So first we'll start with a short practice so you can allow yourself to be in a meditative posture.
And bringing your awareness to a point in the line of your sight.
Where your eyes rest naturally.
And you can gradually allow your eyes to close for a while if that feels right.
And now just bringing your awareness to your breath.
And as you breathe in,
Imagine and visualize that you are breathing in white light.
And as you breathe out,
Imagine that you are breathing out black smoke.
So breathing in white light and breathing out black smoke.
Breathing in peace.
And breathing out stress.
Breathing in presence.
And breathing out distraction.
Breathing in consciousness.
And breathing out unconsciousness.
And just continue breathing in light and breathing out black smoke.
Release anything you want to release through this black smoke.
Empty yourself of anything you want to let go of.
Empty the thoughts Empty the emotions bringing yourself to a state of equanimity.
With every breath,
Feeling yourself becoming more and more present.
And then gradually Allow your eyes to open very gently.
As we bring this short practice to its completion.
So.
.
.
Temple is a place or a practice that brings you to presence.
And today Your work is to identify your temple.
It's not really work,
But it's more of an identification.
A realization,
A recognition that what is that place or what is that practice for you that brings you to presence.
This place can be anything.
This place can be your meditation corner in the house.
This can be a place in nature.
You know,
One of my temples is a beach.
I live near the water,
So a beach where I go to meditate.
Or just sometimes sit at the beach and listen to the sound of the waves.
It could be a hike,
It could be a trail.
It could be also maybe a room where You have a distraction-free room where you are letting go of all distractions.
You are not bringing in any phones,
Any technology there.
You are finding time in solitude and being in that room,
So that room can be your temple.
So these are places,
But then there are practices that are temples.
For example,
Your basic practice of becoming aware,
I like to do a five-point awareness practice where I'm becoming aware of.
.
.
The external world,
The body.
My emotions,
My thoughts and my breath.
It could also be a walking meditation where you are walking maybe in nature and that walking meditation is your practice.
It could also be music which can bring you to presence.
It can be art or drawing.
Identify a place or practice that brings you to presence and pick one,
Choose one.
Because there is usually one you can identify that you know that,
Yeah,
When I do this practice or when I go to this place,
I find myself more present.
And what we do here is that we increase our time during the day for that place or practice.
For example,
Let's say if you are just practice is a daily meditation of 20 minutes.
Increasing that and I would recommend increasing that by 50 percent.
Which means if you are doing 20 minutes,
Then do 30 minutes.
If you are being in nature for 30 minutes,
Let's do 45 minutes.
If you are doing it for 1 hour,
Then let's do 1 hour 30 minutes.
And if you feel that you don't have a place or a practice which is distraction-free for you,
Which is your temple,
And if you are starting then I would say that Spend at least 15 to 20 minutes every day in the beginning,
At least 15 minutes in that temple of yours.
So,
What is that temple for you?
And how much time are you going to increase or how much time are you going to dedicate to this temple on a daily basis.
