Let's begin with the bell.
Finding yourself wherever you were before this moment,
Settle into this moment.
Grow still amid the noise and chaos of a world that beckons to you,
Letting go of any worries you entered into this practice with,
Surrendering any fantasies about what you might do after this practice.
To use this moment as a time to increase awareness,
To dive into a deeper reality that can be of benefit at other times,
Slowing down,
But never stopping for all the days you live.
Becoming more quiet,
But never silent,
That is impossible.
Becoming more still,
But not unmoving,
As your body will shift and vibrate.
Little noises of machinery or animals come and go,
And even your internal processes move you and shift you,
And your brain fires neurons consciously and unconsciously.
Accept all of these perturbations as a piece of the gift of living and existing,
That's good.
Your breathing,
Congested or open,
Where do you find yourself?
And then you may increase your breathing by drawing air in deeper and exhaling slower.
Doing whatever you and your body need right now.
Meditation and life are not perfect things,
They're places to grow,
To become more satisfied,
More whole.
Don't punish yourself if you can't get there in a day or a lifetime.
Just letting yourself relax and sink as a gift to yourself.
Taking a break from using energy and exerting yourself,
Slowing down,
Becoming more still and quiet,
Heavy,
But also light.
You're lucky to do this,
That's good.
Draw your awareness to the outermost layer of your skin,
The extremity of self,
Where you meet the boundary of the external world,
Hot,
Cold,
Dry,
Soft.
You could understand it with words or just notice the feelings,
Or just imagine your outermost layer,
From your toes to the top of your head,
The container of you.
Feel as much of it as you can.
In the physical form,
Are there spiritual or emotional or psychological barriers you put between yourself and the world?
What do you do to keep self contained and other at bay?
Just notice.
The self is not body and spirit,
It's all one thing.
So what barriers do you hold up?
Anger,
Fear,
Retreat,
Sarcasm,
What do you use to separate?
Maybe it's just a simple and polite boundary,
Making your will known carefully.
Consider your boundary of self,
Embodied.
You don't have to change it,
But allow in as you are breathing and listening,
The possibility that there might be a different configuration that would suit you better moving forward.
The world loves you as you are,
And perhaps the world loves you too much for you to just stay that way.
Breathing into that possibility,
No pressure,
Just curiosity.
Your mind will get distracted,
Just come back.
That's totally normal,
It means your brain is functioning.
You wouldn't want it any other way,
And as you come back,
Let's go a little deeper to the core of self that is both physical,
Spiritual,
And emotional,
All of you at some weighted point inside.
At the pit of a fruit is the core of you,
Solid,
Hard,
Capable of giving life,
Creative,
Distinct,
Imagine,
Attend to your core with sensitivity and curiosity and a generous awareness.
Just there,
What might you sense in your solid core,
Ready to break open and give life?
What is germinating?
It probably doesn't have words,
But maybe just a sensation inside you and an element of eagerness,
Ready to go.
Breathe into that part of you.
At some point in this meditation,
You've probably gotten distracted,
That's healthy,
And you can come back to my voice,
Your body,
Your outermost and your inmost layers,
All those places are to the good,
And now you're breathing and considering the entirety of yourself unbounded with no particular center,
But expanding everywhere,
Unlimited,
Without clear distinction between body and spirit,
Self and other,
What can you give away entirely?
Feel yourself expanding as you breathe.
Become whole and wholly a part of the universe entire,
Breathe into all of it,
Sense as much of it as you can,
Letting go,
Giving away fully,
In past your boundaries all the way to your core and exhaling all of it away,
Letting yourself disperse and be gathered by a loving universe.
