Let's begin by bringing attention to the body,
Making conscious choices about how you're sitting,
Placing your hands on your thighs or in your lap,
Sitting slightly more upright than normal,
Lengthening the spine,
Arching your back just slightly,
Sitting with some energy.
See if you can find a way to be both relaxed and alert at the same time.
And gently bringing attention to the breath.
See if you can notice a full cycle of breathing,
Each inhale,
Each exhale,
And the spaces in between.
Letting thinking mind do what thinking mind does.
Letting thoughts come,
Let them go.
Bringing your attention back to the body and to the breath.
And now see if you can drop in,
Asking yourself,
What's in my heart right now?
What am I feeling?
What are my deepest feelings?
What is it like to be alive right now?
Can you access your deep sense of care,
Concern,
And connection?
A complete lack of separation for those that you love,
Your family and friends,
Perhaps close coworkers.
Can you extend this sense of care and love outward to people and to all beings,
To all of life?
There's a beautiful poem by Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh called,
Please Call Me by My True Names.
It's a poem about unity,
Oneness,
Opening our hearts,
Even to those who we might judge,
That we might tend to close our hearts to.
Seeing that under different circumstances,
Under different causes and conditions,
We could be them,
We could be like those we judge.
Here's a few lines from the poem.
I am the child in Uganda,
All skin and bones,
My legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
My joy is like spring,
So warm it makes flowers bloom all over the earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
So vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
So I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
So I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
So I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open,
The door of compassion.
In dropping in,
See if you can open your heart,
Open the door to your heart,
To your own pain and the pain of others,
And the joy and love within you and within others,
Waking up the door of your own heart,
Noticing this mysterious mix of feelings and emotions,
Of pains,
Of beauty and joy.
Opening our hearts is risky.
It means being vulnerable,
Human,
Open,
Kind,
Loving,
Able to be hurt.
But it's the way to connect.
It's the way to feel our common vulnerability and common humanity.
Letting it in and taking a few breaths,
Bringing attention back to the body,
Back to breathing,
Keeping it simple,
Breathing in and breathing out.
And then whenever you're ready,
Returning back to being here in the room.
