Namaste.
Take a moment to become comfortable wherever you find yourself,
Readjusting so that your back is supported and so that you can feel breath coming in easily without strain.
If your eyes have come closed,
Take this next moment to open them wide open and see what is around you,
The objects.
Let them sift down into colors,
Textures,
Vague impressions as your eyelids start to grow heavier until your eyelids are almost closed,
Seeing the last amount of light or vague impressions until your eyelids completely close and you're left with the after image,
An impression of what is here.
This practice is an embrace of what is here,
Not an escape.
As you continue to sit,
Embrace sound,
Let it travel to your ears like a breeze,
Becoming aware of sounds all around you,
Aware of the gap between sounds,
Even sounds inside of your own body,
Embracing the sound that is here.
Now aware of your body,
The temperature on your skin,
The weight of the air or your clothing,
What is firm or soft beneath you,
Aware of your hands and the sensations that are present when you focus on your hands.
An embrace of what you can feel in your body now as you breathe,
Bringing awareness to your nostrils,
Aware that the air around you has a scent,
Unnameable,
Subtle,
Letting the scent infuse this moment with what it means to be here.
The inside of your mouth has a taste,
Without searching to name it,
Allow yourself to recognize a taste for being here.
Having fully arrived,
Take your awareness back to your breath once more and notice the changing shape of your body as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
There's a tidelike quality to your breath,
Endless,
Repeating,
Smooth,
As natural as water.
With each inhale,
A silent phrase,
I am.
With each exhale,
Here.
I am inhaling.
Here exhaling.
Letting the phrase repeat like a mantra,
With each breath.
Standing in the middle of the stream,
Knowing that each breath is a new here.
I am here.
With each eye,
You're aware of your own inner voice,
The speaker.
With each breath,
You're aware of the part of you who hears that inner voice,
The witness.
Aware that the witness is watching,
The part of you that never changes.
I am here.
I am always here.
I am here.
Mary Oliver once said,
What the soul is,
I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
Truly I know our part is not knowing,
But looking,
And touching,
And loving.
May your practice be of benefit to you and to all those who will cross your path.
Namaste.
But,
Going back like we would a few years ago,
Maybe I don't ever do it again.
Namaste.
You
