Breathe slowly,
Breathe deeply.
Breathe slowly,
Breathe deeply.
When we follow our breath and give our attention just to breathing,
Our minds,
Because they can only be focused on one thing at a time,
Become still,
Become quiet.
Breathe slowly,
Breathe deeply.
Good,
Good.
As we now rest in this very calm,
Very peaceful place,
Let's imagine that we're outdoors and we're lying down looking up at the sky,
The vast,
Infinite sky.
And yes there are clouds,
But it's a beautiful day and the sky is so vast,
So infinite.
But as we're relaxing,
We remember,
We remember that we're actually not lying on the ground.
We're actually up in the sky and not only are we in the sky,
We are the sky,
The infinite,
Beautiful sky.
So peaceful,
So ever-present,
So everlasting.
Let's just rest now in being the sky.
We are the sky.
And now as we remember who we are,
It's much like when our minds are still,
They're like the sky.
There's no ripples,
There's no change,
There's just beauty and peace.
When our minds are still and quiet,
We are like the beautiful,
Infinite sky.
Be that,
Be that.
But what happens is clouds come by,
Sometimes small ones,
Sometimes big ones.
And clouds are like thoughts,
Thoughts that block the beauty of a silent,
Present awareness,
That block the beauty of the infinite sky.
Sometimes the clouds are very white,
Very light,
Like our thoughts.
They may have levity to them,
Gentleness to them,
And really don't have much distraction for us.
But sometimes when there's pain,
The clouds manifest and are very dark,
Very ominous.
And what we do is,
Instead of remembering that we're the beautiful,
Infinite sky,
We get lost in thinking where that dark,
Ominous cloud,
Our thoughts,
Our mental suffering,
Keeps us from being present and just loving being us.
We get lost in the mental suffering.
But there's something we can do to help us remember who we are and not suffer as long when the dark clouds come.
Because part of being human is sometimes there is pain and with that pain those dark clouds come.
But what we can do is,
We can remember who we are.
We aren't the mental suffering.
We aren't those dark,
Ominous clouds.
And the mere fact of not identifying with our thoughts,
Of not identifying with these clouds,
Is that we go back and remember who we are.
The silent,
Peaceful mind,
The infinite,
Beautiful sky.
So now that we have these tools,
What we'll find is the suffering,
The dark clouds won't stay as long.
What now will happen is,
When those dark clouds come,
Instead of identifying with those mental sufferings,
Instead we'll watch them,
We'll witness them,
And the mere fact,
The mere act of not identifying with them,
Not fighting them,
Not identifying with them,
Just watching them,
And also realizing who we really are,
Helps the clouds to go away.
Even the dark,
Big clouds blow away and we go back to pure beingness,
Silent awareness.
Our true selves,
Our false selves,
Our mental sufferings,
Blow away.
We just watch them.
We don't identify with them and they blow away.
And with time,
As we practice identifying with our quiescent minds,
Our beautiful,
Infinite sky,
Each time we do this,
The clouds,
The mental sufferings,
Don't stay as long.
They just blow by.
It's almost as if the wind helps push them along,
So that we can go back to being peaceful,
To being present.
And though they come and they go,
We realize that they will go.
And even when they're dark and ominous,
We still are the blue,
Infinite sky.
We still are silent awareness.
We still are.
And in this pure beingness,
We rest.
We rest.
