In this meditation,
We're going to reflect on interconnectedness.
This practice can be done in any posture.
So go ahead and find a comfortable position that works best for you.
Really closing your eyes,
Allowing your hands to fall on your knees.
Just be relaxed.
Be at ease.
Now see if you can begin to trace back all those people who are involved in your interest and meditation.
Someone might have given you a book,
Read you a poem,
Played you a piece of music,
Or told you about their meditation experience.
Let a sense of them,
Recollection of them,
Come into the room with you.
Now consider including those who have really hurt you.
Not just those who you find a little annoying or irritating,
But somebody whose actions have really brought you to an edge,
So that you have almost said,
I've got to find another way to be happy.
I have to look more deeply into life.
After all,
They're a part of why we're here now as well.
Maybe you had a teacher who instilled love of learning and a willingness to be adventurous.
Maybe you had a parent who instilled confidence in your ability to try new things or explore new terrain.
Maybe you've had a child who's opened you up to a sense of wonder and interest.
Just let them be here with you now in this moment.
What about the clothing that you're wearing?
How many forms of life?
How many people?
How many beings have been involved in growing of that fiber,
Creation of cloth,
Transporting it,
Selling it?
The creation of the building in which you're sitting or the stewards of the plots of land if you're outside.
All of the forms of life involved in the food that you've eaten today.
Teacher in the earth who planted that seed and nurtured that crop,
Who did the harvest,
Transported the food,
Sold the food,
Prepared the food.
You can see that none of us is actually independent,
Alone,
Or cut off.
However alone we might sometimes feel.
They're all a part of a greater fabric of life.
This immense web of relationships and connections and influences.
This immense web of interdependence.
And we arrive at this moment in time born by a sea,
An ocean of conditions.
If we look at a tree,
We can see it as just a tree or we can look at a tree and sense the soil and everything that affects the quality of that soil which is nurturing the tree.
The rainfall,
Everything affecting the quality of that rainfall.
The sunlight and the moonlight,
The quality of the air.
Is the tree just a tree or the confluence of all these conditions coming together,
Moving,
Changing?
And so too we can see ourselves.
And now take a moment to bring your awareness back to your breath.
Noticing the rise and fall of your chest with each breath.
Giving yourself a moment to wiggle your fingers and toes.
And when you're ready,
Slowly opening your eyes.
And just give yourself a couple minutes to sit here and be present with the experience you just had during meditation.
If you enjoy journaling,
This might be a good time to journal down some of your thoughts and reflections.
Namaste.
