The following meditation was read by Gerald Blomeyer.
The Shakuhachi flute was played by Michael McNamara.
Breathing to be Reborn.
A guided meditation by Stephen Levine.
Find a comfortable place to sit and let your eyes close.
Bring your attention to the level of sensation and feel this body you sit in.
Let the body be still.
Focus on the sensation of being in a body.
Notice the body's substantial quality.
Feel the solidity of the body.
Feel its weightiness,
How gravity pulls on its substance.
Receive this quality of solidity.
Feel the weight of the head resting on the neck.
Feel the musculature of that neck,
Its strength,
Its thickness.
Feel the long bones of the shoulder and the thick bony sockets that support the weight of the arms.
Feel the heaviness of the arms as they rest on either side of the body.
Feel these heavy hands.
Feel the torso,
Its thickness,
Its weightiness,
The earthen quality of this body.
Feel this heavy body in which you live.
Notice the solidity,
The density,
The earth element of the dense body.
Feel the pull of gravity as the buttocks is drawn into the cushion or the chair,
As the feet press against the floor.
Notice gravity's action on this earthen body.
In this solid body sensations arise,
Tingling,
Hot and cold,
Rough and smooth,
Soft and hard.
Sensations arising in the body.
Notice this flickering field of sensation.
Don't grasp at sensation.
Just allow these sensations to be received as they arise in this body we inhabit.
Open to the sensations in the legs,
Their density and heaviness.
Feel the solidness of this body.
Explore this container for the life force and explore the life force as sensation arising and passing away.
And as you note these sensations,
Notice how though they arise in the heavy body,
They seem to be received by something subtler within,
Something lighter within this heavy form.
Within this heavy body is a body of awareness,
A light body which experiences hearing,
Seeing,
Tasting,
Touching,
Smelling,
Received through the outer body.
Feel the body of awareness.
This inner body,
This light body,
Perfectly nestled within the heavier form,
Receiving experience,
Experiencing.
Sense the lighter body within,
The body of awareness that experiences all that enters through the senses.
It recognizes sound as hearing.
It delights in music.
It experiences images as seeing and recognizes great beauty.
It experiences food as taste.
It knows it's alive.
Enter this light body of awareness.
Observe how each breath is drawn in through the nostrils of the heavy body.
It experiences sensation by the light body,
By the awareness within.
Notice how each breath connects the heavy body with the light body within.
Each breath allowing life,
Awareness to remain in the earthen vessel.
Observe the light body receiving the heavy body.
Feel this contact between the heavy body and the light body that each breath allows.
Feel how each breath sustains the light body balanced perfectly within.
Breathe the connection between the outer body and the inner body,
Drawn in as air,
Received as sensation.
Each breath so precious.
Each breath maintaining the connection,
Allowing life to remain in the body.
Feel how the body connects the solid body with the light body.
Experience each breath.
Just awareness and sensation.
Each breath.
Experience this delicate balance,
Moment to moment,
As sensation,
As awareness itself.
And take each breath as though it were the last.
Experience each inhalation as though it were never to be followed by another.
Each breath is the last,
The last breath of incarnation.
Let the breath come.
Let the breath go.
The last breath of life,
Leaving the heavy body behind.
Each breath ending,
The connection severed between the heavy body and the light body.
The end of a lifetime.
The final breath.
Each breath the last.
Let go.
Don't hold on to it.
Let each breath go,
Finally and forever.
Don't even be attached to the next breath.
As the last breath leaves,
Go with it.
Don't hold on.
Let yourself die.
Let the light body float free now.
Let yourself die.
Let go now.
Gently.
Gently.
Let it all go.
Let it all float free.
Let yourself die.
Leave the body behind and follow the light into the luminous space.
Go into it.
Let yourself die into space.
Each breath vanishes.
Each thought dissolving into space.
Don't hold now.
Just let go once and for all.
Let go of fear.
Let go of longing.
Open to the wonder.
Let yourself die.
Open to death.
Nothing to hold on to.
That is all past.
Die gently into this moment.
Moving on to nothing,
Just let you die.
Let go of your name.
Let go of your face.
Let go of your reputation.
Float free into the vastness.
Leave the body behind.
Dissolving into the vast space of being.
Light dissolving into light.
Just vast luminous space.
Let go now.
Have mercy on you.
Let yourself float free.
Merging with space.
Space dissolving in space.
Light dissolving in light.
Vast,
Bounderless space expanding into space.
Such enormous peace.
Dissolving,
Dissolving.
Edges melting.
Vast luminous space dissolving in space.
Shimmering clouds dissolving at the edge.
Clouds dissolving into space.
Dissipating,
Dissolving.
Merging in space.
Let go into that spaciousness.
All nowhere,
Let your heart merge into your own great fire.
Dissolving,
Radiating into space.
Merging with light.
Dissolving into luminous space.
Let go into the light.
In this vast luminosity is all that you have ever sought.
Dissolving into the great heart.
Floating free in vast space.
Let go of your knowing.
Let go of your not knowing.
All that comes to mind is old.
Any thought is just old thought.
Nothing to hold on to.
The simple fact of dying and the fact of clear light.
Just the light.
Entering the light.
Space within space.
No inside,
No outside.
Just am-ness.
Edgeless being in endless space.
Floating free of the body.
Free of the mind.
Merging in boundaryless space.
Space expanding into space.
Dissolving into space.
Floating in the vastness.
Peace.
Mercy.
Space.
And from across vast space,
Notice now something gently approaching.
It is the first breath of life.
Watch the breath approaching as it,
From afar,
Experiencing it with the body.
Each breath the first.
Each inhalation the first breath of life.
Each breath completely new.
Each breath bringing us back into the body.
Taking birth once again.
Born back into the body.
Taking birth again to serve and be served.
To learn and teach.
To care and be cared for.
Awareness once again.
Entering the body as consciousness.
Pure awareness.
Re-inhabiting pure form.
Birth.
Born again into the body.
Each breath the first.
Born again to bring mercy and healing to the injured world.
Taking birth for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Taking birth to heal.
The light body once again reanimating the heavy body.
Each breath connecting.
Maintaining the light body within its momentary vehicle.
Once again the light clothes itself in form.
So as to act and complete whatever healing remains.
Have mercy.
Born again into the world.
Born to bring peace.
To bring kindness.
Healing to our pain.
And the pain of all sentient beings.
Unto the last blade of grass.
Born to learn.
To be.
Each breath so precious allowing us to stay a moment longer.
Allowing us the healing we took birth for.
Born to take the teaching.
Born to bring mercy.
May all beings coming and going know the peace of their own great nature.
May all beings be free of suffering.
Let your eyes open gently.
Look around you.
Here you are.
