Take a moment to observe your breathing without control,
Noticing the natural flow of air in and out of your body.
Let your back be as straight as it's comfortable for you without effort and notice your posture maybe feeling the points of contact where your body meets the surface.
Feel the presence within yourself,
The person within your clothes,
Within your skin,
Within your body.
Right down into the bones,
To see if you can locate that buzzing,
Vibrating,
Feeling presence within.
Today we'll meditate on the Jedi Code.
This is a set of five back sims which encapsulate the Jedi philosophy.
We'll take them one line at a time,
Consider each and then end with a meditation on the whole code.
The code has various forms but the one I'll be using today is as follows.
Emotion yet peace.
Ignorance yet knowledge.
Passion yet serenity.
Chaos yet harmony.
Death yet the force.
Remaining calm,
Still and at peace.
Let's consider together the first line of the code,
Keeping your attention on your breathing.
Emotion yet peace.
We experience emotion every day.
Think of a time recently where you felt a very strong emotion.
Perhaps this is a positive emotion like happiness.
But often the emotions which make the biggest mark on us and which come to mind are perhaps negative anger,
Grief or sadness.
Just let whatever comes,
Come and consider it for a moment.
Consider the situation which created the emotion.
Perhaps this was another person or perhaps it was an internal experience where you were looking at yourself and feeling an emotion.
Just sit with the emotion for a while,
Breathing and see if you can feel the emotion resonate in any part of your body as you breathe.
The emotion is an important part of the human experience.
Humans are emotional beings.
Without emotion we could not feel.
Compassion,
Humility,
Love.
These are parts of the rich emotional texture of our lives.
That an excess of emotion can bring us away from our center.
From the deep peace available to us all.
So make your next in-breath especially deep and hold for a while before another extended out-breath.
From this out-breath let the emotional experience out and continuing this pattern with each out-breath let the emotion go.
Letting it go.
And on an in-breath imagine breathing in peace,
Calmness,
Stillness,
Serenity.
Occupying that same space where the emotion was strongest.
Breathing in peace and breathing out the emotion.
And continue breathing out emotion and breathing in peace.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
Focusing again on your breath,
Allowing your attention to come back to my voice.
And relaxing into your posture,
We move on to line 2.
Ignorance,
Yet knowledge.
We're all ignorant of some things.
Think of a time recently when you've realized that you didn't know enough.
This can be a positive experience,
Where you had an opportunity to learn.
Or perhaps a negative experience,
Where you've made a mistake or felt foolish.
And when you have a recent event in mind,
Consider the knowledge you felt you needed,
But perhaps lacked.
Consider also your response to that feeling,
Whether you saw it as an opportunity,
Or whether you experienced it as more of a crisis.
And just sit with your realization of this ignorance for a while,
Breathing.
See what you feel inside when you consider this experience of ignorance as you breathe.
Ignorance is another fundamental truth of the human experience.
We simply can't know everything,
And that's okay.
Without ignorance we can't learn,
Grow,
Come to understanding or realization.
All of these things are brought about in part by ignorance.
Ignorance is a ladder to understanding,
And if we recognize this we can choose to climb it,
To find knowledge and to come to wisdom.
Taking a deep in breath,
And holding it slightly,
On the next out breath allow this experience of ignorance out.
And with each exhalation let this ignorance go.
Letting go of ignorance,
The feeling of ignorance,
The experience.
And on an in breath imagine breathing in knowledge.
This doesn't have to be any specific knowledge,
Just that feeling of knowing what to do.
Confidence and security.
Knowing how to proceed.
Intelligence,
Realization and wisdom.
Replacing the ignorance you became aware of.
And continue at your own pace,
Breathing out ignorance,
Breathing in knowledge.
And continue at your own pace.
And continue at your own pace.
And if your thoughts become distracted at any point,
Simply notice the distraction.
And return your attention to the sound of my voice,
Or to your breathing.
As we move on to line 3.
Passion yet serenity.
Everyone has passions.
And try and think of an issue you feel particularly passionate about,
Something which is close to your heart.
Perhaps it's a person,
A relationship,
Maybe a social cause,
An environmental,
Political or religious ideal.
Focus on the object of your passion,
The cause of the strong feelings that are stirred within you.
And just sit with this passion for a while,
Breathing.
And seeing if you can feel that passion stirring in your heart as you breathe.
Passion is an essential ingredient of our lives.
It motivates us and it guides us.
Without passion we couldn't make decisions,
Find inspiration,
Determination and dedication.
All of these are aspects of passion.
But passion can stop us from finding that deep well of calm we're all free to draw from at any moment.
So let your next in-breath be a deep one and on the out-breath slowly breathe out this passion.
And carry this on with each slow exhalation let your passion go.
Remember on the out-breath feel the passion but let it go.
And on an in-breath imagine breathing in serenity,
Perhaps this is patience,
Tranquility,
Peace.
Let it flood into your heart.
And just carry on breathing out passion and then breathing in serenity.
