Meditation From Not This Not That

I feel like at this moment in a relatively long life so far, I should be able to say yes to certain things, no to others, and be able to count on things remaining relatively stable. Do you have that feeling?

And yet I can’t because they’re not: nothing is either this certain thing or that. Nothing is truly solid, reliable, permanent. And the more energy I put into thinking it should be, the more struggle I’m in.

Transcript

Finding your posture the most comfortable and also dignified posture for you for right in this moment,

This sit,

This day,

On the cusp of the end of May and the beginning of June,

True summer here in the Northern Hemisphere,

Bringing the attention to the body.

How's your body feeling this morning,

This afternoon,

This evening,

Wherever you are?

Sensing into the weight of the body,

Sitting or standing or lying down or walking or driving.

The way that gravity is holding us,

Attaching us to this earth,

Our home.

Right now,

We're awake.

Alive to the sensations of the body,

The sounds in our environment,

Our breath blowing in and out.

And one day we'll just dissolve back into the earth.

And for all of us,

That is the truth.

That is just the way things are.

For all of us,

For everyone we love,

For all of the things that we surround ourselves with,

All of the beauty,

All of the difficulty,

Everything just arising and passing away.

The sweetness of a joyful moment that happened yesterday or last week or last month.

Just a memory so fleeting.

And the difficult moments too.

Something we might remember,

But it's already passed.

And here we are just sitting in this moment right now.

The sweetness of it or the difficulty of it.

Right here in the middle.

I love this poem by Juan Jimenez.

Oceans.

My boat struck something deep.

Nothing happened.

Sounds,

Silence.

Waves.

Nothing happened,

Or perhaps everything happened.

And I'm sitting in the middle of my new life.

Thank you.