So with that,
Let's practice together.
You can find yourself a comfortable position.
And in these meditations,
I'll always start with some form of.
Breath work,
But I also always start with the bowel.
Many of you know.
My loves for the bow.
Waking up the bowel by just gentle tapping it.
And then a big long ringing of the bell.
And when I ring the bell,
That's the signal for you to take a breath.
And get into your body.
You can go ahead and close your eyes,
You can lie down.
Can have a seated position.
We begin anew.
You you and stay home everyone.
So we're going to begin with some slow.
Long breaths.
And with these breaths,
What I want you to focus on is the breathing out and the ending of the breath.
So sending the breath all the way down through your body,
All the way down into the center of the earth.
So breathing in.
And then breathing out all the way through.
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down,
Down to emptiness.
The ending.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
Allow that breath to move through your whole body taking with it any tension.
Or holding,
Shooting it down,
Down,
Down to the center of the earth.
Another breath.
And a complete exhale.
And then you can begin to slow your breath down and let it become.
And natural.
Rising and falling of the breath.
Bringing your attention just to the ending.
That end point.
Have a pause.
When the breath ends.
That space.
Before it begins again.
And letting your mind and body and whole being linger a little bit longer in that space of the end.
Relaxing into it.
Letting the breath naturally come back in when it's ready.
So there's no forcing at the end.
There's a letting go into it.
And then opening for the next breath to come.
And so you may begin to notice as you focus on the ending of the breath.
There is no end,
Right?
There's a circle.
Of the beginning of the next breath.
But the practice here is to slow it down enough.
So that you can touch the bottom of the pool.
Touch the bottom of the pool and feel the end.
And allow for the natural lifting and rising that comes from the end.
And then we can extend our awareness.
We've been paying attention to the end of the breath.
Extend our awareness to the transition from the down to the end.
To the beginning.
Pay attention to that,
Really.
Beautiful flow of transition.
At the bottom of your breath.
And then we can extend our awareness to The end.
The beginning and then the opening.
That comes from the inhale.
And the free fall.
That comes from the exhale.
The ending,
Beginning.
Middle,
Ending.
Follow it all the way through this beautiful cycle.
It's naturally happening in your body.
And just as we were paying attention to the end of the graph.
As you breathe in,
You can pay attention to the pause of the breath.
The turnaround at the top as well.
There's a letting go of the inhale to allow for the exhale.
And there's an ending of the exhale.
To allow for the inhale.
Just get super curious about this experience in your body.
So the practice is to be with.
Each and every day.
Or moment in that flow.
To enjoy the inhale.
To be with the transition.
To allow for the exhale.
To be in the end.
And to begin anew.
And then at some point along the way in our practice,
We can move from this very concentrated experience.
Of following the breath.
To letting the breath.
Just do this thing.
Letting life just do its thing.
Beginning,
Middle,
And And we can expand our awareness so we can feel our body Breathing in this way or being breathed.
And we can expand our awareness to a bigger awareness.
That's holding.
This beginning.
Middle.
An end for you.
It's an awareness of,
Yes,
Your whole body,
But.
Also,
The space around your body.
Nature.
Air,
Community.
This living,
Breathing planet is holding.
Each breath.
Each beginning,
Middle,
And end.
And the quality of.
This bigger expansive awareness is this quality of.
So be it.
And so it is.
So expand your awareness now to that larger expansive luminous.
Spacious.
That holds whatever is ending for you or beginning for you.
In the action crisis.
So be it.
And so it is.
This is the internal mantra.
And then maybe with these last few breaths,
You bring to mind something that is coming to an end for you.
And you take a breath with it.
So be it.
And so it is.
As Francis Weller writes.
The work of the vessel.
Is both to contain and to further the material.
Only what is held can flower.
Only what is contained.
Can become something more.
Than how it began.
It is here in the flux of loss and sorrow.
That soul is deepened.
Here in the Valley of Grief.
Is where the character of soul is.
And with that,
I'll close our meditation as I always do.
With three bells and three bows.
So the first bow.
Is to yourself for showing up,
Coming into this space.
And the next bow is to the teachers and teachings that are helping you with whatever ending.
You're working through right now.
And the last bow is to our community,
To our sangha,
One large sangha body of community.
Thank you for your support.
And three bows.
You
