And now is the opportunity for us to do some meditation,
To make the mind peaceful and calm,
Where all the plans of what we're going to do next disappear,
Where all the memories of your past can be jettisoned so you can fly lightly through your,
The next half an hour,
Carrying nothing at all,
As free as a bird.
So that is the goal,
So see what happens.
So please close your eyes.
And with the eyes closed,
First of all,
Become aware of your body.
This body which carries you from place to place and been with you for so many years,
Now be a friend to it,
Rather than a master or a mistress.
Stop treating your body like a slave,
Forcing it,
Telling it what to do and how to do it.
Now we listen to our body instead of telling it what to do.
Body,
How are you?
Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?
You want me to move your legs,
Blow my nose,
Scratch,
Whatever?
You ask the question of the body like this,
You're paying attention,
You're being kind.
So whatever the body tells you,
Maybe do it,
Adjust the body,
Adjust the legs,
Cough,
Sneeze,
Whatever.
Just like you'll treat a friend,
If you treat a friend well,
They'll always be there for you as a comfort and support.
If you treat your body well,
With kindness and respect,
You'll be healthy and live a long time for your comfort and support.
So become very aware of our body and be very kind to it.
Treating it as we would treat our cat,
Our dog,
Our child,
Trying to get it in a position where it feels at ease,
Peaceful,
Comfortable,
Until it feels relaxed.
An angry person comes into a room,
Everyone tenses up.
A kind person appears,
Everything relaxes.
You be that kind person,
Appearing in the room where your body lives,
So kind,
So caring,
Your body relaxes.
All those tight knots,
Places which are stretched,
Areas of stress,
Let them all go.
Feel them becoming peaceful and calm,
Relaxed at ease.
Your awareness can see the body relaxing more and more.
Your kindness is what does the relaxing.
Fair and kind,
Kindfulness as I said a few weeks ago.
And you know you're going in the right direction if your body gets more and more relaxed.
This is not just preparing the body for meditation.
It's starting generating this power of kindfulness,
Compassion and awareness together,
Focused on your own body.
When a body does get relaxed,
It feels very pleasant.
It's the delight of a body at ease,
The delight of comfort.
Can you notice that delight?
Feels good,
Feels free.
The delight of ease.
The delight of nothing demanding you fix it,
It's all been fixed.
The body resting,
No tightness,
No tension.
If you relax your own body,
If you learn this anytime when you're stressed,
When you need to go to sleep,
When you want to relax,
You can relax your body so quickly,
Make it totally at ease by kindfulness.
Only when the body feels relaxed with the delight of ease is it a good time to let it go.
You prepared it so it can just disappear.
As you start to do the same technique on your mental world,
Aware and kind to your own mind.
Looking upon your mind,
There's something different.
You're just the observer.
This mind,
Again,
Has never been treated like a friend,
Always been told what to do and how to do it.
Even when it's tired,
You keep forcing it to work.
Now you look at your mental world with kindness.
To relax the mental world so there's no stress,
There's no having to plan for the future which takes so much energy,
No having to make decisions.
Leave that till afterwards.
Don't have to make choices.
Just be a human being,
Not a human going.
Stop going anywhere,
Just be here and relax to the max in this present moment.
All that past is already gone,
It is vanished,
You don't have to be concerned with it.
This is rest time.
All those plans for the future,
Now is the place your future is being made.
Here,
Right here,
Is the only time you can do anything about your future anyway.
So relaxing,
Resting,
Being calm in this present moment is the very best you can possibly do for your future peace,
Happiness and health.
It's made now.
Here,
Your future is made.
So we focus on the now and we relax.
In meditation it does not matter what you are aware of.
It's everything about how you are aware.
Are you being kind,
Making peace with this moment,
Caring for this moment,
Respecting this moment.
If you respect this present moment and care for it,
Your mental world relaxes.
You can even notice peace,
The ease of the mind,
Just like you have ease of the body.
You're not trying to meditate to get somewhere,
You're meditating to be here,
To be more fully in this moment,
More kind,
More caring in this moment.
So be very gentle,
As gentle and caring as you can be to whatever it is your mind is experiencing.
Make peace,
Not war,
With your own mind.
Good.
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Your mind is yet to be calm.
So don't look at the individual thoughts.
Just know your mind is not still yet.
See if you can calm the mind.
Just think stillness,
Non agitation,
Calm,
Peace.
Sing those words until you can understand what they are pointing to.
Like a signpost points to its destination.
Stillness,
Peace,
Calm,
And feel your mind becoming still.
And those thoughts,
They're just waves,
Become ripples.
Just only slight perturbations on the stillness of your mind.
Just let go.
Stop trying to control things.
Don't try and make things happen.
And then your mind is still.
The leaf only moves because of the wind.
The mind only moves because you want something.
Let go of all wanting.
And just be still.
Happy to be here.
Just being here.
Content to be still.
Leave all the thinking till later.
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Just being aware and kind in every moment.
You can't always stop thinking,
You can't always be alert,
Sometimes you're sleepy.
But you can always be aware and kind.
You can always be aware and kind which means you can always meditate.
Because that is what we do.
Just be aware and be kind to the Spoke.
And from that,
Stillness grows.
When we're not going anywhere,
We're just staying here.
We rest.
When we stay in this moment,
The mind settles down.
Becomes peaceful.
We realize stillness.
By not going anywhere.
Being here.
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Unfortunately it's coming to the end of the meditation now.
So before you open your eyes,
How do you feel at the end of the meditation?
Has it worked for you?
Can you feel peace?
Can you understand what stillness means?
Great sense of freedom when you're just happy to be here.
There's nowhere to go.
Nothing you need.
Content.
And that's bliss.
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I'm now going to ring the gong three times.
Listen to the gong.
To the end of the third ringing,
Open your eyes.
To the end of the third ringing of the gong.
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Lovely.
Okay.
If those who want to try and find the space,
Please come in.
