Arriving in the sitting posture,
We pause for a few moments in the middle of the swirl of this life.
This is always true.
It seems particularly dramatic to pause when there's so much happening,
When there's an emergency spinning around our lives.
But it's always possible to pause.
And the emergency is real,
But also not special in a way.
Birth and death,
Sickness and loss is always happening.
We can remember the nature of the body without becoming lost in fear and worry.
Feel the body sitting.
Feel the breath,
Whether deep or shallow.
Feeling free or feeling constricted.
This is the breathing body.
Like all things,
The body is part of nature,
Inseparable from nature,
Subject to the realities of nature.
Feeling the body connect with any aspect of this physical experience where there's ease or a neutral feeling,
Any part of our experience where we feel okay or even good.
Maybe in the feet or the hands.
Maybe sitting down to pause in the midst of everything already feels good.
Connect with anything that's easeful in our physical experience.
If when we connect with the body,
All we find is the contraction or vibration we call anxiety or fear or worry.
Let the eyes open.
Just sit tall and relax,
But let the gaze move around.
Everything we're afraid of is not in this very moment here in this body.
Even if we are sick in this moment,
Even for the person on their deathbed,
In this moment,
Death has not yet arrived.
And our practice is to understand through ourselves,
Through our very being,
What's true now and understand that fear is directed at a future that is only imagined.
Feeling now,
Feeling the body now,
Feeling the fear or the worry now,
Not trying to fix any part of our experience or dismiss any part of our experience.
If it's helpful as we sit to keep the eyes open,
Staying present in the space where you are,
Then do that.
If it's helpful to soften the body and sway a little or allow the breath and the sense of the body as an alive presence,
Move you a little,
Then do that.
The heart of our practice is to come into intimate presence with the body in this very moment unfolding,
Aging,
Tender,
Vulnerable,
Noble in its sincerity,
In our sincerity,
In the heart's longing for peace and freedom and security.
As we continue sitting into the silence,
Staying with the felt sense of the body,
Resisting the urge for the mind to leap out into the future or out into other places toward other people and for a few moments just resting in this place,
This moment,
This breath rising and falling,
The breath not yet ended,
The body not yet dissolved.
Breathing through this moment of our life,
Changing,
Never the same moment twice.
Rest into presence and freedom even a little from fear together.
We'll sit in silence from here.
