Welcome to this brief introduction to meditation.
Many people from a Christian tradition are nervous about meditation.
I think it comes from an Eastern tradition,
To which I reply,
You forget.
Christianity is an Eastern religion.
It comes from the Middle East.
The riches of the meditation technology do not belong to a particular religion or place or time.
It's a timeless technology that gives us access to what's happening inside ourselves,
Simply by being quiet,
Paying attention,
And listening.
Finding out the truth of what's going on inside of us.
And Jesus taught us that the truth will set us free.
So let's go for a little trip inside and see what we find.
We settle into a nice comfortable posture,
In a straight chair or sitting on the floor,
If that works for you.
In a posture that you can maintain for the next seven minutes without having to shift or become terribly uncomfortable.
I'll begin with one bell and we'll conclude with three bells.
Take a deep breath in through the nose.
Breathe out slowly through your mouth to relax your nervous system.
To relax your nervous system.
We'll breathe in again as the bell rings and out through the mouth.
Settle into the space and simply listen to whatever is happening around us.
You may hear the tick of a clock.
I can hear children laughing out in the school playground outside my window.
There's no need for silence.
Wherever you are,
There's the sound of your breathing,
Your heartbeat,
Your digestion.
Sounds are part of our world and need not be rejected or pushed away.
Instead of ignoring them,
We can listen to them and let them be part of the experience.
To stay present and aware of what's happening,
It can be very useful to pay attention to your breathing,
Which your body does all by itself.
Don't try to change your breathing.
Don't try to alter the way you inhale or exhale,
But just pay attention to how your body wants to breathe.
The breath,
The air,
The spirit,
They are the gift we are given from God to keep us alive.
It may help to remember that inspire comes from a Latin word simply meaning to breathe in,
To inhale,
To be filled with the air,
The life,
The spirit.
The breath enters,
The breath leaves.
The next breath enters and leaves,
Like the breath of the wind.
In our culture,
We are so used to listening to our mind fill up the space with words and thoughts,
With plans and remembrances.
That's a habit.
We tend to talk to ourselves all the time,
Commenting on what we're seeing and hearing and who are we talking to.
It's kind of silly when you think about it.
What a lovely sunset.
Who am I telling that?
If I'm by myself,
Can we just experience what we're experiencing without inventing a comment?
Who says these things?
And who hears them?
Try to find a place from which you can watch that happen and not jump in and participate.
But just watch.
See what your mind is doing.
It's very interesting.
Thank you for sitting with me.
May your day be blessed.
May we learn more and more to pay attention to the many gifts we receive all the time and perhaps not take quite so much for granted.
Thank you.
