We'll begin as always by finding a comfortable seat.
Take a moment and settle in.
Feel your base connected to the earth.
Move your body a little bit so that you can feel some pressure on your sitz bones and then you'll know you're balanced well.
You should be sitting on something probably so that your hips are elevated a little above your knees.
You could even be sitting in a chair.
But find a straight spine.
Use your breath to facilitate this alignment.
When you start deepening your breath,
You'll notice that the spine starts aligning as though breath and spine were in collaboration,
In friendship with each other.
Coming together to calm the mind,
To slow things down.
Just let this happen naturally.
Breath and spine come together and do the work of calming the mind.
Sometimes we need to give the mind a little challenge,
Something to focus on.
So in this meditation,
The mind will contemplate the nature of the mind using a metaphor.
Keep breathing.
Just focus on your breath for a moment.
And now start to consider the sun and the moon.
Let's say that the moon is your mind.
Let's say that the sun is your true self.
So,
Like the moon,
Your mind reflects your true self in various ways through your thoughts,
Your personality,
Your ego.
A little or a lot.
Different phases.
Don't get too lost in the metaphor.
Just imagine that your mind can reflect the full glory of the sun,
Your true self,
Just as the moon can when it's full.
But sometimes the moon goes dark.
That doesn't mean the sun is not there.
We know that.
Let's consider another phenomenon,
The eclipse.
The moon is very small compared to the sun,
But the moon is so very close.
Just like our mind is so very small relative to our true self,
But the mind so very,
Very close.
So that frequently the mind,
The moon passes in front of the sun,
The true self,
Completely blocking the light.
And you see how the mind can just move out of the way and that light returns.
This metaphor,
This object of meditation is not to be taken too literally,
Not the phases of the moon,
The regularity of the moon,
The rotations,
All of that.
Don't get lost in it.
Don't let the mind take over and try to find the literal translation.
Just simply reflect on how the mind can reflect the true self a little or a lot,
Or the mind can block the true self a little or a lot,
Frequently or infrequently.
Back to breath and spine,
Straight spine,
Even breath.
Letting the mind shift,
Letting in the light of the true self.
Just breathe.
Just visualize the moon and the sun.
The macrocosm is also the microcosm.
That which is outside of us is also inside of us.
Continue this meditation as long as you feel like it.
Contemplating moon and sun,
Mind and true self.
Or simply just breathing,
Keeping the spine straight,
Letting the mind calm.
I'll sound the chime in five minutes.
Om,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
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