Embody the spirit of the eagle.
Begin by sensing into the support you have from the ground,
Whether you're standing or seated or maybe lying down.
Paying attention to the actual sensations of contact.
Finding a position of stability and balance,
Comfortable yet alert.
Sensing deep into your body,
Your feet,
Your legs,
Hips,
Lower and upper body,
Arms,
Your shoulders and your head.
And when you're ready,
Noticing your breath,
The vital physical sensations of the breath in this moment.
Feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out,
Letting the breath be just as it is,
Without trying to change or regulate it in any way.
Allowing it to flow with its own rhythm and pace,
Easily and naturally.
Just letting your breath be your breath,
With a sense of being complete and whole in this moment.
Then as you rest here,
Letting an image or sense form in your mind's eye of the most magnificent or beautiful eagle resting on its perch that you have seen or perhaps can just imagine.
Letting it gradually come into greater focus,
Its large intelligent eyes,
Talons gripping firmly,
Giving a sense of stability and poise,
Its sleek feathers and folded wings.
Noticing how perfect it is,
How alive,
How dynamic,
How beautiful.
Whether it's seen from afar or up close.
Perhaps your eagle has mostly white feathers like a blanket of snow in winter,
Or is a mottled grey like the granite of the mountains.
It may have yellow eyes like the bright morning sun,
Or perhaps brown like the earth.
Observing the eagle,
Noting its qualities,
Noticing what your eagle is like for you.
Then when you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring this sense of the eagle into your own body,
Resting here so that your body and the eagle in your mind's eye become one.
Sharing in the strength,
Dynamism and majesty of the eagle,
You become the eagle.
Grounded in your posture,
Your head becomes the eagle's head,
Supported by the rest of the body and affording panoramic view with bright eyes and keen senses.
Your arms rest in your lap like the folded wings,
Held in stillness and readiness,
And the legs rooted to your perch,
Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each deep breath as you rest here,
Becoming a little more breathing eagle,
Alive and vital,
And yet unwavering in your inner stillness.
Completely what you are,
Beyond words and thought,
A centered,
Strong and dynamic presence.
And even as you rest here in stillness,
Becoming aware of the potential you have for flight,
To soar across the sky with the light and shadows and colors captured every moment in your movement,
And that where there is life and activity,
There too is the eagle always adapting to each new day with its challenges and opportunities.
Recognizing that should you call out to the wind,
Your voice will carry and people will notice the presence of the eagle and comment on how beautiful it is,
Or how dangerous,
Or how rare.
Yet none of this matters to an eagle,
As it remains at all times its essential self.
The eagle's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not,
It is simply being itself.
Whether skies are clear and bright,
Or windswept and cloudy,
Or even visited by violent storms,
Through it all the eagle soars above.
Through it all,
Experiencing the change of the air in each moment,
And constantly changing to match,
It always just being itself,
Remaining an eagle regardless of the seasons,
Regardless of the weather,
Regardless of the conditions.
In the summertime the eagle flies carefree above valleys and forests,
In the autumn high above the sea of brilliant fire that is the changing of the trees,
In winter calling out above the blanket of snow and ice,
And then with spring aloft once more in the high meadows and slopes.
Through it all continuing to fly,
Just continuing to be.
Likewise it may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Preoccupations,
Emotional storms and crises,
All of the things that happen to us are very much like the seasons or the weather or other things that affect the eagle,
Perhaps even the landscape below the eagle.
We tend to take it all personally,
But its strongest characteristic is impersonal.
The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied,
But may be encountered,
Honored,
Felt,
Known for what it is,
And held in our awareness.
Holding it in this way we can come to know a deeper silence and energy and wisdom.
Eagles perhaps have this much to teach us if we let them.
And so in the time that remains,
Just continuing to be an eagle on your own,
In silence for a moment or two.
And then with the sound of the bell returning to your eerie and bringing your attention back to a human body once more.
