Hello and welcome to this meditation,
Awe and wonder in everyday life.
So taking a moment to settle in.
Find a position that feels comfortable enough.
That you don't need to keep adjusting yourself.
You may sit upright,
Lie down.
Or simply rest in whatever feels natural for you.
Allow your hands to soften.
Let your shoulders drop.
And if it feels comfortable.
Allow your eyes to close.
There's nowhere you need to go.
Nothing you need to accomplish.
Nothing you need to prove.
Nothing you need to become.
Just this moment.
Just being here.
Take a slow,
Gentle breath in.
And let the breath leave you naturally.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in and letting go.
Notice that breathing is already happening.
You don't need to make it happen.
Your body knows how to breathe.
Your heart knows how to beat.
Your body knows how to regulate itself.
Moment by moment.
Without requiring your attention.
There is something extraordinary about that.
You are alive right now.
Perhaps you've heard those words many times.
You are alive.
But just for a moment.
See if you can hear them as though they were completely new.
You are alive.
There is breath moving through you.
There is a pulse within you.
There is warmth somewhere in your body.
There is sensation.
There is awareness.
There is this astonishing experience of being here at all.
You don't need to feel amazed.
You don't need to manufacture wonder.
With simply making space for the possibility of noticing.
Because awe is not always something traumatic.
Sometimes all begins very quietly.
With attention.
With curiosity.
With a willingness to look again at something familiar.
So for now,
Let your attention rest on the simple fact of breathing.
Feel the air entering.
Feel the air leaving.
Noticing the subtle movement of your chest or belly.
Noticing the temperature of the breath.
Such a small thing.
And yet,
This breath is connecting you to the world around you.
The oxygen you breathe has come from the living world.
The air moves between you and the trees.
Between you and the oceans.
Between you and countless other beings.
You're not separate from the world.
You're participating in it.
With every breath.
Let yourself rest with that.
The ordinary miracle of the body.
Bring your attention gently to your body.
Feel the weight of your body being supported.
You don't need to change anything.
Just notice.
Consider for a moment how much is happening inside you right now.
Cells are communicating.
Blood is circulating.
Electrical signals are moving through your nervous system.
Your lungs are exchanging gases.
Your immune system is carrying out its quiet work.
Your brain is processing sensations,
Memories,
Sounds and thoughts.
Millions upon millions of processes are unfolding.
And you don't have to supervise them.
But there is something mysterious about that.
Something wonderful.
You can spend an entire lifetime inside this body.
And never fully understand it.
And yet,
This body carries you through the world.
Bring awareness to your hands.
Perhaps gently moving your fingers.
Feel the sensations Your hands can hold another person's hand.
They can make something.
They can write.
Cook.
Plant.
Comfort,
Create.
They can reach towards the world.
For a few moments,
Simply experience your hands as something remarkable.
Not as tools,
Not as things that need to accomplish anything.
Just as part of the living mystery that is you.
Now bring your attention to your eyes.
Even with your eyes closed,
Notice there is a whole visual world waiting for you when you open them.
Light.
Shape.
Movement.
You don't have to understand sight in order to experience it.
You simply see.
Allow a quiet sense of appreciation to arise.
Not forced gratitude.
Not a list of things you should appreciate.
Just a gentle recognition.
How extraordinary it is to be here.
The world immediately around you.
Notice the sounds around you.
Don't search for them.
Let them come to you.
Rather than deciding which sounds are good or bad.
Simply listen.
And let the world reveal itself through sound.
Notice how many things are happening beyond your immediate awareness.
There may be people moving through their own lives.
You are one person amongst billions.
And yet your particular experience of this moment is entirely your own.
No one else has ever experienced this exact moment in exactly this body.
With exactly your memories,
Your perceptions,
Your history.
This is awe-inspiring.
And now imagine the Earth turning quietly through space.
Millions of species.
Billions of people.
All of it moving together.
Through the darkness of space.
And tay you all.
A small human being.
You don't have to be important to the entire universe in order for your life to be meaningful.
You don't have to be extraordinary in order to belong.
You're already part this vast space.
Awe-inspiring unfolding.
Now bring your attention back to something very ordinary.
Perhaps imagine a cup of tea.
Piece of fruit.
A flower,
A stone.
Something you might normally overlook.
Imagine holding it in your hand.
Look at it as though you've never seen it before.
Where did it come from?
What had to happen for this ordinary object to exist?
To arrive new life.
Take a cup.
Perhaps clay came from the earth.
Someone shaped it.
Heat transformed it.
Someone transported it.
Someone designed it.
Someone stopped it.
Someone eventually placed it in your hands.
So much of life is like this.
Invisible histories inside ordinary things.
A loaf of bread contains sunlight.
Soil,
Rain,
Seeds.
Labour.
Transport.
Hands.
Knowledge.
The familiar becomes strange again when we look closely.
And sometimes,
That strangeness is wonder.
Think of the sky.
You've seen it thousands of times.
But imagine seeing it for the first time.
That enormous blue expanse.
Clouds forming and dissolving.
Light.
Travelling through the atmosphere.
Bring your awareness to time.
Think about how many moments have already passed in your life.
Moments you remember clearly.
Moments you've forgotten.
Places you've been.
Paper leaf match.
Versions of yourself that no longer exist.
For the next few breaths,
Let yourself become gently curious.
What can you notice right now that you normally ignore?
Perhaps the texture of the air.
The sensation of clothing against your skin.
The rhythm of your breathing.
Now for a few moments you're sitting here.
And what would happen if he approached the world.
With this kind of attention more often.
Not demanding that every moment be profound.
Simply allowing ordinary things to be interesting.
A purge.
A puddle.
Brain against the glass.
The smell of soil.
The spider's web.
Purchase sunlight on the floor.
Wonder.
Does not require extraordinary circumstances.
Sometimes it only requires that we stop rushing past what is already here.
We don't have to understand the world,
The universe,
Our planet.
You don't have to explain everything.
You can simply participate in the mystery of life.
There are questions you may never answer.
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Why does consciousness exist?
How did life begin?
You don't need answers right now.
Let the questions themselves be spacious.
Sometimes wonder lives most naturally inside a question.
Now gradually bring your attention back to your breath.
Nothing has changed.
And yet perhaps something has changed in the way you are looking.
The room may be ordinary.
Your body may be ordinary.
Your breath may be ordinary.
This moment.
Their pair completely ordinary.
And yet.
.
.
Look closely.
Your life.
You're conscious.
You're breathing.
The world is happening around you.
Life is continuing.
Perhaps this is enough.
You do not need to chase or run.
You do not need to have a mystical experience.
You do not need to feel inspired.
You won't hit it.
Right now.
Enjoying the awe and wonder.
In our everyday life.
So thank you so much for joining me here.
And I look forward to meeting you again very,
Very soon.
Bye-bye.
