Meditations For Troubled Times - 1 : End & Beginning

The first of four Meditations for Troubled Times, originally published as a response to the pandemic. Each meditation speaks to a quality of the human soul when confronted with the struggle to find the path to tread through life's hardest times. 'End and Beginning' offers the insight that with every ending comes a beginning somewhere... "in my end is my beginning" - TS Eliot, from Four Quartets.

Transcript

Be still and let nothing be going on.

Whatever is around in the world and in your mind,

For these few moments can be on hold.

Be still and let nothing be going on.

In the stillness,

Sense your breathing.

Steady.

Calm.

Regular.

Soft.

Each breath beginning,

Ending,

And the next beginning.

Rising,

Falling,

And then rising again.

A cycle barely pausing.

Each ending,

Another beginning.

Like a wheel slowly turning.

For each new thing that happens,

There was something that came before.

And there will be something which comes after.

Like the earth which keeps on turning.

Like the night is always dawning.

Like the old becoming new.

There is no ending which is not a beginning somewhere.

There is no ending.

There is no ending.

Each moment contains the moment before.

Each day contains the day before.

We pass through into each next one like parting a veil which gathers again behind us.

We mark our passage with the impressions we leave behind.

And when it feels right,

We can return.