Hey there.
It's settling for our time today.
And your eyes can be open or closed.
If you decide to close them,
You can gently do so now.
Feeling into the eyes and the muscles behind the eyes and you can allow them to soften.
Feel into the jaw and the mouth.
Notice if it's tight or flexed at all.
And you can allow it to relax.
Into the nose and the forehead and the scalp.
Feeling down into your neck and your shoulders.
Notice if there's any tension there,
Any holding on in your shoulders.
And you can allow them to relax down a bit.
And embody your own awake and receptive posture.
Like a flower inching toward the sun.
And as you feel yourself in this grounded,
Awake,
Energized,
And relaxed position,
Let's turn our attention to the breath.
And take a few intentional deep breaths on the exhale,
Letting it go completely.
And then just waiting for the inhale to come back in naturally on its own.
And now just settle into the natural rhythm of the breath,
However it is.
There's a term I really like for describing the act of meditation,
And generally the act of becoming self-aware,
Of becoming aware of this moment.
And the term is zeroing.
And I use this term in a couple different ways.
The first,
So if you've ever used a digital scale to weigh something,
If you're cooking or whatever the case may be,
You first place a container on the scale to hold whatever it is that you're weighing.
Now in order to get the accurate weight of the ingredient that you're measuring,
You need to account for the weight of the container on the scale first.
Otherwise the number that you would get would include both the ingredient and the container.
So you place the container on the scale,
And then you press zero.
Sometimes it might be called tare,
But let's just call it zero.
You press zero and then the scale accounts for the weight of the container.
It returns to zero and is ready to weigh the ingredient just as it is.
For example,
I enjoy coffee in the morning,
And I like to be really precise with my measurement of the bean to water ratio.
I like it right at 1 to 15 to be exact for my French press.
So I place a little bowl on the scale,
Then I press zero,
And then I pour in the beans,
Same process for the water,
And this way I get an accurate measurement and a very tasty cup of coffee.
This to me is a lot like what we're doing in meditation.
We're zeroing the scale.
We're noticing all of the weight that already exists.
We are turning inward and looking at it and accounting for it.
We're pressing zero again and again so we can turn back outward and be receptive to what's happening right now.
Open to all the world has to offer us in this moment,
Not clouded by our existing assumptions and biases.
And an important note here,
There is no need to judge yourself for having lots of weight on the scale.
I believe this is inevitable in the development of a human being,
But the cool thing is that you're seeing it.
There will likely always be some weight on the scale,
But just keep noticing it,
No judgment.
Just notice the pair of glasses you're wearing and keep wiping them off,
To simply see.
Now let's shift and send all of our awareness into our hands.
All of the sensation of the hands and the fingers and the fingertips.
And now feel into the connection between your hands and your forearms.
And feel into your arms as a whole.
Feel the connection between your arms and your chest and stomach,
Your torso.
Feel your whole upper body.
Include your head and neck in this feeling.
Feeling all of the upper body as one.
Now feel down into your lower body,
Into your thighs and your quadriceps,
Into your knees,
Into your shins and your calves,
And down into your feet.
Feel all of the sensation of the feet,
Tingling,
Pressure,
Temperature,
The toes,
The feet as a whole.
Now connect all of these pieces together and feel your whole body as one floating ball of energy.
And now feel into your skin and feel into the connection between your skin and the space surrounding you.
Feel the swirling ball of energy mingling with the energy of the room and beyond the room.
Feel the connection between you and all of space.
And you can take a few more intentional deep breaths,
Letting go completely on the exhale.
And if your eyes were closed,
You can gently open them now and take in all of this newness that comes rushing in.
And before we finish today,
Let me just tell you about the other way I think of this term zeroing.
If you could imagine that we start out at a sort of zero baseline existence in the beginning,
And then as we grow,
It's as if we move further and further away from this baseline zero experience.
And I have a sense that this zero is the same,
The exact same in everyone and everything.
This is my understanding of what it means for us all to be connected,
That we are no different from each other and from the universe that there is inside of us deep down the same basic zero of existence.
And this practice in meditation is like dropping back down towards zero.
And the closer we get to that zero experience,
The more possibility is available to us.
And the more we might be able to feel directly into that connection with everything.
My guess is this might be the experience some call God,
This basic zero.
I don't know.
Which reminds me of the quote from Ram Dass,
The quieter you become,
The more you can hear.
Take this zeroing idea,
Both the scale and the dropping down,
And apply it to as many situations as you can.
Relationships,
Work,
Your everyday environment.
Keep zeroing throughout the day to see what is new as truly new.
Have a good day.
