Welcome to this meditation where we'll take our place and our rest and our refuge in being still and quiet.
So we'll just come into our comfortable seat.
Take your time,
Make any little adjustments to how you have arranged your body.
Settle in and come into a still body.
Just take a moment to notice in your mind,
Your energy,
Any momentum that you may have carried along with you from the doings of your day so far.
A busy mind,
A to-do list of some sort,
An interaction that you had,
Perhaps some kind of unease.
And let's see if you can gently put down those thoughts or put them aside.
Maybe even imagine carefully placing them in a box beside you that you can come back to later.
Allow this moment to be enough.
Nothing else is needed.
Simply be still and quiet and let it be just as it is.
And let's begin by simply arriving in our body a little bit more.
Imagine that the crown of the head is being gently pulled skyward by a little string and it allows the rest of the body to sink and settle and release downward.
Feel the weight of your body like a stone resting at the bottom of a clear pond.
Take a breath in and let it fall out nice and easy.
Another deep breath in.
As you release that breath,
Soften a little more,
Release a little deeper.
Notice any gripping in the face,
Open your jaw,
Let the tongue be soft.
Let the shoulders be heavy and your belly loose.
And we invite the body to unclench.
Feel the length of your flexible spine holding you and let yourself sink a little deeper.
Into the pressure under your sit bones.
Notice your rib cage.
Can you let the rib cage gently expand and contract?
You may feel a kind of hugging sensation.
Flexible,
Soft and comforting.
Meet the breath here.
Meet yourself right here.
The breath just as it is.
Yourself just as you are.
Sense the feet and notice the sensations here.
In the feet,
Big toes.
Top of the foot,
Heels,
Arch.
Balls of the feet.
And notice that the ground is beneath the feet.
Supportive,
Unmoving,
Already holding you.
And now turn your attention to your whole body resting.
From toes to crown.
Feeling the breath move the body.
And what's it like to sense the borderlessness between each breath?
Inside and outside the body.
And we rest in a kindness that's already here waiting to hold you in a kind refuge.
Rest in to this place of peace.
This is a coming home to yourself just as you are.
We're not trying to make anything special happen.
There is nothing you need to do right here,
Right now.
When thoughts come,
And they will,
See if you can greet them lightly.
You might bow to them inwardly.
I see you.
And then return.
Return to the breath.
Return to the body sitting here.
Return to this quiet refuge of the heart.
And let's linger here together.
Notice the gentle rise and fall of your chest.
Again.
And again.
Each one returning you home.
Notice how each exhale is already a small surrender.
True refuge is not an escape.
But a turning point.
Toward what is true.
Right here.
In you.
Around you.
And we just be with this.
We settle into the simplicity of being.
Rest in it.
Rest with it.
Rest as it.
And when you find that the mind has wandered again,
Notice that you are already back.
Each return a small bow.
Each return a doorway into refuge.
Imagine your breath like the ebb and flow of the ocean tide.
Arriving.
Receding.
Let your breath flow.
Ride the waves of the chest and belly.
Feel the ribcage.
Front.
Sides.
And back.
No struggle.
The invitation now is to place a hand on your heart in the middle of your chest.
And a hand on your belly.
Just feel the quiet rhythm of life there.
This tender pulse always supporting.
It asks nothing.
And you can take refuge here.
To.
In your own aliveness.
And as you feel the weight and warmth of your hand lightly pressing against your chest.
Can you feel what's underneath the hand?
Inside around the heart a softness.
Maybe a warmth that wants to come forth and spread.
Let the sense of love come forth.
Notice the quiet in your body.
The steadiness of your breath.
Let yourself feel held.
And feel the spaciousness inside the body.
Feel the spaciousness of loving presence outside of the body.
And you might repeat silently in your mind or whisper to yourself.
These phrases breathing in,
I take refuge.
Breathing out,
I take refuge.
I take refuge.
In this love,
I take refuge.
Taking refuge in practice means you are never truly alone.
This breath.
This body.
This moment is always here for you.
Your practice is your home.
And now as we prepare to close our practice today.
Notice again the support of the earth beneath your feet.
Take a final deeper breath in.
And release softly,
Fully.
I invite you to carry this sense of refuge with you today.
You can do this simply by taking pauses to breathe.
This will cultivate pockets of peace.
Where you can come home to.
Always here,
Waiting to support you.
When you're ready,
Let your body take the movement it calls for.
Rolling the neck,
Maybe taking a stretch.
Shrugging the shoulders,
Wiggling fingers and toes.
And gently open your eyes or lift your gaze.
Come out of meditation and into life as it is.
Thank you for your practice.
