Hello,
My name is Nicho and welcome to Stillness Like a River,
A guided meditation sitting with Buddha by the river.
Take a comfortable seat,
Allowing yourself to settle gently into stillness.
Imagine yourself seated beneath an ancient tree beside a flowing river.
Feel the stability of the earth beneath you,
The roots of that tree going deep into the ground.
Allow your breath to deepen gently,
Matching the rhythm of the flowing water nearby.
And notice how the river flows effortlessly,
Steadily,
Unhurried.
And allow yourself to rest here,
Releasing any tension you're holding on to.
You've come to sit here with Buddha by this peaceful river.
So simply be.
Let us open this meditation with a reading from the classic Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.
He listened.
He was now nothing but a listener,
Completely absorbed in listening,
Completely empty.
He felt he had now finished learning how to listen.
He had often heard all this before,
These many voices in the river,
But today it sounded new.
By this river,
Siddhartha listened and heard the river sing with voices of suffering,
Of longing,
Of joy,
And voices of goodness and sorrow,
Voices of laughter,
Voices of weeping.
He heard the river.
Above all,
The river taught him one thing,
There is no time.
The river is everywhere at the same moment,
At its source and at its mouth,
At the waterfall and at the ferry,
At the ocean and in the mountains,
Everywhere.
For the river is the only present,
Not the shadow of the past or the shadow of the future.
Siddhartha listened,
And with the flowing waters,
He found the truth that everything returns,
Everything flows,
Everything merges.
The river taught him that life is like water,
Forever moving forward,
Never holding on,
Never looking back,
Yet always connected,
Always one.
We can learn so much from the river.
Like water,
We can flow gently around obstacles instead of resisting or struggling against them.
Like the river,
We can move without clinging,
Always ready to release and receive anew.
Our breath is like this river,
Flowing continuous,
Effortlessly renewing us with each cycle.
Now,
Let the wisdom of the river guide you.
For the next several minutes,
Let yourself simply sit,
Fully present to your breath and to the flow of the river.
When thoughts arise,
Let them come and go like leaves gently floating down the stream.
Let this river and this ancient tree become more vivid in your mind,
Seeing it clearly.
And in that stillness,
Imagine what lessons could be learned from the constant flow of the water just beneath your seat.
And if your mind has drifted,
Return to the flow of the water.
Hear the trickle of water's movement.
Breathe gently and let go.
Once again,
Checking in with your wandering thoughts and let them be carried away by the flow of the stream with its sounds and its momentum.
Very gently,
Bring your awareness back to the feeling of your body seated on the earth beneath the tree.
Begin to notice again the flow of your breath,
Feeling its quiet rhythm within you.
And remember the wisdom of the river to live effortlessly,
Flowing gently,
Always present,
Never holding tightly and never pushing away.
Carry this stillness and wisdom of the river with you,
Knowing that at any moment you can pause,
Listen,
And return to this peace within.
May your heart be gentle.
May your mind be clear.
May you move through life like the river,
Ever flowing,
Ever free,
Everywhere.
Live like dust lit by fire.
Nicho
