Be seated in any meditative posture and allow yourself to be comfortable.
Activate your abdominal region to maintain an upright spine with its natural curves.
Place your hands on your knees or in a mudra of your choosing.
Slightly draw in your chin and rest your gaze on the space just ahead of you.
If you prefer,
Now is the time to gently close your eyes and mouth.
Let's start by taking a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Rest your attention on your breath.
It will be your anchor throughout this meditation.
If thoughts arise,
Acknowledge them and let them go.
Simply return to the breath.
Allow each inhalation and exhalation to bring you more presence,
More awareness of the basic goodness of life.
Give yourself permission to relax,
Unwind and allow the natural state of being to fill the space.
Breathe in relaxation.
Breathe out tension.
Breathe in love.
Breathe out courage.
I'm going to open this meditation with an excerpt from the Tao Te Ching.
We join spokes together in a wheel,
But it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
But it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
But it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We work with being,
But non-being is what we use.
What is awareness or consciousness?
What does it mean to be aware or to be conscious?
When we try to become aware,
We sometimes try to do something,
To add something on.
But this doesn't usually work.
Instead,
We may need to do less.
This is why often the most effective paths to awareness are often slowing down,
Letting go or surrendering.
Or simply being the body or being the earth and the senses.
Or following changing body sensations such as heat or pressure or subtle body movements,
Relationship patterns and inner mythic images with tenderness.
Perhaps doing less means listening to the sound of a river without thinking river.
Or listening to the call of birds or the sound of pine needles falling and hearing all the tiny micro sounds and micro rhythms and changes in pitch and rhythm in the sound.
Or smelling the mammals,
Insects,
Reptiles and plants around you and the temperature and humidity of the air.
Perhaps doing less can mean noticing the sensations and subtle movements in your scalp,
Eyes,
Brain,
Bones,
Ligaments,
Musculature,
Neck,
Spine,
Arms,
Fingers,
Shoulder blades,
Ankles,
Calves,
Thighs,
Hips,
Buttocks,
Intestines,
Liver,
Kidneys or heart.
Perhaps it's noticing the changing light and thousands of colors present in an autumnal chestnut tree at dusk.
Or looking at how the sky gently wraps itself around a sparrow as it moves across the vastness.
Awareness is easeful,
Relaxed,
Open and spontaneous.
Awareness is not a thing in itself.
It is not a substance.
It is like space.
It is an absence.
It is an element that is imminent in the earth and everything.
It moves through us.
It is refracted through the prism of our particular perspective.
Nor is it outside time.
It is in itself the movement of time.
It is like a clear river moving with nothing in it.
It has no content.
It is completely empty of content.
It is empty but also fertile,
Tender and alive.
Like love,
It is this omnipresent,
Omniscient thing on which the entire universe depends.
For the remainder of this meditation,
You can remain in your meditation position and practice the art of non-doing.
Practice non-doing until it is no longer a practice.
Practice until you are the art of non-doing.
Practice until the art of non-doing has overcome you and you are merely the awareness you seek.
This is what meditation is.
The joining of the spokes in the wheel.
The shaping of the clay into a pot.
The hammering of wood into a house.
This required work is what we have to work with.
And in meditation,
We use the gentle space that is created through allowing the mind and body to rest.
When we find the result is peace and happiness.
There is no need to become the spokes or the wheel.
There is no need to become the clay or the pot.
There is no need to become the wood or the house.
There is no need to become anything.
You don't need to do anything.
Meditate and the movement of the wheel becomes you.
The clear emptiness in the pot becomes you.
The livable inner space of the house becomes you.
Let go of doing or being and simply rest in the gentle space you're naturally creating through meditation.
Observe and let go.
Meditate.
You
