Welcome to this meditation.
It's the perfect start to remind you of some of the important truths about yourself.
I first heard it from the great Thich Nhat Hanh.
This meditation is famously done with four pebbles or stones,
But you can use any four items like a scrumpled up piece of paper,
But you can also do it just by miming,
Just pretending you have four things in one hand.
So feel free to choose whatever works for you.
If it's four items that are small that fit in your hand or whether you're just going to mime it,
It's all good,
As long as the intention is correct.
After it,
You may be inspired to find four pebbles for the next time.
Get yourself into a nice comfortable seat and whatever you've chosen,
Whether it's imaginary or real,
Place them into your left hand and close it.
Bring the eyes to close and at the same time begin to open up your mind to the experience and the moment that you're in.
Sounds really mystical,
I know,
But all I'm asking you to do here is feel your body sitting and feel it breathing.
Enjoy the act of sitting and enjoy the act of breathing.
It can sometimes take a while to get settled in and reduce our focus just to these two things,
Sitting and breathing,
So I'm just going to give you a little time to get well acquainted with the breath and the seat.
Okay,
Good.
Now from this place of peace,
Let's talk about those items in your left hand.
Take your first item,
Whether it's a pebble,
Piece of paper or imaginary thing,
And move it over to your right hand.
This first item represents a flower,
So imagine yourself now as a flower,
Your seat like the bulb of a plant,
Your legs like the roots,
Your spine is the stem and your face is the pistil,
Which is just a fancy name for the middle of a flower.
Imagine inhabiting the very essence of a flower now,
Being proud,
Beautiful,
Fresh,
New.
You bring smiles to all those who encounter you.
A flower is this convergence of energy from the ground,
The rain and the sunshine and they all come together to make something brand new,
Something fresh.
They also represent the end of winter and the start of a new season.
You have the same essence inside of you.
As a child,
You knew you were fresh,
Your eyes were new to everything,
Your hands were new to everything,
That's why you had to grab everything,
But sometimes we forget that we are a fresh creation.
As we get older,
We feel tarnished.
So right now,
As you inhale,
Think of the essence of a flower,
Then as you exhale,
Remind yourself that you have this essence,
That you are fresh.
Inhale embody the essence of a flower,
Exhale remind yourself that you are fresh,
Inhale think flower,
Exhale feel fresh.
We come now to the second item in your left hand,
Move it across to your right hand now.
This second item represents a mountain,
Solid,
Strong,
Unmovable,
Reliable,
Formidable.
As you sit there,
Think of how strong you are,
How solid you can become,
Your back like a towering cliff face,
Your shoulders like a ridge,
And your head like the peak of a majestic mountain.
Think of your capacity to be firm and reliable and how those features can help others come to you,
To feel safe around you.
Hold this item tightly with your right hand now and as you inhale,
Feel yourself as a mountain,
As you exhale,
Remind yourself that you are strong,
Inhale feel your mountain like qualities,
And as you exhale,
Remind yourself that you are solid,
Inhale mountain,
Exhale reliable.
Move now to the third item and place it in your right hand.
This represents water,
Imagine now the beautiful landscape of a lake near some mountains,
Maybe you've been to one,
Maybe you've just seen a photo,
You know the classic photos from places like Switzerland or Banff in Canada,
Italy and the Dolomites,
Anywhere you have seen the sky and the landscape reflected in the water,
The image so perfectly captured by the liquid that no matter how you look at the image whether it's upside down or right side up,
You can't tell the difference.
This is because water has this incredible quality to reflect the world perfectly,
To show the reality of things,
But there is a caveat.
This only works when the water is still,
When the water is calm,
When the water is peaceful.
If the water is disturbed or turbulent,
Then this quality to reflect is lost.
You are no different,
You have the capacity to see the world perfectly as it is,
But only when you are still,
Only when you are calm,
Only when you are in peace.
You cannot do this with thoughts of anger or selfishness or jealousy or ego,
So as you hold tightly to that new item,
This item that represents water,
Begin to feel these qualities of water within you.
As you inhale,
Feel yourself as water and as you exhale,
Become still as that water.
Inhale,
You are water,
Exhale,
You can reflect the world,
Inhale,
Water,
Exhale,
Stillness.
The last item now comes across and this item represents space.
Space is in the room between things as well as the space in the night sky,
In the cosmos.
Space simply put is freedom.
Freedom to move,
To exist,
To express yourself,
To be yourself,
To feel,
To know,
To be.
Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of the moon shining on us because he is so happy,
Because he has all the space around him.
The moon is free and so the moon is happy.
That space allows him to show himself and to reflect the brightness of the sun.
Everything is in his way.
You are born with the same sense of space but quickly you collect items that burden your movement,
Material things that tie you down into a way of living,
That make it hard to move,
That take up your space.
We have desires that often take us off course,
Distractions that make us collide with others.
But you can shed these things whenever you want.
You can discover your space and like the moon you can find your happiness.
Begin to feel the space that exists within you.
As you exhale,
Feel this freedom.
Inhale space,
Exhale freedom.
Inhale space,
Exhale freedom.
Hold your right hand tight now and one last time feel yourself,
Firstly as a flower,
Fresh,
Then as a mountain,
Solid,
Then as water,
Still and then as space,
Free.
Thank you for joining me.
Go out,
Have a great day and be fresh,
Strong,
Still and free.
Namaste.
Www.
Mooji.
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