Hi,
It's Brooks.
Thanks for joining me.
Today we're going to talk about what does it mean to be alive?
I figure that's a really good topic because we're alive.
And it's worth investigating.
Perhaps there's something really interesting there to recognize or to realize.
We'll find out,
Right?
We'll take a look.
We'll take a curious look.
So I'd like you to find a comfortable place to sit or to lie down and close your eyes.
And feel yourself relax.
Feel the breath come in and the breath go out.
The breath comes in and goes out.
There's something comforting in the breath.
There's a feeling,
Perhaps,
Of I'm being breathed.
My body's breathing me.
I'm being taken care of.
It's quite comforting.
Perhaps life itself is taking care of me.
I'm being tended to.
Given the gift of life with every breath.
Life must really want me to be alive.
Constantly breathing me.
It's interesting to ponder.
So what is this life?
This life that I'm experiencing right now.
This life within me.
This life that allows me to experience.
To hear these words.
To be aware.
When you think about it,
What does it feel like?
What is the life itself within you?
What does that feel like to you?
Perhaps there's a flow or a vibration.
Maybe a sense.
How do you detect that feeling of life?
How does it come to you?
Imagine you're a toaster and you're built for making toast.
But if you're not plugged in,
You can't make toast.
Because you need that electricity.
You need that electricity to function.
So imagine you're a toaster and you get plugged in.
And that electricity flows through you.
How does that feel?
Before you even make toast,
There's a potential for making toast.
Because of the electricity.
And once toast is put in the toaster and the levers press down,
The toast making happens.
Because the toaster has been built for this and the electricity supports what the toaster has been manufactured for.
There's vitality in electricity.
In the same way there's vitality in you.
There's that flow of energy.
That vital force.
What does that feel like in your body?
In your mind?
In your heart?
In your skin?
In your lungs?
In your veins?
In your nerves?
As long as you're alive,
There's this vitality.
We often don't really notice it hardly because it's always there.
And anything that's common tends to be unnoticed.
But when we talk about it like this with a curiosity,
With a sense of investigation and openness,
Or the wanting to know,
What does it mean to be alive?
What does it mean for me to feel alive?
To feel aliveness?
Can I sense that?
Can I feel it?
Can I notice it?
And noticing it can be very special.
It's like a secret's been revealed.
Life has made itself known to me.
The life that flows through others,
That moves planets,
That fuels the sun.
But life is in me.
Because I can see it.
Because I can feel it.
Because I'm aware of its pulse in me.
Its vibration in me.
And suddenly when this is revealed,
When you're aware of it,
Then you no longer feel alone.
That sense of being separate.
That lonely feeling.
It falls away when we feel that feeling of life flowing within us.
The life that animates everything.
The life that fuels growth and change.
The animating energy behind every experience that we have.
In the same way that we have blood flowing through our body,
Through our veins,
We have this life that flows through us.
And it's mighty.
That life is mighty.
And when we feel that life,
We feel protected.
And we feel loved.
Life has revealed itself to me.
It's opened itself to me.
It's shown itself to me.
It's giving itself to me.
Life itself must love me if it's giving me this experience of being alive.
If it's allowing me to be alive.
It's supplying me that life force,
Like the electricity through the toaster.
So you're not alone when that which fuels everything is fueling you.
It becomes possible to feel connected with others.
With trees,
With the land,
With the sky,
And the planet,
And the other planets.
Because that which fuels them is fueling me.
So it allows the divisions to fall between,
Divisions between you and others,
Between you and everything.
It falls away.
As you become aware that this,
That mighty force that's in everything,
That animates everything,
Is animating you.
So what does it mean to be alive?
It means to be supported by the life force.
I exist,
I'm experiencing,
I'm alive because of the grace of the life force.
Regardless of what you do in your life,
That life supports you.
Whether you think you made a mistake,
Or you think you made a masterpiece,
Or anything in between.
That life support,
That life force,
Lives you,
Moves through you,
Loves you.
So we're going to enter our meditation now,
And you can open your eyes,
Move around,
Take a breath.
And congratulations,
You took this real beautiful look at life itself,
And you,
As you.
And when you need to remember it,
It will come back to you.
You'll be reminded spontaneously when you need to know.
But it's always there as a background current.
Loving you and living you.
I wish you the best.
