As an introduction to the meditation,
Just to say that the meditation is really an opportunity to,
Use a phrase from Thich Nhat Hanh,
To keep our appointment with life.
Keep our appointment with life.
You know,
We're so often somewhere else.
Our bodies are here and our minds are in the future,
Worrying,
Thinking about the past,
Caught up in some,
Often in some mental stories and narratives in our mind about,
What should be happening and what we don't like and all of that,
Caught up in impulses.
And coming into stillness is a way of just coming home to ourselves.
You know,
In a way,
We might say all of our practice is coming home.
You know,
Coming home to ourselves,
Coming home to our experience,
Coming home to our lives.
So,
With that,
Just to invite you to come into a posture that is comfortable and relaxed.
You know,
Whatever,
Whatever posture works for you.
If you feel comfortable,
More comfortable lying down,
Obviously feel free to do that.
If you feel more comfortable listening and walking and doing a walking meditation,
That's perfectly fine too.
Probably the majority of us will be sitting and you're sitting,
Just find a comfortable posture.
Let your back be straight.
Invite the shoulders to relax.
You might let your hands rest comfortably in your lap or on your knees or on your thighs.
And if you're comfortable in doing it,
You might let your eyes gently close.
Let your attention come inward.
You know,
So much of our focus is on what's going on around us and outside of us.
Just inviting the attention inward,
Into the body.
Inviting the attention to drop out of the,
You know,
Top few inches of our body,
The head,
The brain,
Down into the body.
Feel the contact of your body with the surface beneath it.
You know,
The chair or the cushion or your feet with the floor.
See if you can feel the sensations from the inside.
It might be warmth or hardness,
Softness,
Pressure,
Tingling,
Pulsing.
Just opening to whatever is present.
Letting yourself be here as fully as you can right now.
And you might find it helpful to take a few longer,
Deeper breaths too,
To help you settle,
If that's useful to you.
Now take a nice full deep in breath,
Filling the chest,
Filling the lungs.
Pausing briefly and then just releasing,
Letting go on the out breath.
Breathing in,
Calming the body.
And breathing out,
Calming the mind.
Feeling the body as the breath comes in,
Energizes the body and then the relaxation,
The release of the out breath.
Letting go of anything you might be holding.
Just imagine you're breathing it out,
Any tension,
Any stresses,
Worries.
And there's another way of helping,
Helping you settle and arrive and be here as fully as you can.
You might consciously invite a smile to your face.
Maybe thinking of something or somebody that makes you feel happy or joyful or grateful.
Taking in a feeling of warmth or joy or connection as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out,
You know,
If it's an individual that comes to mind,
Just holding them in your awareness and in your heart.
And it's a way of connecting with yourself,
Your feelings,
Your experience.
If it's helpful,
You might just put a hand on your heart,
Maybe the other hand on your belly.
Just feeling this life here,
This body breathing.
Maybe feeling a sense of caring for this life,
For yourself.
Kindness,
Care.
Life can be challenging at times,
Stressful.
Sometimes difficult.
Just having,
It's the way of coming home to ourselves.
Caring about this,
This life,
This being,
It's here.
Buddhas,
Boasts have said,
You could travel all around the world and not find anyone more deserving of your kindness than yourself.
Letting yourself rest in being here.
Letting your breathing settle into its natural rhythm.
Just open your awareness to whatever is present right now.
Just notice what's predominant in your awareness.
Maybe there's some bodily feeling that's maybe a bit uncomfortable or maybe pleasant.
See if you can make space for whatever is here right now.
You might open to whatever mood or emotion might be noticeable.
If there's anything that you notice right now,
Maybe there's some heaviness,
Tiredness.
Or maybe there's some energy,
Some lightness,
Calmness,
Joy or worry.
Whatever is here,
See if you can just let your awareness hold what's here.
Let it come,
Let it be and let it go when it's ready to go.
A poem I often come back to is Martha Postlethwaite's Clearing.
She says,
Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.
Instead,
Create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently until the song that is yours,
Alone to sing,
Falls into your open,
Cupped hands and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.
So we could think of this period of meditation as creating a clearing in the dense forest of our lives,
And the busyness and the activities and just coming into stillness,
Quietness,
And opening to whatever is present.
And it may be that out of the stillness,
Out of the quiet,
In the silence,
May come some understanding,
Some clarity or insight about ourselves,
About our life,
That we can then go back into our lives,
Into the world so worthy of rescue.
If it's helpful,
You might just let your attention rest on the body breathing,
The experience of the in-breath and the out-breath,
Just as it is.
And the breath can be an anchor for us,
Kind of helping ground us here now.
And when the mind moves into thought,
Maybe into stories or plans or memories,
Can just gently,
Kindly come back,
Come back to the body,
Come back to the breath,
Come back whole,
Here now.
When you do find yourself caught up in some story or some mind state or emotion,
See if you can just meet that with kindness.
Now appreciate that recognition that you've been off somewhere,
That that's a moment of presence,
A moment of waking up.
And we can just keep coming back,
Beginning again.
Coming home.
And the more we keep coming back,
The more being present becomes the default,
Rather than just being a place we visit occasionally.
This breath,
This feeling,
This moment.
Finish with this poem by Antonio Machado.
In English,
It's called Walker.
Walker,
Your footsteps are the road and nothing more.
Walker,
There is no road.
The road is made by the mind.
Walker,
There is no road.
The road is made by walking.
Walking you make the road.
And turning to look behind,
You see the path you never again will step upon.
Walker,
There is no road.
Only foam trails on the sea.
