Dear friends,
Welcome to this reflection on the wonders of the human body.
We begin with a short reflection.
I am grateful for my life,
For the blessings of my breath,
The beating of my heart,
The seeing of my eyes,
My ability to hear,
The flexibility of my limbs,
For my speech,
For my thoughts,
For my memory.
I am grateful for beloved people who share life with me.
I am grateful to share life with our human family,
With seekers of every description – Jewish,
Christian,
Muslim,
Buddhist,
Hindu,
Sikh,
Atheist,
Agnostic.
May we all walk gently upon the earth.
We begin with a breathing exercise.
We simply pay attention to our breathing in and our breathing out.
This is recommended as a way of returning to the present moment.
People often say,
Take a deep breath,
And it's a very good idea.
A mindful breath always brings you back to the present moment.
As I breathe in,
I notice that I am breathing in.
As I breathe out,
I notice that I am breathing out.
So let's concentrate on the breath for a few moments.
Distractions and external sounds probably will occur.
Just let them float by like clouds in the sky.
Don't invite them in for a chat.
Just gently go back to noticing the breathing.
The exercise is to try to concentrate on one thing at a time.
So noticing when you get distracted is actually a success on the road to awareness.
Breathing in,
I'm aware that I'm breathing in.
Breathing out,
I'm aware that I'm breathing out.
So we think of the gift of our lungs.
Think of that first breath at the moment of birth,
And how without any need for any concentration on our part,
Our lungs just work.
They work automatically until the day we die.
So now we just relax in awareness and in thankfulness for the gift of our every breath.
Breathing in,
I'm aware that I'm breathing in.
Breathing out,
I'm aware that I'm breathing out.
So now we just relax in awareness and in thankfulness for the gift of our lungs.
So now we just relax in awareness and in thankfulness for the gift of our lungs.
Next,
We bring our attention to our feet.
Notice our feet touching the ground.
Just regal your toes for a few seconds.
Notice how flexible the feet are.
Bones,
Joints,
Muscles,
Tendons,
Ligaments.
We are all aware of the biblical account of Jesus walking on water,
And it being described as a miracle.
But the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says,
Walking on the earth is a miracle.
And that goes almost unnoticed every day.
So we hold our feet in our attention,
Appreciating our gift of movement by which we can thank our feet.
We have the joy of walking on the earth.
Another pause for reflection.
Okay.
Next,
We turn our attention to our hands.
Our hands are amazingly sophisticated.
Just look at them.
Notice them and what they can do.
Stretch your hands.
Flex your fingers.
Think of the hands of a surgeon or a dentist or a watchmaker of old.
Think of the really intricate tasks we can carry out with our hands.
Michel de Montaigne said this about our hands in the 1500s.
Mach and what not besides with a variation and multiplication of variation which makes the tongue envious.
So for a little while we think of the work that is possible because we have hands.
Think of all the things we have created with our own hands.
The kindnesses we can offer to other people through these hands.
Another pause for reflection.
Next,
We turn our attention to our eyes.
Eyes which open out to the beauty of the world.
Eyes are the second most complex organ after the brain.
A whole eye cannot yet be transplanted.
We can only transplant the cornea.
More than one million tiny nerve fibres,
Each like a fibre optic cable,
Connect each eye to the brain.
Currently we are not able to reconstruct those connections.
The complexity of our eyes beggars the imagination.
Its complexity has only recently been uncovered by science.
Millions of cells,
Called rods and cones,
Line up in rows.
These are the seeing elements that receive light and transmit messages to the brain.
Then the brain unravels these messages and that is how we see.
So for a few minutes we rest in a feeling of thankfulness for our eyes.
We express thanks for all the beauty of the earth that is revealed to us through our eyes.
Another pause for reflection.
A pause for reflection.
A pause for reflection.
We often take for granted the gift of hearing.
But imagine what life would be like without the ability to communicate with others.
If we did not have the ability to enjoy music and all the other sounds in our environment,
Think of how we can recognise the different notes of music,
How we interpret the different sounds from our surroundings.
So we focus our attention on our ears.
Notice the sounds around us.
The near sounds.
The more distant sounds.
Let us be thankful for the world that we experience through our ears.
The world of music,
Speech,
The exchange of information,
The exchange of ideas,
The whole interconnectedness of it all.
Another pause for reflection.
A pause for reflection.
A pause for reflection.
Next we look at our heart.
Have you ever given a tennis ball a good hard squeeze?
If so,
You are using about the same amount of force that our heart uses.
It uses this force with every beat as it pumps blood out to the body.
A heart beats about 100,
000 times a day.
That's about 35 million times in a year.
During an average lifetime,
The human heart will beat more than 2.
5 billion times.
And all this before we even begin to consider the brain.
In his foreword to discovering the brain,
James Watson says this,
The brain is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.
It contains hundreds of billions of cells interlinked through trillions of connections.
The brain boggles the mind.
So for the thoughts about the brain,
We'll have to wait for another day.
Just for now,
We think of our heart,
Beating unfailingly,
Minute by minute,
For a whole lifetime.
Another path for reflection.
Finally,
Can we just reflect for a little while on the amazing fact of our own existence?
How come you are here?
Yes,
You had a mam and a dad,
And they had their parents.
But the question is,
The miracle,
The amazing fact of your own individual existence.
We are each here today,
Thinking,
Reflective people.
We might never have existed,
But in some amazing way,
We do exist.
So what can we do with this amazing gift,
This amazing life?
A closing reflection.
We are all one global family,
All colours,
All races,
All creeds.
We are all one world community,
Inhabiting a fragile island of life,
Floating in the vastness of space.
Let all of us work together for peace and the healing of the earth.
Let us celebrate and fully embrace the unity and diversity of our one human race.
Let us remember that through exercising compassion,
We will bring about peace.
Love is the only power that is capable of transforming the world.
Every day,
Let us work to give peace a chance.
May your life be one of continuing gratitude for your being.
And may the gratitude you express lead you to peace and happiness.
Namaste.
Thank you.
