Welcome to this Tibetan Buddhist meditation called Mind in the Sky.
Come to your comfortable meditation position and allow your eyes to gently close.
As you inhale,
Feel the air moving against your nostrils,
Filling your lungs.
And as you move into your exhalation,
Allow your forehead,
Eye sockets,
And jaw to relax.
Allow your shoulders to roll down and away from your ears,
Letting go of any tension in the body,
Letting it all drift away with every exhale.
As we move through this meditation,
You will use your imagination to visualize these places as I guide you through the practice.
It's okay if you don't have a perfect picture.
Just try to get the feeling of it.
Now imagine that you are coming home from work or running errands,
And you find yourself at your front door.
It's a nice summer day in the afternoon,
And you're walking into your front door,
Opening,
And walk inside.
You take off your shoes and put down your bag,
And walk inside the house and grab a drink of water.
Take a look around this space.
Notice all the familiar things,
The drawers,
Pictures on the wall,
Where your furniture is.
Just relax into this familiar space.
And as you sit here,
Gazing around the room,
Just allow yourself to relax in this familiar space.
The pictures on the walls,
The rugs on the floor,
Plants,
Flowers.
Notice all the details,
The floor,
The tiles and wood panels,
What's outside the windows.
And feel the chair or the couch where you are sitting,
That familiar,
Comfortable seat.
And now you decide to go ahead and walk to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
So grab your teacup,
Turn on the kettle,
Move to the cabinet where you store your tea.
Get as detailed as you can how this would look for you in your home space.
Bring the hot water over your tea bag,
Now return to your chair and just soak in your environment.
Now you decide to take a walk because it's such a beautiful day,
So you set your teacup down,
Put on your shoes,
And walk back out the door.
But this time when you walk out the door,
The surrounding is a little bit different,
Different than the normal environment around your home.
It's a new surrounding,
A new environment.
And as you continue to walk away from your home and down the sidewalk path of the street,
Birds are flying,
Singing,
Your hair gently blows with a breeze.
You can feel the gentle wind on your face as you walk down the street.
And in the distance you can see a forest.
The trees are growing thicker and taller as you continue to walk.
The path gradually becomes more of a mud hiking path.
And you continue to walk.
There's no rush.
And as you look around,
You see trees,
Rocks.
You hear the sounds of the trees,
The leaves moving.
You look down at the path and see rocks and roots.
And as you look up,
You're completely surrounded by forest,
Tall,
Beautiful trees.
And as you continue walking,
The path begins to angle uphill,
Continually getting a little bit more narrow,
The forest growing thicker.
You continue walking until you find yourself at the top of a hill.
And as you arrive to the top of the hill,
There's an open flat area,
A large open field of lush green grass,
Surrounded by the tall forest trees.
So you take your shoes off and you walk to the center of the clearing.
You feel the soft blades of grass stroking your feet.
You see the trees in the corner of your eyes.
And in the center of the open field,
You sit down,
Lay down,
And look up at the sky.
All you see is the bright blue vast sky above you.
There are no clouds,
Just open,
Vast,
Blue sky.
And you stay there,
Admiring this openness,
This vastness,
The emptiness of the sky completely surrounding you.
Just a big,
Open,
Vast space filling all around you.
And feel this experience.
What does it feel like to be surrounded by such openness?
Nothing there.
Just a big,
Clear,
Empty space.
And then you notice a cloud drifting in.
The cloud drifts into the clear blue sky above you.
And you just notice it.
And just as slowly it drifts out,
Disappearing.
And then just the clear,
Empty sky again,
Before another cloud begins to drift in.
If you can't imagine the picture of the clear blue sky,
Imagine the feeling of it.
There might be spots or clouds,
And just observe that.
Just focus on that and nothing else.
Looking up,
Sideways,
All around,
And feel the big,
Clear,
Blue sky all around you.
Three hundred and sixty degrees of clear blue sky.
And if you find yourself drifting away thinking of something else,
Come back to this clear,
Empty vastness.
And now begin to move your hands and your feet,
Feeling the soft grass below you.
And you're feeling rested and relaxed.
You're ready to return home.
So you sit up,
Put on your shoes,
Stand up,
And begin to walk back to the trees.
To the dirt path leading down the hill,
And you're feeling satisfied,
And you're feeling the good energy that the forest has given you,
And you're feeling the peace and calm,
Just like the sky.
And as you look around,
You see all the beauty,
The green moving leaves,
The sun rays shining through,
And you continue to walk through the forest,
Down the hill,
Along the path,
Which turns into a sidewalk again.
And you look up,
And you see the vast blue sky is still there.
And you continue walking back to the space where you were sitting before,
Inside your home.
Back in the same chair,
Right where you sat your teacup.
And now,
Even though you can't see the blue spacious sky above,
You remember the feeling.
You can still feel it.
And whenever you're ready,
Open your eyes and come back to this space.
So this meditation,
Mind Like the Sky,
We've moved through a metaphor.
The big blue,
Vast,
Spacious,
Open sky is the natural state of your mind.
This open,
Vast,
Clear awareness is what you come back to and become more and more familiar with through meditation.
By creating space between the thoughts,
Just like the clouds coming and going,
We become more familiar with this vast,
Spacious sky all around us.
And it's always there,
Whether we're in our homes,
Whether there's things obstructing our view from it.
So continue on diligently through these meditations and journaling exercises.
And know that we're moving towards our big,
Blue,
Spacious sky through these practices.
