Meditating On A Rose: Bedtime Story

In this mesmerizing bedtime story, a woman meditates in a garden, fixating on a rose. Time seems to stand still for her, while the world rushes by. Ancient writing appears in her mind, which she intuitively understands.

As the script fades, she finds herself in a desert near pyramids, with a VW Camper Van behind her. She drives to the pyramids, explores one, and discovers a hidden underground world resembling a normal forest, complete with a river and lake. By the lake, she meets someone who reveals they're not on Earth. Touching hands, she sees the planet from space, realizing she's in another world.

She returns to the lake, immerses herself underwater, listens to the sounds, and retrieves something from a box at the lake's bottom. The woman then makes her way back to the pyramid, through the desert, and returns to the garden, once again gazing at the rose.

Transcript

So as you rest there and begin to slowly drift off asleep,

You can listen along to me talking in the background.

And I don't know whether you'll drift asleep faster to the sounds of my words or whether you'll drift comfortably asleep to the spaces between my words.

And as you begin to drift comfortably asleep,

So I'm just going to tell you a story.

A story about a woman sitting down under a tree in her English country garden.

And she's sitting down under the tree,

Beginning to meditate and drift inside her mind.

And in front of her she focuses on a rose,

On a rose that's just beginning to form.

And she allows her attention to settle on that rose,

To settle just on the bud of that rose.

And she relaxes there under the tree,

Legs crossed,

Breathing in and breathing out.

Deeply breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing all the way from her stomach.

Breathing in comfort and relaxation.

Breathing that all the way in through her throat,

Into her chest,

All the way deep down into her stomach.

Breathing out any stress or tension as her attention focuses more on that rose.

Breathing in and breathing out.

And while she focuses on that rose,

Breathing in and breathing out in that relaxing way,

So her attention narrows.

And she's aware of the sounds of country birds in the background.

She's aware of the colour of the sky.

The look of the clouds as they pass overhead.

The sun.

The movement of grass,

Of leaves,

Of plants.

The rustling of the leaves of the tree above her head.

The way the rustling moving leaves and branches make shards of light dance all around her,

As the sun shines through those leaves.

Aware of the smells in the garden.

The sight of insects,

Of bees flying into flowers.

All following their routines as she gazes at that rose.

And just allows her attention to settle on that rose.

And everything else begins to fade into the background.

A little bit like she's getting tunnel vision.

Like all of her attention is on that rose.

And as all of her attention falls onto that rose,

So time begins to change.

It's as if time for her stands still,

While time around her ticks by.

And everything around her appears like it's speeding up.

Like she is the anchor point.

Like she is the stationary,

Timeless part of the experience.

Observing time passing around her.

She sees the stalk of the rose slowly extending.

She sees that bud of the rose gradually growing,

Getting larger and larger.

She sees night become day and day become night.

The sun pass across the sky.

The stars and the moon pass across the sky.

And as she watches that rose,

She notices the petals growing larger and larger,

Before they begin to open up beautifully,

Symmetrically.

And in her mind,

She has a sense of what it would be like to touch a petal gently between her thumb and forefinger.

That smooth and waxy feel of a rose petal.

She allows her attention to fall so much on the rose,

She focuses just on the smell given off by that single rose,

As the particles from that rose reach her nose.

And she allows that to absorb her attention even deeper into this meditative state.

And as she continues to drift and dream and meditate in this way,

And watch the world go by out of her peripheral vision,

While she just connects with that rose.

So she begins to drift inside her mind.

She begins to see some unusual writing scrolling down her vision.

Like in her mind's eye,

She's starting to see writing.

And it's writing that looks like it's in some ancient language,

Just scrolling past her vision and surrounding her,

Almost like it's overlaying the reality that she's in.

As she drifts even deeper into this meditation,

And while she drifts even deeper into this meditation,

So the writing becomes clearer.

And she has an intuitive sense of understanding that writing,

Even though she consciously feels like she's never seen it before.

And her focus leaves the rose and begins to transfer to the writing,

As the garden begins to fade away.

And she begins to just see the writing falling down around her,

Scrolling down around her.

And she watches as that writing scrolls.

And she feels a sense of peace,

Of calm,

Of connection to inner wisdom to something greater than herself.

Like somehow this writing is a sign of a connection to some universal wisdom,

Perhaps a universal library.

And she watches as that writing continues to fall around her.

And then after a while,

The last of the writing falls down past her.

And it's almost like when a curtain drops to the ground,

That as the last of the writing passes her eyes,

She's gazing out over an environment she's never seen before.

She's gazing out over a desert.

She can see pyramids in the distance,

A striking blue sky,

Golden sand,

Feeling the warmth of the sun.

And as she looks around,

She sees behind her a Volkswagen camper van.

And she goes to that van,

Slides open the side door and climbs in.

