I invite you to take a tall and comfortable seat.
Allow the breath to be easy in and out of the nose.
And let the eyes close gently from top to bottom.
Or pick a gazing point in front of you.
Let your whole body breathe.
Cultivating a sense of peace simply through the breath.
And perhaps imagining your whole body relaxing and resting with each exhalation.
There's also often a sense of peace that can be cultivated and achieved by anchoring the attention to something in particular.
Something to keep you steady and calm.
Like a home base.
And for that you can just take a few moments to anchor yourself to either the breath,
Maybe it's the exhalation and that relaxation.
Or the body.
Whether it's a body scan or part of the body or a place in the body where you feel the breath moving.
To the sounds around you,
Especially if they're distracting you can use them as an anchor instead.
To the physical sensations in your body.
Even if it's uncomfortable just letting your attention rest on one of these as a gentle anchor and invitation to return back to the present moment.
If and when you feel distracted simply invite your attention back to your anchor.
It can be one or all of those things.
Knowing that you always have an opportunity to return to yourself in this way,
To your experience in this way.
And now we'll start to guide our attention,
Invite our attention to a few reflections that might help guide us to further cultivating a sense of peace in this experience.
You can ask yourself how am I feeling now?
Let yourself acknowledge,
Allow with this loving gentle presence.
Whether you're feeling concerned or angry or worried or you're feeling there are opposites like hopeful,
Determined,
Supportive,
Supported.
How am I feeling right now?
Doing your best to be a witness to yourself,
To your experience.
You might notice which of these things makes you feel peaceful or not at all at peace.
Starting to be aware of the things that bring us peace or that cause disruption,
Dis-ease,
Struggle,
Stress.
Feeling all of that belong whatever your experience is right now,
However you're feeling right now.
You are allowed to feel it all.
You can now ask yourself what does peace mean to me?
What have I learned about peace in the teachings or the dharma and also just in my experience in this lifetime?
What have I learned about what peace means to me?
It can be images or words or colors or people,
Places.
What does peace mean to you?
Give yourself a moment to rest in that place or to experience this space of peace.
What it means to you,
Why it's important to you.
You might ask yourself how does peace make me feel?
What does peace feel like when I embody it?
For example,
Does it calm the breath,
The physical body,
The mind?
Does it soften reactions towards yourself and towards others?
Does it feel light and breezy or maybe for you it feels grounding and steady?
How does peace make me feel?
And now who brings me peace?
What person in my life makes me feel peaceful or cultivates a sense of peace within me just by being around them or imagining them,
Envisioning them?
How does it feel to be in the presence of this person who brings me peace?
Whatever peace means to me individually.
For example,
Ease,
Space,
Sweetness,
Love.
Who is this person or who are these people?
Whether they're a teacher,
A guide,
A spiritual leader or just someone you know in your life,
Whether they're with us still or have passed on.
You might go back to noticing how that makes you feel physically.
You feel spacious in your body,
Calm,
Loved,
Safe.
Remembering you can always use those anchors as a tool to return to the present moment if your mind wanders elsewhere.
Because it's meant to do,
It's very natural for the attention to wander.
It's gently inviting it to return to your experience over and over again without judgment or if there is judgment and continuing to invite it anyways,
Knowing that all of these feelings,
All of these thoughts and experiences belong in this experience too.
And finally,
What brings me peace?
What are the things and the actions that I do throughout my day that bring me peace,
That cultivate a sense of peace within me,
That make me feel peaceful?
And how does it feel to be doing the thing that brings me peace,
Whether that's a physical activity or writing,
Taking a walk,
Being in nature,
Giving someone a hug or receiving a hug,
Listening to meaningful music,
Eating something delicious,
Taking a cozy nap.
What brings me peace?
What are the things in my life,
Things that I do during my day that make me feel peaceful?
Maybe you've done something once,
One activity in your life that has made you feel so peaceful,
Allowing that feeling to be present now.
With this sense of general awareness,
Inviting your awareness and your attention back to the present moment,
I invite you to sit with this essence of peace within your hearts.
Perhaps either today or later on with the intention of letting that peace and love expand outward as far as you would like it to expand,
But starting first with yourself.
Again,
It might be a color or an image or a feeling in a certain part of your body or a person that's with you,
Sitting here for these next few breaths with this essence of peace embodied within you.
Breathing calmly.
Breathing calmly in and out,
Guiding your attention once more back to this peaceful,
Spacious place,
This embodiment,
Letting your exhale relax you and also keep you grounded and anchored in your moment here,
Your experience here and now,
From moment to moment.
Remembering and acknowledging that this embodiment of peace is always accessible and that this peace exists within you,
Within all of us.
It's just sometimes about peeling back the layers,
Allowing everything else to be present and remembering and returning over and over again.
Remembering and returning.
I'll share this quote before we end.
It's a poem by John O'Donohue called For Peace.
It says,
As the fever of day calms towards twilight,
May all that is strained in us come to ease.
We pray for all who suffered violence today.
May an unexpected serenity surprise them.
For those who risk their lives each day for peace,
May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.
That those who make riches from violence and war might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.
That we might see through our fear of each other a new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.
That those who enjoy the privilege of peace might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.
That the wolf might lie down with the lamb.
That our swords be beaten into plowshares and no hurt or harm be done anywhere along the holy mountain.
I invite you to sit up a little bit taller.
Let the exhale relax you deeper.
And if it feels comfortable and natural for you to bring the hands together in acknowledgement of yourselves for showing up today in pursuit of peace,
I invite you to do that now.
Letting the head fall down towards the hands,
The chest,
Where the mind and the heart meet each other.
And taking a moment to thank yourselves.
And if it feels natural to repeat the word namaste after me,
You might envision the meaning of the word,
The light in you is the light in me,
Light within each of us all connected by light bowing to that light in each one of us.
Namaste.
