So,
I'd like to invite everyone to close their eyes for a few moments to meditate together.
So,
Find a comfortable position for meditation practice,
Closing your eyes very gently and breathing deeply to yourself to relax and slow down,
Bringing body and mind back to a place of quietness within ourselves.
Meditation practice is mostly about working with our mind,
For our mind to relax and recover focus.
First of all,
We need to make sure that our body is relaxed.
So,
Initially we scan down through the whole of our body,
Relaxing each and every muscle as we go,
Starting at the top of our head,
Relaxing all the muscles in our forehead,
Relaxing our eyebrows and our eyelids.
Even the way we close our eyes should be as light and gentle as possible,
Relaxing our jaw,
Letting our shoulders drop to their natural height,
Relaxing both arms,
Forearms,
And then our hands and fingers.
Continuing on down,
We can relax the whole of our torso,
Chest,
Trunk,
Muscles across our core,
Before relaxing both legs,
All the way down to our feet and our toes,
Until the whole of our body feels as if it's become completely relaxed,
Almost as if it's melted away into the atmosphere around us,
So that we can forget about our body for now,
And turn our attention inward to relax our state of mind.
Relaxing the mind relates to that feeling inside the body,
The sense of warmth and well-being within.
Relaxing the mind is mostly about letting go,
To begin to let go of all the changeable things in our lives,
Because if we're unable to let go,
We'll eventually inadvertently be trapped and hurt by them,
So we try not to let our mind get caught up in things,
We try not to let our mind wander to thoughts of the past,
Or to plans for the future,
We keep our mind in the present moment,
On the task in hand,
Of relaxing,
Training,
And cultivating the mind in meditation,
For which we've set aside these precious few moments,
Filling the mind with thoughts of happiness and joy,
Filling the mind with a sense of spaciousness,
Radiance,
Lightness,
And refreshedness,
Spacious like the ocean,
Radiant like the morning sun,
Light as a feather,
And refreshed like a flower body in the early morning dew,
We fill our mind with happiness and joy,
Almost as if tiny particles of happiness and joy completely filled our mind,
Leaving no space in our mind for any other sort of thought,
To make space for the maximum of positivity today,
Within the mind we might imagine that within the body is just an empty space,
Without any organs or tissues,
Muscles or bones,
And within that empty space of our body,
We might imagine brightness,
Imagining brightness inside of ourselves,
Even if it's not very clear to start out with,
Seen with the mind's eye,
Rather than the physical eyesight,
And if our awareness wanders away on to other things,
Each time we realize,
We just bring our focus back again,
It might be an imaginary picture like a flickering candle flame,
A twinkling star perhaps,
Or even a sparkling diamond inside us,
If the picture disappears,
We can think of a new one,
And even if it's more of a feeling,
We sustain it as a feeling,
With a light and gentle attention,
As continuously as we can,
For as long as we can,
If we find thoughts coming up in the mind,
We do our best to ignore them,
Keep our mind free of thought,
If there are too many thoughts in the mind,
For us to focus continuously on our inner brightness,
We might revert to a traditional mantra with words such as sammah arahang,
Or your own equivalent,
Just to keep the thoughts at bay,
And we continue with this mantra only for as long as we need,
To quieten down the thoughts in the mind,
To complete silence and serenity within ourselves,
So we continue to cultivate the focus of our mind in this way,
Lightly and gently,
Just for a few more moments in silence,
So if we find our mind wanders away,
Each time we realize,
We bring it gently back again,
To the meditation object at our center like before,
If the inner object disappears,
We can conjure up a new one,
And if it changes,
Then we can follow it in its new form,
And although that sense of brightness may still be small,
It is a little bit like the stars above us in the sky,
A reminder that there is light even in the darkest moments,
And that it's just a question of perspective,
So we let the stars above mirror our inward light,
A piece of ourselves in the endless night,
Because often we forget that we are part of nature,
Nature is not something separate from us,
So that when we say that we've lost our connection to nature,
In fact we have lost our connection to ourselves,
And even in the darkness,
Beauty can grow as unwhispered dreams within our heart,
As we continue to find dignity and find peace under the stars,
So we continue to engage with the silence of the night,
Checking in with the wisdom within ourselves,
As we continue step by step toward a state of inner harmony,
For a few more moments in silence,
Before we come to time for some loving-kindness meditation,
And as we continue to immerse ourselves in serenity beneath the starlit heavens,
We may experience what sometimes seems like an inward waking dream,
With every star in the firmament extending its light in happiness,
Peace and contentment,
And we realize that this is only possible when there is a sharing of those qualities,
Just like the stars,
People need to lift each other up,
And encourage each other,
Rather than trying to outdo each other,
Because the sky would be terribly dark if there were only one star in the sky,
In the same way if we are here to heal and not to harm,
If we are here to love and not to hate,
If we are here to create and not destroy,
Then we need to be the sort of good people who can be recognized by the way we treat the weakest and most vulnerable,
And even humble living creatures in the world around us,
Through empathy and a wish that others be happy and free from suffering,
So we allow the positive energy to build up from our meditation,
To magnify and multiply from our center,
Emanating in ever-widening circles from our center,
Initially to the whole of ourselves,
With the wish that may we be well and happy,
And may we gain the happiness and contentment we need,
In order to extend the same qualities to others,
So we practice self-compassion first,
Reminding ourselves to take it one day,
One thought,
One moment,
One task at a time,
Instead of being overwhelmed,
Because even the most daunting mountains are climbed one step at a time,
So realizing a sense of empathy and forgiveness for ourselves,
Because our heart has never stopped loving,
Even when it's entirely forgotten itself,
So gently inviting ourselves back into life,
Love and the truth of our being,
With the wish,
May I be free from suffering,
May I be well and happy,
So we continue to extend the positive energy of kindness beyond ourselves,
To all the living beings around us,
In ever-widening circles,
To all living beings without exception,
With the wish,
May all living beings be free of suffering,
May they live together in peace,
Happiness and harmony,
May this world understand that working together is much better than working against each other,
And then we extend our loving kindness across the entire face of the planet,
With the wish,
That our collective positive energy of mind,
Help to nurture and sustain the world on this occasion,
Especially on a day when we are considering the protection and nurture of the environment as a whole,
And finally we may extend loving kindness for particular loved ones of ours,
Those for whom we feel a particular debt of gratitude,
Those who we realize are going through tough times at the moment,
Or it might be for particular loved ones of ours who have already passed,
Trusting that they can still witness and pick up on the positive energy that we emanate for their benefit,
We extend good wishes for all beings everywhere,
With the wish,
That they can pick up on the positive energy we are sharing today,
Just for the last few moments of our meditation practice together now in silence.
