Welcome to a 25 minute Lake Meditation.
This meditation is generally practiced in a lying down position or you may wish to recline in a chair if you prefer.
So just allowing a few moments now to find a comfortable position for oneself.
So our intention with this meditation is to practice a wider perspective on our emotions.
Practicing becoming aware of our emotions at surface level and those held more deeply within us.
Bringing to the practice the attitudes of curiosity,
Of trust and non-judging.
So beginning by paying attention to the actual sensations of contact as you lie here.
Just noticing where your body is making contact.
How your weight is distributed on the floor and actually sensing into your body.
Feeling your feet,
Your legs,
The hips,
The lower and upper body,
The arms,
The shoulders and the head.
And now bringing awareness to the breath when ready.
The actual physical sensations.
Feeling each breath as it comes in and as it goes out.
Letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change or regulate it in any way.
Allowing the breath to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace.
Knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now.
There's nothing for you to do.
Just allowing a sense of being complete and whole in this very moment.
You And as you rest here letting an image form in your mind's eye of a lake.
A body of water,
Large or small,
Held in a receptive basin by the earth itself.
Noting in the mind's eye that water likes to pool in low places.
It seeks its own level.
Asking to be held and contained.
You you And letting this image gradually come into greater focus.
Even if it doesn't come as a visual image.
Allowing the sense of this lake and feeling its presence.
You you you you you The lake you're invoking may be deep or shallow.
Blue or green,
Muddy or clear.
With no wind the surface will be flat and mirror-like.
Reflecting trees and rocks,
Sky and clouds,
Holding everything in itself momentarily.
You you you you When night comes it's the moon's turn to dance on the lake.
Or when the surface is still to be reflected in it.
Along the outline of trees and shadows.
In winter the lake may freeze over,
Yet be teeming with movement and life below.
You you you you you And as you rest here breathing.
As you establish this image of a lake in your mind's eye.
Allowing yourself to bring it inside you completely.
So that your being merges with the lake and becomes one with it.
So that all your energies in this moment are held in awareness.
With openness and compassion for yourself.
In just the same way as the lake's waters are held by the receptive and accepting basin of the earth.
You you Breathing is the lake.
Feeling its body is your body.
Allowing your mind and your heart to be open and receptive moment by moment.
To reflect whatever comes near.
Or to be clear all the way to the bottom.
Experiencing moments of complete stillness.
When both reflection and water are completely clear.
And other moments perhaps when the surface is disturbed,
Choppy and reflections in depth lost for the moment.
You And through it all as you lie here.
Simply observing the play of the various energies of your own mind and heart.
The fleeting thoughts and feelings.
Impulses and reactions.
Which come and go as ripples and waves.
Just noting their effects.
Just as you're in contact with the various changing energies that play on the lake.
The wind.
The waves.
The shadows and the reflections.
And the colours and smells.
Noticing the effect of your thoughts and feelings.
Do they disturb the surface and clarity of the mines lake?
Do they muddy the waters?
And is that okay with you?
Isn't having a rippling surface just a part of being a lake?
Might it be possible to identify not only with the surface of your lake but with the entire body of water?
So that you become the stillness below the surface as well.
Even when the surface is choppy.
Okay.
And in the same way in your daily life can you be in touch not only with the changing content intensity of your thoughts and feelings but also with the vast unwavering reservoir of awareness itself residing below the surface of your mind.
The lake can teach us this reminding us of the lake within ourselves.
You dwelling here in the stillness of this moment we can be the lake in silence now affirming our ability to hold in awareness and in acceptance all our qualities of mind and body just as the lake sits held cradled and contained by the earth reflecting the Sun the moon and stars caressed by the air and the wind which highlighted sparkle its vitality and potential moment by moment and now continuing to sustain the late meditation on your own in silence moment by moment being the lake with its own storms and moments of peace you you you you you now bringing awareness back to the body and back to the breath just grounding through the floor and perhaps introducing some movement into the body opening your eyes if they've been closed and becoming reacquainted with the room this meditation is now complete
