As you establish the foundations of your meditation practice,
It is a good idea to have some routines of arrival.
This short practice will give you some experience arriving in your thoughts as you prepare to meditate.
Notice first your body.
Is it relaxed and settled?
And allow your breath to become soft and deep and calm.
As your breath softens and deepens,
You will find that your nervous system relaxes and releases.
Arrive now in your thoughts.
Notice your thoughts.
Stand outside your own thoughts and be the observer of your thoughts.
You will notice that thoughts seem to simply arrive.
They come from nowhere because that is simply what thoughts do.
But notice that if you do not follow your thoughts,
They simply settle and fade away again.
As thoughts arise,
You do not even have to think them.
You do not have to believe them.
You can simply allow them to settle or fade away.
It is very useful as you establish a meditation practice to use a metaphor that suits you when noticing your thoughts.
You could notice that thoughts arise as if from the floor of a pond and that if you don't think them,
They simply settle again like a leaf sinking down to the bottom of the pond.
And as you watch your thoughts slow and bit by bit,
The water of the pond becomes clearer and clearer as your thoughts settle to the bottom of the pond.
Thoughts will arise from the bottom of the pond,
But you can simply allow them to settle.
You might enjoy the metaphor of thoughts like clouds passing across the sky.
The clear blue sky is always there,
But thoughts are simply like little clouds that form in the sky.
And if you pay them no mind,
They will simply evaporate,
Disappear,
Fade away.
You might enjoy the metaphor of thoughts washing up with the waves onto the beach like flotsam and jetsam.
They arrive with the wave and if we don't pick it up and examine it and think that thought,
It simply washes away back out to sea.
Spend a few moments now watching your thoughts and using a metaphor of your thoughts to help you imagine that you are able to stand outside your thoughts and simply observe them.
You don't have to believe them,
You don't have to follow them.
You will notice that some thoughts arise that are very demanding and they want to convince you that you must think them now.
You can just say thank you and let that thought settle.
Very often in meditation we focus on our thoughts in this way as a way of standing outside them and observing our thoughts and coming to understand that thoughts are just thoughts.
