Let's start with taking a relaxed and easy posture however you feel most comfortable.
And if you're able to,
Gently close your eyes.
As you sit quietly,
Reflect for a moment on the benefit of a mind that has balance and equanimity.
Acknowledge what a great gift it would be to bring a peaceful heart into your own life and into the world around you.
Let yourself feel this inner sense of balance and ease.
See if you can invite the quality of a peaceful and a balanced heart to be here with you.
Let it fill your body and mind.
And now with each breath,
Let your body and mind become calmer.
Invite a great sense of peace to fill you as you gently repeat the simple phrases that follow with each breath.
Breathing in and out,
I calm my body.
Breathing in and out,
I calm my mind.
May I be balanced.
May I be at peace.
With each breath gently breathing in and out,
I calm my body.
Breathing in and out,
I quiet my mind.
May I be balanced and at peace.
Take your time with these phrases.
Shiviti combines an understanding mind together with a compassionate heart.
When you start to feel quiet in your body and mind,
See if you can broaden the sense of calm into a spacious equanimity.
Acknowledge that all created things arise and pass away,
Joys and sorrows,
Pleasant and painful events.
Let yourself rest in stillness,
A calm and steady witness to this great dance of life.
Now as you continue to breathe gently,
Let these phrases of equanimity and peace nourish and inspire the true quality of stillness in the midst of all these changes.
May I learn to accept the arising and passing of all things with this attitude of Shiviti and balance.
May I be open and balanced and at peace in the midst of change.
May I accept things as they are.
This too is from God.
Let stillness enter every part of your being.
Let your body and mind open beyond any weariness or struggle,
Just resting at ease in this vast universe.
Take your time and continue to recite these phrases and invocations of peace and tranquility.
May I see the arising and passing of all with equanimity and balance.
May I be open and balanced and may my heart be at peace.
May we find balance and peace,
Compassion and equanimity amidst all things of this world.
May I accept things as they are.
This too is from God.
Patient God,
Teach me to be patient,
Unruffled by those who anger,
Tolerant of those who exasperate,
Accepting of those who disappoint,
Help me remain serene in the face of derision,
Calm in the face of provocation,
Composed in the midst of a storm.
And God,
Teach me to be patient with myself.
This too is from God.
