Okay,
So usually on a Friday night we begin with 30 minutes of meditation,
Some quiet time in order to give the mind a sense of peace and stillness.
Many of you have to rush around in this world and so do I.
It's usually a very busy time just before the Friday night talk and it gives me a time to just slow down,
To calm down,
To make the mind peaceful.
You'll find that once you understand the way of stilling the mind,
The mind has its own source of energy.
It brightens up,
Becomes more focused,
More clear,
You feel better,
You become more efficient in the way you use your body and mind.
So the meditation is like an exercise for the mind to being stillness and from stillness energy.
And the word which is important here is stillness.
In that stillness of the body and the stillness of the mind,
You'll find this incredible source of energy,
Of awesome power,
Peace,
Stillness.
The sort of stuff which once you touch,
You know how to get there again and again and again.
It's a huge resource for your well-being and for your life.
So those of you who are already sitting down,
Great.
Those of you coming in,
Please come in.
If you'd like to close your eyes and we can start the meditation.
So those coming in,
Please find a nice space to sit down.
There are some cushions but I think most of them have been taken.
It's very nice to bring your own special cushion on a Friday night and keep yourself comfortable.
So close your eyes.
With your eyes closed,
You start to become aware of your body.
With a sense of gentleness and kindness,
You look at this body and find out what it needs.
This takes awareness coupled with compassion.
Awareness plus compassion is a very powerful combination.
You feel your body,
You can understand some places which are pressing against each other,
Which are going to cause aches and pains later on and now you can move.
You can adjust in order to leave your body in the most comfortable position.
I'm often surprised how unmindful people are of their body to the point they can sit in such bad postures,
They don't realize it and then have back aches and neck aches and leg aches.
A lot of the time because they haven't really been paying attention to the body telling them,
Please move me.
So please adjust your body accordingly.
I usually spend 2 or 3 minutes just being with my body,
Listening to it,
Hearing it and changing the posture accordingly.
When your body is settled down,
Maybe look at it one more time,
Can you make it more comfortable?
Once it is comfortable,
Then deliberately let go of the body.
You make a resolution that this is not the time for working out problems.
It's not the time for dwelling on the past,
Nor is it the time for thinking through a problem.
This is a time for quietness,
For stillness,
For peace.
It's not the time you set aside just for those things.
You work the rest of the day,
The rest of the week.
Now is the time for not working,
For peace,
For stillness,
For calm.
Reminding yourself of that is giving yourself permission to be peaceful.
If you give yourself permission,
You find you won't become peaceful.
Subconsciously you think that the work you have to do,
The problems you have to sort out are somehow more important.
Give yourself permission,
The next 30 minutes,
I allow myself to put aside all other things and rest.
All granting yourself a moment of peace.
Thank you.
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We come to the present moment,
Granting ourselves the peace of being now.
This is the only place where peace can lie,
In that space between the past and the future.
What first is like just a small narrow slice of time called now.
But once you focus on it and stay there a while,
You find the present moment expands,
And it becomes wide,
As if in the now you have all the time in the world.
You are not pressed for time,
You are just here,
Now,
Listening,
Being,
Feeling,
Knowing.
Not going anywhere,
Nor lingering on the past,
Not carrying anything from the last moment into this one.
Letting go of the burden of past,
Letting go of the heavy responsibility of the future,
Instead being free,
Free like the wind in the moment.
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Just being now,
And in the present moment,
See if you can free yourself from giving things names.
Grant yourself not just the peace of the present moment,
But grant yourself also the silence of a mind without inner speech,
Where the thought processes inside of you stop,
Where you know,
You hear,
You feel,
Without giving things a name,
Not describing them to yourself,
Just knowing in silence,
Like a TV with a commentary,
The sound turned off,
You see,
But hear no description,
You know before the words come.
See if you can allow yourself,
Give yourself,
Grant yourself the gift of inner silence.
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