So what I'd like to invite you to do is not try to meditate because you probably have a concept of what you think meditation is and then you're going to try and make your mind go quiet or squeeze into it.
So what I'd rather ask you to do is just allow yourself to be here.
So I know that being in an audience of strangers maybe to each other,
You know,
We're all in our ideas of ourselves a little bit,
Just like Rabbit is,
He's in an idea of himself.
So don't try and even take that away from you.
Don't try and remove it from yourself.
If you feel like closing your eyes,
Do.
And what I would invite you to do is just feel your feet against the floor with the kind of felt sense.
So not trying to take your mind down to your feet.
But just feel into your.
.
.
The felt sense of your feet against the floor.
And of course you can feel the chair.
You can feel your back against the chair.
And you can feel your clothes against your skin.
And don't try and stop your mind.
Your mind might be kind of throwing all sorts of thoughts around.
You don't need to try and stop the mind.
You don't need to follow your breathing.
What I would invite you to tune into instead.
Just notice if anywhere in your body you can feel that feeling of aliveness that's in your body.
Because you're alive,
You have a feeling of life in you.
So you're not creating that,
Which is what's so beautiful about this.
Because we're busy creating ourselves the whole time.
So even if that's all that happens in this,
That is the most incredible thing of all.
Just feel the aliveness in your own body.
And allow yourself inch by inch to kind of allow yourself to trust that a little bit and lean back into it.
Because it's not a place,
You know,
Sitting in an audience with a bunch of strangers and some weird guy on the stage is not usually the most trusting place.
And I'm not going to input anything into you.
I'm not going to try and change your thoughts.
I'm not going to try and politicize you or take you this way and that way.
All I want for you is to feel that aliveness of yourself,
Which we would call the natural self,
Which is Wu Wei or the natural self,
The Pu Wei.
Who is naturally himself.
And as you feel into the life of the body,
Just allow your mind.
To notice.
Your protectors.
Your firefighters.
Maybe there's something kind of playing out in you right now.
Some kind of piglet character,
Some kind of poo character,
Some kind of Eeyore character.
What we normally do in our world and society is when we feel something like this inside us,
We try to get rid of it.
So my invitation to you.
Whether it's rue or piglet or poo or tigger.
It's not who your favorite is.
It's what quality is kind of playing out in you.
That keeps you from your natural self,
You'll be quite aware of it.
You'll feel your natural self,
But you'll also feel a kind of another power.
The hundred acre wood is showing us to not get rid of any of the people in there.
But in our society,
We're always trying to get rid of each other.
Or trying to get rid of our parts of ourselves.
Or build ego through them so we can have power over others.
But if you just meet it with the love and kindness that is already in your natural self.
And just allow that part to feel safe and at home.
So if there's a piglet in you.
All childlike and feeling a bit lost.
If there's an Eeyore in you all grumpy.
If there's a.
.
.
Bear of little brain in you who sometimes is uncertain.
Or somebody who thinks they're all brain like owl,
But doesn't connect to their heart,
Which is very common in our country.
Don't try and change that.
But rather allow the naturalness of you to simply meet that and let that part know that it is safe in your hundred acre wood of self.
Don't try and change it in any way.
Just allow it to be held within the safe space.
So in many ways,
What you're actually noticing now.
Because you'll notice that there's a feeling of yourself and then there's a feeling of the adaptation or the part that hurts or the loss.
We're not trying to get rid of that.
What you're actually meeting right now is your inner Christopher Robin.
Yourself.
The actual implied author of the poo books or the author of your own life.
Who just takes care of everybody in the 100-acre wood.
In the South.
To just being easy.
When you feel like it,
Just letting that ebb away.
But you can put your hand on your heart for a moment if that's nice for you.
It's always a lovely thing just to put your hand on your heart.
Let yourself have that.
Intimate,
Loving,
Self-touch.
And don't try and grab onto this or throw it away.
And just let yourself be back here with us.
When you're ready.
So there we have an improvised Taoist Winnie-the-Pooh meditation on the inner path.