And on an out-breath let it flood into your heart.
.
Bringing your attention back to my voice now as we move on to line four.
Chaos gets harmony.
Chaos frequently surrounds us.
Life is busy,
Complex and can be very unpredictable.
Consider a recent event which caught you by surprise.
Again this may have been a positive,
Perhaps serendipitous event.
Or it may have been a difficult,
Accidental problem which you've had to deal with unexpectedly.
And rather than wishing you had had the knowledge to avoid this chaos,
Just let your mind rest on how it felt to be out of control of the situation,
Even just for a while.
Sit and breathe with this experience of chaos.
Just realising that the world is big and it is chaotic and it is complex.
Chaos often surrounds us.
We can never know enough to predict most things with absolute certainty.
However this chaos keeps things interesting.
Wonder,
Creation,
Even luck.
These experiences are aspects of the chaotic nature of reality.
Chaos can leave us feeling ungrounded as though the rug has been pulled from under us.
It can make us insecure.
We can forget that we are all part of one harmonious system and that everything is exactly as it must be in every moment.
So let's take a deep breath and on a slow out breath allow this feeling of chaos to go.
With every breath out we just let it leave.
And on the next in breath imagine breathing in harmony,
Unity,
Togetherness,
Oneness with all that is filling your awareness.
And just continue like this.
Breathing out chaos and breathing in harmony.
And on the next breath,
Imagine breathing in harmony.
Remaining calm,
Focused and still.
We move on to line 5,
The final line of the code.
Death yet the force.
Death is one of the few things we can predict with any certainty about life.
Whatever our beliefs we recognise that humans are mortal.
And death can affect our lives in other ways,
For example the death of loved ones or of pets or even acquaintances or celebrities can shake our experience of life.
Think of a time recently where you've experienced death.
This may have been a close,
Personal encounter of loss or grief or perhaps something more distant,
A death on the news or of someone you admired.
Take a moment to realise that death exists,
It's real,
It's part of life.
And also that it's okay to accept death,
To acknowledge it.
Just sit with this understanding of death for a while,
Breathing and remembering that you're safe here in this moment.
Death is a feature of life.
Appreciation of the time we have and the time we have with those around us provides some of the most profound experiences a human can have.
But focusing too narrowly on death ignores the fundamental aspects of the universe we live in.
Nothing is ever lost and those who die remain with us.
In our memories,
In the chemicals that compose their bodies,
In photographs,
Words,
Teachings,
Experiences,
Events and times past.
In the spirits or souls which make someone who they are and which make us,
Us.
Though our bodies pass on,
Our identities remain.
That persistence,
That which remains is one of the fundamental ways of understanding the force,
The fabric and pattern of our reality.
So take another deep in breath and on the next out breath allow this feeling for mortality out.
With each exhalation,
Every out breath,
Let death go.
And on an in breath imagine breathing in creation,
Existence,
The force that moves the planets,
The stars and the galaxy.
Recognize that you are one and the same as the universe you are part of.
An eternal grain of sand on the beach of reality.
And continue for a while,
Breathing out death and breathing in this force.
I'm sure by now you'll have noticed a pattern to our code.
Something we might not be comfortable with,
Followed by something we prefer.
Emotion yet peace,
Ignorance yet knowledge,
Passion yet serenity,
Chaos yet harmony,
Death yet the force.
You see the pattern,
Something we find difficult yet something we prefer.
We can choose to accept emotion,
Ignorance,
Passion,
Chaos,
Even death as important parts of life,
Of our experience.
Of what it means to be human,
To be real,
To be us.
But we can also choose to return to our centre,
To find peace,
Knowledge,
Serenity,
Harmony and the force.
In following the Jedi Code,
We choose to live a life consistent with these values.
Peace,
Knowledge,
Serenity,
Harmony and the force.
And when we meditate,
We recognise and practice our connection to these inequalities of stillness,
Reflection and calm.
We allow ourselves to become one with what is,
Rather than fighting our natural tendencies.
We all get overwhelmed from time to time,
But we can always come home to these core values.
Peace,
Knowledge,
Serenity,
Harmony and the force.
For the final part of our meditation today,
I'll give you some space to consider the code on your own.
Allow whatever thoughts or ideas come up just to come and then to go.
Let them rise and then fall like waves in an endless ocean.
And if you realise you've become distracted into other thoughts,
Just allow your attention to return to the code or to your breath.
To the endless silent presence at the core of your being.
Sitting comfortably and breathing as we begin.
Emotion yet peace.
Ignorance yet knowledge.
Passion yet serenity.
Chaos yet harmony.
Death yet the force.
Take a breath.
Take a deep breath.
Take a deep breath.
.
Just thinking about returning your attention to the rest of your day.
Thinking about opening your eyes,
Perhaps stretching your muscles,
Feeling refreshed,
Ready for what's coming now.
Thank you,
I hope you have a beautiful day and may the force be with you always.
.