And that van has a certain smell to it,

A certain authenticity,

A certain feel.

And she climbs through to the front seat,

Places her hands on the steering wheel,

And is aware of the size of this steering wheel and how much larger it is to other steering wheels of other vehicles that she's been in.

And she pulls the handle out and pushes it back in and starts the van and can feel the van vibrating as the engine starts.

Can smell the smell of the fumes from the engine starting.

And she starts driving across the desert,

Following a dusty road that's barely a road at all.

And she follows that heading towards the pyramids.

And she's unsure where she is,

What she's searching for.

All she knows is that she's trusting herself to find her way.

Through this uncertainty,

Through this experience,

She's aware that in reality,

She's probably still sat under that tree,

Gazing at that rose.

But that her mind has wandered and drifted and dreamed inside deeper and deeper to someplace so deep.

It makes this feel real to her,

Giving her some insight.

Some experience.

And she can feel the breeze coming in the windows as she drives that VW van towards those pyramids.

And she's surprised as she gets closer and closer to those pyramids,

How large they really are.

And as she arrives at the foot of the pyramids,

They're pyramids unlike any she's seen before.

They look like typical pyramids,

But there's something different about them,

About their shape,

Their size,

And the entrance into the one she's in front of.

And she takes a torch and she enters that pyramid and begins to explore.

And as she walks to the pyramid and into the pyramid,

So her footsteps change from the sound of soft sand beneath her feet to the sound of echoing stone.

As the light reflects around the walls of the chamber,

Around the walls of the corridor that she's entering.

As she walks deeper and deeper into the pyramid,

And she notices how the temperature changes,

How inside the pyramid is cooler than it was outside the pyramid.

And she continues to walk deeper and deeper into the chamber.

And the deeper she walks,

The more it seems to open up to the point where her torch can't see across to the other side,

Or to either side,

Or above her.

And she's aware of the size of the chamber,

By the way the echo reflects off the walls,

And seems to have a slight delay back to her ears with each step she takes.

And when she eventually reaches the far side of this chamber,

So she finds a solid stone wall,

And she runs her hand along the wall and walks from one side to the other.

And as she walks,

So she discovers one area where there's a slight change in stone.

And she decided there's probably a hidden door here.

And she searches for a way to open the door.

She feels around the walls,

She shines the torch on the floor,

She shines the torch around the walls,

Until eventually she notices another stone that's ever so slightly out set from all the stones in the wall.

And she walks to that stone,

Pushes on that stone,

Pushing the stone in line with the others.

And the rumbling sound of stone reveals a door opening up.

She walks through that door,

Down a staircase,

And finds herself faced with a view she never thought she would see in the middle of a desert.

A vast forest,

The sound of running water,

Of a waterfall,

Of a fast flowing stream or river,

And the sight of a distant lake.

And down here,

Under this pyramid,

Somehow suddenly she's faced with a world that's lit up as if it's daylight.

And she walks down into that forest,

From stone to earth,

Noticing the smells of the forest,

The sounds of the forest.

Walking through that forest,

And she finds her way to the river,

Walks along that river,

Following it down towards the lake.

And while she walks along towards the lake,

She can smell the smell of the water.

She can notice what look like fish swimming in the water.

She can hear sounds of birds.

Everything sounds familiar,

But not like anything she's heard before.

And she follows that river all the way to the lake.

And as she's approaching the lake,

So she sees in the distance,

The shadow of somebody sat on a post with their back to her,

Gazing out over that lake.

And she's unsure who it could be,

How long they've sat there,

And how they could be there,

When she's only just arrived here.

And she walks all the way to them.

And as she approaches,

She feels that they're a friendly presence,

That they contain wisdom,

Knowledge.

And she walks over to them,

And they don't turn to look at her,

They just carry on gazing the way they are.

And she reaches them,

Walks round in front of them,

Looks at them,

And asks who they are,

And where we are.

And they say,

You're not where you think you are.

You're somewhere different.

You're here,

Not there.

And she's a little confused by this,

And wonders what it all means.

And they say,

You are here,

Not there.

You're not where you think you are.

You're here.

And they hold out a hand,

Turning their palm up.

They let their gaze drop to their hand.

And she feels this urge to reach out,

To place her hand in their hand.

And very slowly she reaches out,

And very slowly she rests her hand on their hand.

And as she does,

As soon as their hands connect,

So their minds connect also.

And it's like she's suddenly out in space,

Zooming out from that place,

Looking down on a world with earth-like features.

And she continues zooming out,

Further into space,

And she can see a star like the sun of this world.

And she can see other planets as she zooms further back out into space.

And at high speed she continues to zoom away from that planet.

Seeing the star,

The planets,

Moving far enough away to see the neighbourhood of stars that that star's in.

Zooming even further away,

And seeing a cluster of stars,

And zooming further away and further away.

