Welcome.
Might you allow yourself to notice your next five inhales?
Can you accept that this little exercise of noticing is all that is required of you right now?
There is nothing else to do,
Nothing to be except you,
A breathing creature on the face of this rock we call the earth.
You might choose now to mark your next five exhales.
It's only five,
An enumeration of the fingers or toes of a single hand or foot,
The counting of a child.
And now perhaps a few cycles of breathing,
Inhaling and then exhaling,
A process we take for granted,
But one that can benefit us in so many ways other than the blessing of our life.
Let all of your senses inform you of the simple alchemy of your breath.
A rabbit drinks dew silently,
Looks up at the sky showing off its bright pink perfect.
Sounds of laughter come to you over a wall etching soft green grass.
Thuds and thumps of play arise.
A smell of bread baking.
Water and flour and yeast and salt mingle.
Heat is all that's needed.
The touch of wind on your arm,
Brushing tiny hairs into perfect waves.
Even nature wants you to look good.
Your eyes gather light and your brain processes it.
And you see a firefly moving around a tree in the gloaming.
First one flash and then another as the single firefly is joined by others and the tree becomes awash in tiny sparks of golden light.
Each impression of your senses comes to you as a whispered promise,
A quiet affirmation,
An assurance,
A covenant.
Each impression,
Each apprehension is a promise of something magical,
Something bewitching.
The whispered promise kindles a kind of skepticism in you.
Perhaps a doubt that something so imbued with magic might exist here and now and not in some far away land and so far away.
Even with your doubts you slowly realize that the whispered promise has already been fulfilled.
This world in which you live is infused with magic.
This is Sutra 110 from the Radiance Sutras.
The juggler with her spinning torches conjures dazzling wheels of fire.
The magician taps his wand and suddenly a net of jewels sparkles in the darkness.
What do we love in magic?
Each gesture is a kind of jest inviting us beyond itself into the deepest magic of all.
Stand at the center of this wonder and breathe the wild serene.
Do you see all the magic in your life?
Do you seek to explain it away to understand what happens behind the curtain?
It's a choice to demystify everything or to at least for a time stand at the center of wonder and breathe the wild serene.
What would happen if even once a day you chose to accept the whispered promise of magic?
Wheels of fire sparkling in the darkness.
Magic is all around you waiting to be noticed.
This is from Sutra 33.
This whole universe is a path of liberation.
A vast arena for your endless play.
Play.
Let your awareness be everywhere at once.
Planets,
Stars,
Swirling galaxies,
Subatomic moats,
All are dancing within you.
Enter the rhythm.
Descend into the space between beats.
Dissolve into intimacy.
An attitude of play draws us into recognition of the magic that surrounds us.
When we open ourselves to the possibility of play we open ourselves to magic.
Music playing,
The magic of color and smell,
Taste and touch.
Playful banter for which the exact right words come to us as if by magic.
Accept planets and stars,
Swirling galaxies and subatomic moats as magic.
Wonder at them in awe as if you had never heard of gravity,
Of quantum physics,
Of the fire of fusion.
Gravity won't go away if you ignore it for a while.
But the magic you could find in the phases of the moon might be lost.
And what a loss that would be.
The first quarter of a new moon,
Shaped like a D,
So not declining,
But waxing night after night,
And sometimes during the day,
Growing ever fuller,
Ever brighter,
Leading as if by magic to the luminous glowing face of a full moon.
This is Sutra 79.
Contemplate the entire universe as a magic show on the grandest scale imaginable.
Fabulous art,
An immense painting in motion,
A magician whirling galaxies of fire,
Juggling atoms,
Planets,
And us.
Everything,
Everything is fleeting.
Meditating on this magic,
Great happiness rises in the heart.
What do you do with the magic all around you?
Magic shared is the best magic.
Perhaps shared only through your senses with your heart.
That's always where it starts,
The glow of magic in your heart.
The glow grows brighter,
Spurred by whirling galaxies of fire,
Or the glowing tip of an insect.
It warms you from inside,
Breaking open neglected spaces,
And magic spreads through the glow in your eyes,
The warmth of your greeting,
A touch,
A word.
There is no end to where it might go.
Down the block,
Across the street,
Spreading from person to person,
Like the world's best contagion,
For that is what magic is.
This whole universe is a path of liberation,
A vast arena for your endless play.
Playing,
Let your awareness be everywhere at once.
Planets,
Stars,
Swirling galaxies,
Subatomic moats,
All are dancing within you.
Enter the rhythm,
Descend into the space between beats,
Dissolve into intimacy.
Conjury and ledger domain,
Prestidigitation and thaumaturgy,
A thirsty rabbit,
Laughter,
Smell of bread,
The touch of the wind,
The light of a firefly shining through the darkness,
Magic,
All magic.
The entire universe,
A magic show on the grandest scale imaginable,
A vast arena for your endless play.
There is magic around you all the time,
Waiting to be seen,
To be experienced,
Wanting you to come out to play.
Come,
Hear the music play.
Meditation is magic and you are the wizard.
Maybe your magic sense can return with you from this meditation,
That extra very special sense that enables you to see the magic all around you as you make your way back to this world.
Perhaps you will find some magic in the first thing you see.
Welcome back.
