Dear friends,
In this meditation I invite you to stop to reflect with gratitude on the benefits that come to you day by day.
You might find it helpful to begin with a breathing exercise.
This will help to bring you into the present moment.
So simply relax.
You might like to close your eyes,
But if you prefer to leave your eyes open that is fine too.
It will help if you consciously drop your shoulders to release any tension that you might be holding there.
Relax and leave the worries of the day to one side for these few moments.
Just enjoy being present,
Breathing in and being aware that you are breathing in,
And breathing out and being aware that you are breathing out.
It's as simple as that.
Let's give ourselves one or two minutes for this breathing exercise.
No worries at all if you happen to lose concentration on the breath.
It happens.
Once you realise that you have lost concentration,
All you do is gently bring yourself back,
Back to an awareness of your breathing in and your breathing out in the present moment.
The formula for this meditation will involve less talking on my part,
Which will allow you to have more opportunity for reflection in between the words.
Some music will run in the background.
This is Harmony of the Divine with thanks to Narek Mirziyeh of Music of Wisdom.
And every so often I'll mention some everyday benefit for which we can be thankful.
The idea is to reflect with gratitude for maybe one minute on that particular one of all the many benefits that we enjoy in our lives.
So now I invite you to relax and reflect with gratitude on all the good things that have gone on and are going on in your life,
Including the benefits that I will mention.
I suppose we have to begin by reflecting with gratitude on the fact that we each have a home.
We have to be so grateful if we have a safe place that we can call home.
And we have to be thankful too for everything that we have in our home,
All the things that make the living easier and more comfortable.
Each of us got out of bed this morning.
We had a bed to go to.
Last night we surrendered to the gift of sleep and we left our lives in the hands of Mother Nature.
And we woke up this morning,
The gift of a new day,
Another reason for thankfulness.
Maybe even before breakfast we checked our phones.
So we give thanks for the gift of technology,
Magic machines that keep us in touch with other people,
Friends and relatives who may be far away.
Technology that allows us to share moments of reflection such as this.
Some people may be on diets and might have given breakfast a skip today,
Which I'm told is not a good idea.
But we give thanks for the fact that we have food to eat.
I would like to share with you now a grace before meals from the Plum Village tradition.
This is called the Five Contemplations Before Eating.
This food is the gift of the whole universe,
The earth,
The sky,
Numerous living beings and much hard and loving work.
May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive this food.
May we recognise and transform unwholesome mental formations,
Especially our greed,
And learn to eat with moderation.
May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings,
Stops contributing to climate change and heals and preserves our precious planet.
We accept this food so that we may nurture our brotherhood and sisterhood,
Build our sangha and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.
That was the Five Contemplations Before Eating.
It comes from the Plum Village tradition.
You will remember the wonderful Thich Nhat Hanh who founded Plum Village.
Each of us here awoke to the light of a new day.
We give thanks for the sunshine which warms us when we are cold,
For rain which cools us when we are warm,
For the changing seasons and the recurring events of the year.
These events provide continuity in a world of constant change.
We give thanks for the people in our lives,
Family,
Friends,
People who are there for us and we for them.
We are all on this wonderful train journey of life.
We cannot say when any of our fellow travellers will step off,
Or when we will step off ourselves.
So we think of the people in our lives with gratitude and we resolve to be faithful and kind to them on this journey.
We give thanks for the beauty of nature,
For oceans and rivers and lakes,
For mountains and open countryside,
For forests and trees,
Plants and flowers,
For the beauty of this wonderful planet Earth,
Our common home.
We express gratitude for all the many things that inspire us,
For music,
Art,
Literature,
Poetry,
Architecture,
Engineering and for all the achievements of humanity that we see around us.
Regardless of our circumstances,
We are among the luckiest people ever to have lived.
We think of people who provide a service for us,
And they are all around.
People in shops and factories,
Transport people,
People in the public service,
People working to keep us safe.
Everywhere we look,
People are keeping the wheels of the world turning.
We think especially of doctors and nurses and healthcare workers,
And the people who run and maintain hospitals and nursing homes.
People who produce medicines and medical equipment,
Helping us cope with illness and disease.
We give thanks for the gift of clean water.
Most of us listening to this meditation can simply turn on a tap,
And clean water is available without question or effort on our part.
Very occasionally there is a break in the system,
And only then do we stop to think how wonderful it is that we have this gift of water.
We give thanks for all those people who work for the welfare of other people.
People to whom we look for leadership,
Political and religious leaders.
People working to promote peace,
Fairness and cooperation in our world.
People working to increase awareness of environmental issues.
Volunteers working in places troubled by war and natural disaster.
We look to these people for inspiration,
But they too have their down days,
And we have to keep them in our thoughts.
This list could go on and on and on,
But that is not necessary in this meditation.
In your own time,
You can reflect on the many benefits of your own life.
Now we will pause for a final moment of reflection,
To allow us to give thanks in our own individual way for some of the benefits of our own lives.
For kindnesses received,
And all the circumstances which have helped to bring us to where we are today.
For the people and events to which each of us owe a debt of gratitude.
And that my friends is our meditation,
Sitting in awareness of everyday gifts.
I'd like to leave you now with a quote from Thay Khum Say,
Words of wisdom from two centuries ago.
When you rise in the morning,
Give thanks for the light,
For your life,
For your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
The fault lies in yourself.
Namaste.
