Welcome.
We can think of meditation as a process,
A series of steps,
Something of an algorithm.
I encourage that when I ask my students to create their own opening and closing rituals around meditation.
They create a ritual to set the stage to meditate.
Maybe they listen to a short piece of music or set up their room in a particular way.
Maybe something around breath or looking at a burning candle.
Maybe they hold something they love to smell or stroke something soft.
Anything like this can give you an entry point into meditation.
Guided meditations like the ones we do together tend to have a lot of structure.
I don't just say hello and sit quietly for 18 minutes and then come back and tell you it's over.
Some meditations you might do on your own like body scans can also be very structured.
Maybe you prefer a lot of structure.
Maybe you fear formlessness.
Maybe you,
Like Hamlet,
Fear what thoughts might come without a structure to guide you.
Today I offer you the opportunity to explore freely without structure.
To be free.
To revel in freedom.
We are hemmed in in so many places in our lives.
Obligations.
Commitments.
Can meditation be a space for you without those responsibilities?
Might you allow yourself total freedom from care?
It's only 20 minutes.
Everything will wait for 20 minutes.
I'll give you some suggestions,
Some notions,
Directions you might follow.
You can also completely ignore me and I encourage that.
Think of me as chewing gum for your ears.
A warm presence in the corner who will make sure you finish your meditation in time to get to whatever else you need to get to today.
I'm happy to be your meditation timer.
If you find yourself following some suggestion I make,
Try to be aware of the point when that suggestion no longer serves you and be willing to move on.
Be willing to listen to what's inside you and take what is on offer.
Don't force yourself to stick with anything.
You can be the Teflon meditator.
Might you allow your meditation to be about freedom?
Perhaps to revel in the ways in which you feel free,
With what your freedom enables you to do.
Perhaps that means just allowing yourself to go with whatever flow presents itself today.
If you need more of a starter,
Try this from the Radian Sutras.
Set your mind free to wander anywhere it wants.
Think any thought.
Ride any wave.
Surge in any direction.
The instant a thought springs up abandon it and move on.
Don't let the mind rest anywhere.
In this way,
Gain entry to the bliss of the silent depths beneath the surf.
Pick up your staff and your eye patch and be a Wagnerian wanderer.
Grab your inner surfer and ride any wave.
Slide down the face of thoughts.
Don't let your mind rest anywhere.
When a thought appears,
You might imagine it written on a poster board.
Then you might imagine tossing that board to the ground and moving on.
Gain entry to the bliss.
Or you might find silent depths.
You might slide under the surf of thoughts.
You might imagine the way that sound stops when your head sinks below the surface of water.
The only sound left that of water filling your ears.
You might imagine how the color of light changes when you sink beneath water.
In this way,
Gain entry to the bliss.
Maybe you'll try some Kris Kristofferson.
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
Nothing.
It ain't nothing,
Honey,
If it ain't free.
If you are free of entanglements,
Of obligations,
Of responsibilities,
Money and possessions,
Jobs and houses,
Of all the things our society tells us make us free,
But which in reality tie us down,
What if they were all gone,
If you had nothing left to lose?
Is that freedom too terrifying to contemplate?
You you you maybe you'd like a little mantra a little Sanskrit in the night to guide you along how about yatra yatra manas yati yatra yatra manas yati wherever wherever your mind goes you might repeat this mantra to yourself perhaps again and again moving from thought to thought without tearing yatra yatra manas yati wherever wherever your mind goes in this way gain entry to the bliss of the silent depths beneath the surface you you you maybe a few lines from Harry Nielsen I'm going where the Sun keeps shining through the pouring rain going where the weather suits my clothes banking off of the Northeast winds sailing on a summer breeze and skipping over the ocean like a stone let your stone be free to skip across the waves lightly touching and moving on in this way gain entry to the bliss you you you it's okay to get distracted it's okay to ride the whirlwind of your mind it's okay to flit to fly to slide to glide to skip over the waves like a stone maybe distraction is your mantra distracted from distraction by distraction as TS Eliot put it in this way gain entry to the bliss you you you you you we might return to the radiant sutras for a brief moment for a cycle of thought I have been listening to the love songs of form longing for formlessness let go of form of shape of needing to be in a particular way welcome form listeners shapelessness being the way you are welcome bliss I have been listening to the love songs of form longing for formlessness you you you under the waves are floating in the vast arena of space you are free nothing to lose freedom to choose freedom to determine your own path to let your path choose you an inward journey to freedom is always waiting for you always available to you take that step that plunge whenever you need into terrifying freedom you're free to stay here or to begin a slow journey back to your space your room let freedom live in your heart that vast internal arena gift of space space for you to play to explore to experience when you're ready open yourself back to our shared world sounds and colors tastes and smells perhaps an obligation awaits welcome back
