own minds and yet always arriving in the body always growing older while trying to grow younger always in the act of catching up, Of saying hello, Of saying goodbye finding strangely in each new and imagined future the still present memory of our previous precious life noticing sounds sounds that seem to be coming from outside the room sounds from inside the room sounds from outside the room sounds that the body is making so so noticing if there's any space in between the sounds so noticing if there's any resistance or judgment towards the sounds or if you're just accepting and allowing the sounds to be as they are so so and now turning the attention to thoughts so noticing how just like sound thoughts are arising and passing away moment by moment without you needing to do anything they're just happening so just like the sounds you can either resist them wish they weren't there be annoyed about them or accept them without judgment and those two attitudes feel very different so if you can notice how it feels to be completely accepting of whatever thoughts are happening or not happening so noticing if there's any space between the thoughts or if it's a continuous flow so so paying a bit more attention to the body now focusing on the forehead noticing any sensations at all in the forehead is there smoothness can you feel the shape of the forehead is there pressure so feeling any sensations you can sense in the eyes if you're tired or awake can you feel the shape of the eyebrows feeling the sensations of air traveling in and out through the nostrils so so feeling the lips the teeth the tongue and the jaw so moving down to the neck and the shoulders so what is it possible to feel in the neck and the shoulders in this moment and is it possible to meet that experience with acceptance so feeling the arms and their hands so so so feeling the chest area so so so feeling the belly rising with the in-breath and falling with the out-breath so so feeling the back area scanning down from the shoulders the middle of the back base of the back noticing any sensations at all contact with clothing tension sensations of spine feeling the buttocks the hips the groin so feeling the upper legs so feeling the knees and the backs of the knees so the calf muscles and the shins feeling the feet and the toes so expanding the awareness back up to include the lower legs the upper legs the torso the arms the hands the neck the head including the whole body in your attention and asking yourself is there anything in this moment in my experience that i can't accept any thought sound feeling sensation what can i be okay with everything in this moment right now what does it feel like to say yes to this experience rather than try to push it away yes to this moment yes to this life cleave hold together and split apart at one and the same time like the shock of being born breathing in this world while lamenting for the one we've left no one needs to tell us we are already on our onward way no one has to remind us of our everyday and intimate embrace with this appearance we were born saying goodbye to what we love we were born in a beautiful reluctance to be here not quite ready to breathe in this new world we are here and we are not we are present while still not wanting to admit we have arrived not quite arrived in our minds yet always arriving in the body always growing older while trying to grow younger always in the act of catching up saying hello or saying goodbye finding strangely in each new and imagined future the still-lived memory of our previous precious life Bringing the attention back to the contact with the chair and the floor. Using sounds. When you're ready, Slowly opening the eyes.

Reviews

Beautiful meditation and poignant poem. Thank you, Andy.

Thank you. It is beautiful.