Go ahead and get yourself into a comfortable position.
And,
You know,
Lying down is a beautiful meditation position.
If you have back pain and you need to stand up against a wall,
Or if you'd like to sit on the ground,
I recommend you elevate your seat a little bit so that your knees are below your hips.
And I'll begin our meditation with three rings of the bell.
You Thank you.
Okay.
In this first part of the meditation,
I want you to practice with your eyes open.
Or if you're visually impaired,
You can use your finger along your hand.
And this is what we're going to practice.
With your eyes open,
Follow my breath just by watching my body breathe.
If you prefer to do this with your eyes closed or you're visually impaired,
Follow your breath by tracing your finger along your palm.
Lifting it after you inhale,
And then dropping it down again after you exhale.
So you can choose which one of these you want to do.
You can either do eyes open following me,
Or you can trace your finger along your palm.
Slowing your breath down to match mine.
And then if you choose,
Closing your eyes and placing your finger along your palm.
And try this practice,
Too,
Of breathing in as you trace your finger along your palm.
Lifting at the top and breathing out as you trace your finger along the fingertips.
Back to the beginning.
If you'd like,
You can extend it along your arm,
The forearm,
Breathing in along the forearm.
Lifting at the wrist and breathing out along the palm.
Taking one more round of breath,
This deep,
Slow breathing.
Hands come down.
Placing your palms up or your palms down on your lap.
And allow your breath to begin to settle at its own natural pace.
Relief.
So allowing your nervous system and your body to come into this moment.
You can find relief in this slow breath.
Relief in the exhale.
Or maybe you find relief in just listening to the sounds.
Sounds of nature.
Who's the lullaby of the earth?
Relief.
And maybe you can go into your inner world,
Your inner psychology here.
And if there's anything that's unsettled.
This clean pain of living.
You can go and find that clean pain.
Inside your body.
And maybe even just offer it a moment.
Just to be with it with relief.
As Rosemary.
Says.
That anxiousness that's nested in my chest,
Singing it a lullaby.
You're just creating space for whatever your inner experience is.
Underneath.
And the commitment here is to not get pulled off into the add-ons,
The dirty pain,
But to stay at this pure level of just living,
Breathing,
Feeling.
Sound,
Breath,
Body.
Space for your full experience.
Okay.
And then at this social level,
This bigger level,
You breathing here in this body alive.
With all of your inner experience.
Our breathing with many,
Many other people around the globe.
So just as we took those breaths together with our fingers to our arms or following my breath,
We're all together in this moment.
Receiving and offering relief.
Relief.
So can you feel that interconnection of many people?
Pausing together.
With many butterflies landing on flowers.
Relief.
And then can you expand that awareness to all the living beings on our planet?
The relief that we receive from the mountains.
May you experience relief.
Please offer that to our mountains.
The relief you experience from the birds.
May you experience relief.
Offering that to the birds.
Relief you experience from the sound of children.
May you experience relief.
You send that to all the children.
The relief you experience.
From your friends.
May you offer this to your friends.
May you experience relief.
The relief you experience when you remember and know that you aren't the only one who suffers.
May you offer that to all who suffer.
May you experience relief.
In closing with the poem,
Rosemary writes,
This small grey spider.
Descends from the ceiling and stops right in front of my face.
I cannot say I love it.
But I still myself to honor this bulbous and elegant being.
14 billion years in the making,
Who came from the same cosmological singularity out of which evolved acorns and red squirrels and comets and apples and my hand and you.
So hello,
I say,
As marvel stitches itself into fear.
I stare as we both dangle there.
On the thread of the moment.
Two characters in one big story arriving here together to meet whatever comes next.
You And we close with three bows.
The first bow we bow to ourselves,
To our true nature.
Thank you for showing up,
Committing to this practice.
The second bow is to our teachers and teachings today,
The birds and the mountains and all the teachers that are showing you the way to relief.
And then we bow to each other,
Our sangha,
This big global community that's just gonna grow,
Invite people,
Bring them in,
Welcome them to our practice together.
Many blessings to all of you out there.
I bow to you and thank you for bringing me some relief.