Until the star she's zooming away from,

That she's still looking at,

Still has all her focus on.

It's just a pinprick in the sky,

Surrounded by millions of other pinpricks of light in the sky.

Until she begins to enter earth's atmosphere.

And finds herself arriving on earth at night time,

Gazing up into the night sky,

Still gazing at that star.

And recognising it as one of the stars in the seven sisters.

And recognising that she's landed at night time,

At the foot of the pyramid that she entered.

And recognising that all these other pyramids in this little area probably resembled that constellation in the sky.

And just as she had that realisation,

So she felt herself drawn back through space and time.

Back towards that place,

Back towards that planet,

Back to that forest,

Back to that person.

And suddenly with a slight in-breath,

She was aware of that person again as she raised her hand off of their hand.

And aware she was back where she was.

And realised she's here not there,

And understood what they meant.

And realised that somehow the ancients had created this portal,

This portal that was there.

That can transport people here,

To where this timeless being is,

Who offers wisdom,

Insight.

And they talk for a while as she gazes into his eyes.

And they talk for a while as she learns insights,

Wisdom,

Knowledge.

And they tell her that she can row out into the lake.

And they tell her that there's a box to be found in the lake.

A box that they've been guarding all this time,

Just waiting for someone to discover this place.

And as soon as she finds that box,

They'll be free to leave here.

And they've been waiting year after year.

This timeless being,

Watching over this box,

Waiting for the moment when someone arrives to get this box.

And she was told you can only find the box with relaxation and focus.

She was told she needed to lie back in the water.

She needed to listen and notice the way the sound travels underwater,

To pinpoint the location of the box.

That you need to have your ears underwater long enough to do that.

And so you can't just dive in and keep diving down,

Hunting.

You need patience and relaxation.

So she entered the water,

Lay on her back,

Rested her head back in that warm water.

With her ears just underwater,

Noticing how the sounds changed from her ears outside the water to her ears underwater.

And she could hear the sound of the waterfall up the river,

That subtle rumbling sound.

She could hear the sounds of some bubbles,

Some sounds from within her ears.

She could hear some sounds of some of the creatures in the lake.

She could hear her heart gently beating,

Rhythmically,

As she rests there.

And while she rested there,

So she began to listen to her heartbeat.

Listen to the way her heartbeat travelled from her body and bounced around the lake.

The really subtle reflection of the sound of her heartbeat underwater,

As she floated across the lake.

And almost like using her heartbeat and her ears as a sonar machine.

She lay very still,

Just floating,

Gently across the lake.

With her heartbeat relaxed,

Strong and rhythmically beating.

Using her meditative abilities to focus on such a subtle sound.

To begin to notice the difference in the way the sound arrives at the left and the right ears.

Just resting,

Motionless and floating.

Letting the water move her,

Rather than her moving through the water.

As she noticed a subtle anomaly in the reflection of the sound to her ears.

And knew she floated above the box.

And she turned herself over,

Put her head under the water and looked down towards the bottom.

And she couldn't quite see whether the box was down there.

She knew that she'd have to hold her breath a while.

And relax for this dive.

And so she took a few deep breaths.

Then held her breath and relaxed deeply as she dived down.

And time appeared to be going so slow.

As she dived down deeper and deeper.

All the way to the bottom as a box began to come into view.

And she could hear bubbles at her ears.

She could feel the water around her.

Hear sounds underwater.

Notice the way light weaves and waves and moves.

As she reached the box.

Opened the box.

And found what looked like a large gold coin in the box.

And she took the coin,

Swam back to the surface.

Felt that water run from her face as she broke through the surface.

Swam back to the shore.

And could see that wise being smiling at her.

And telling her she'd found what she was looking for.

Even though she didn't know that's what she was looking for.

And that it isn't about that gold coin.

It's about the discovery of the gold coin.

About how she discovered it.

And the gold coin is a representation that will remind her of that.

And as they said that.

They began to turn almost like to smoke.

Or fog just fading away to nothing.

As she then found her way back out of this forest.

All the way back to that pyramid and through the pyramid.

And in her own time found her way back to the camper van.

And drove back in the camper van to where she'd found that van.

Then exited the van taking the coin with her.

And sat down and began meditating.

Looking over towards those pyramids.

And every time her eyes blinked so.

She saw glimpses of the country garden.

Of the country garden.

And after a while she found herself just in the country garden.

Gazing at that rose.

That fully formed rose.

As it's visited by a bee.

Which then flies away.

And she looks down into her lap.

And sees that coin resting in her upturned hands.

And she holds the coin.

Stands up.

She's aware she's learned a deep lesson.

And just as she does so the sun has long set.

And she goes inside and that night settles down.

And drifts comfortably relaxed asleep.

Reviews

What a wonderful way to drift off gently , interested in the words.