The practice of the presence.
Just allowing yourself time to prepare yourself for your practice this morning.
Coming to a nice comfortable seated upright position.
Whether that's on a chair or cross legged on the floor on a meditation cushion.
Maybe having your hands supported with a cushion.
Gently closing your eyes.
Relaxing your face,
Relaxing your jaw.
Begin by taking two or three deeper breaths.
And then resume your natural flow of breath,
Inhaling and exhaling through the nose.
This practice of the presence is allowing the space,
Allowing this room for anything at all to arise.
Thoughts,
Memories,
Sounds.
That job here is to just allow anything at all to come in,
To be seen.
And for us just to leave that.
Bringing our awareness back here in this space,
In this moment right now.
And remember that your thoughts,
Your mind and not your enemy.
We don't want to suppress our thoughts,
Suppress the emotions.
Nor do we want to be a slave to our mind,
Being pulled in every direction.
So if we think of this practice,
As I've said,
As providing this sort of space.
Not needing to worry about how much or how little activity is going on.
Strangely,
The more you don't worry about what's going on in the mind,
The more it seems to just ease and settle.
And what's important to know that whether the thoughts ease or settle or whether they don't,
It's actually no marker on how well you're doing in your meditation practice.
What is a much better indicator is that you can allow any thought or emotion simply to show up,
To be there,
To notice it and move from that.
If you need a stronger anchor to start your practice,
If your mind is particularly busy right now,
Then you can maybe use words for your mantra of peace on your inhale and calm on the exhale.
Just for a minute or two to settle you in.
But I invite you to be as open and spacious as the sky.
Don't think of yourself focusing in that space of your mind.
Stand back and allow your vision to be as expansive as the sky.
The sky doesn't matter if they are clouded,
Clouded with thoughts,
Or if it's crystal clear,
A clear blue sky.
Just provide this very free space to be with whatever arises.
This practice can bring with it a sense of freedom.
No restrictions,
No expectations,
Just being with what is in this moment.
Just doing your best not to become too involved.
Just notice,
Allow,
And see what may arise next.
Amazing.
As the meditation progresses,
You may have moments of clarity,
Moments of complete spaciousness,
Or you may have clarity in a different way.
Clarity of experiencing each thought coming like a wave,
Knowing that each wave,
Each thought,
Each breath comes and goes.
They're all impermanent.
And with that realization,
It becomes a little easier to be able to just sit there,
Provide the space,
And watch them come and go.
To be the observer of your mind,
Of your thoughts.
To not be the thoughts,
But the observer of.
If your mind is flooded with activity,
And you can't seem to be aware of any space in between,
Then that's just fine.
I invite you to challenge your mind a little.
To say,
Show me what you've got.
I'm interested to see what next may come into my mind.
Stepping back a little,
Allowing your awareness to be as expansive as the sky once again.
And with such invitation,
You may be surprised to see nothing at all.
To see that the mind has eased a little.
And another thing,
If this is helpful for you,
Sometimes labeling each thing that arises helps us just to keep that distance between observing and latching on.
So as soon as you notice a thought,
You could say silently to yourself,
Thought or thinking.
Sound.
Memory.
Anything that's made up,
You don't know where it's from,
You could label it as drama.
This sometimes helps us keep that distance if our mind is particularly busy right now.
Just for the last few moments,
Take a deep breath.
Step back a little from the mind.
Allow that spaciousness of the sky.
And see what comes up next.
If anything,
Enjoying an easeful breath.
As we near to the end of our practice,
The choice is yours if you wish to stay in this presence,
In this moment,
For a little longer.
Or just taking two or three deeper breaths.
Maybe gently swaying the body from side to side.
Having a good stretch.
Slowly opening your eyes.
May you have an easeful day.
