If you will,
Find a comfortable position for meditation.
You can lie down if you need to or prefer,
Or you can be seated in a chair on the floor.
However your posture is,
Make sure that it's stable and allows you to move towards a place of effortless effort,
Of letting go of any unnecessary holding or tension in the body.
If you are seated,
Find a stable base,
Feel the chair,
The ground beneath you.
Allow your torso and spinal column to rise with its natural curves up towards heaven.
Allow the shoulders to relax back and down,
And the crown lifting up.
Sometimes we may need to gently tuck the chin a little bit and move the head posteriorly.
Many of us in modern society end up carrying the head a little bit forward.
From working on computers and driving and so forth.
Bring awareness to the breath.
Simply following it as it flows in and out.
It may be long or short,
Choppy or smooth.
Just allowing it to be as it is,
Observing without judgment,
Without wanting it to be different.
Gently scan the body to remove any unnecessary tension.
Relaxing the scalp and forehead.
Relaxing the eyes,
The cheeks and the jaw.
Relaxing the neck,
Shoulders,
Arms and hands.
Relaxing the upper chest and back.
The stomach and the mid-back.
Lower abdomen and lower back.
Relaxing the hips,
The thighs,
The knees,
The lower legs,
Ankles,
Feet,
All the way down to the very bottoms of the feet.
There's nowhere to go,
No place to be.
The body can completely relax and let go.
Checking in with the breath.
As if in the course of relaxing the body,
The breath has changed at all.
Begin to observe your thoughts.
Notice as they arise like clouds.
Just observing them,
They begin to pass away.
Another thought arises,
Another cloud.
Not attaching to them.
Simply observing the natural rhythm of the mind.
Start watching the river flow.
Notice the tone and rhythm of the mind.
The flavor,
If you will.
It's rushed,
Anxious,
Worried,
Sad,
Angry.
A combination.
Simply observing like a river.
It rushes around bends and curves.
Forms into pools of stillness.
As little water falls.
If there's any background noises,
Notice the response of the mind.
Simply observing.
Notice if the mind is grasping,
Wanting to try to control or to know in a conceptual form.
Let's think of the rainbow.
Occasionally checking in with the breath as you observe the flow of the mind.
Now,
Allow this awareness of the mind to move to the background.
In the foreground,
Focus on the faculty of awareness itself.
That which has been observing the mind now turns to observe itself.
Become aware of the stillness that underlies awareness.
Allow your awareness to surrender into the stillness.
And stillness.
Stillness lies beneath all movement,
All physical sensation,
All emotion,
All thought.
It is boundless.
Enough of all.
In this stillness,
There is no separation.
Simply moment to moment experience of being.
All sounds,
All sensations,
Are merely outer expressions of this underlying stillness that is ever present.
All sounds,
All sensations,
Are merely outer expressions of this underlying stillness.
All sounds,
All sensations,
Are merely outer expressions of this underlying stillness.
Bring awareness back to the breath.
Observe its natural flow,
If it's different than it was before.
Become aware of the felt sense of the body as a whole.
Experience the solidity beneath you,
Supporting you and holding you up,
And the air around you,
In which you are immersed and never separate from,
Like a fish in water.
And when you are ready,
Remain a connection to this still,
Spacious awareness within.
As you gently and slowly begin to open your eyes,
Allowing the world around you to wash over you and through you.
As we allow space for unknowing,
We gain access to the unlimited potential that is present in every moment.
The mind likes to believe that it knows,
And so it will tend to grasp onto facts and news,
Beliefs and opinions,
So that it can validate itself and feel right.
As we soften the grasping of the mind and open to the uncertainty of not knowing,
We open ourselves to receive many gifts and blessings that arise from the place of non-conceptual knowing of the incredible gift of feeling completely connected within ourselves and to the world around us,
Immersed in the unity of the divine.
Thank you all for joining me today.
