So thank you for joining this meditation session.
I'm going to give a guided meditation which will start very much with where we are right now and explore how our experience might unfold along a path.
So let's begin by finding a comfortable posture.
If you're sitting on a chair then make sure your back is upright and you're not leaning against the back of the chair.
Likewise if you're on a cushion and for a few moments just connect with what it feels like to be sitting here in this moment and to do that pay more attention to your body.
Pay attention to the contact of your bottom with your chair or cushion.
Bring the attention down,
Down from the head into the heart,
Into the belly,
Right down to the sacrum on which you're sitting and notice how you feel.
Maybe there's still a nagging thought or worry that's running around in your mind.
Maybe you feel certain emotions,
Maybe sadness,
Maybe joy,
Maybe boredom and whatever is going on,
Embrace that.
Say yes to that because that is where you are right now.
Whether you like it or not,
This is you,
This is me.
So meditation starts with an unconditional acceptance of your experience as it manifests in this moment.
You might find it helpful to turn your attention to your breathing,
To the natural inflow and outflow of the breath.
You don't control the breath,
You don't breathe in any specific way,
You just let the body breathe as it does all the time anyway with the difference that you're now aware of that process.
So let yourself just come to rest in the tidal rhythm of your breath.
If you wander off,
Just gently come back to your breathing,
Come back to your body,
Come back to this moment and rest there.
Fully aware,
Fully present,
Encompassing the totality of what's going on for you with a still accepting awareness.
If a troubling thought arises or an obsessive memory or plan or a difficult emotion,
Then just let it be.
Try not to indulge it,
Get entangled with it,
But at the same time,
Don't try and suppress it.
Don't give in to the idea that you wish that weren't happening.
It's part of what's being experienced now.
It's neither good or bad,
It is simply what's happening.
And if you let it be,
Then it will slowly fade away.
It's impermanent,
Like all thoughts and emotions.
It comes and it goes.
Let it follow its own nature.
So embrace your situation and let these reactive thoughts,
Emotions,
Habit patterns,
Reactivity.
Leave them alone,
Let them play themselves out.
Don't let yourself either attach yourself to them or seek in some way to reject them.
Embrace them too.
You may also notice that in being mindful of what's going on in this way,
Even if there's much turmoil,
Chattering thoughts,
Whatever,
The mindfulness itself is non-reactive.
It's simply aware.
It's aware of what is pleasant,
Of what's unpleasant,
But it itself is not caught up in the reactivity.
So try to be more aware of this non-reactive quality of mindful attention.
What does that feel like?
Try and identify the stillness within which the noise takes place and rest in that.
Still,
Silent,
Yet fully aware.
For the Buddha,
Emptiness meant the absence of reactivity.
A space that is always with us as long as we're conscious and aware,
But is often overlooked.
So try paying more attention to your non-reactive awareness,
Valuing it,
Treasuring it as the ground from which you can live with yourself,
With others in the world.
So we could summarize this meditation as one in which we first embrace our experience of the moment unconditionally.
Second,
We let whatever distracted thoughts and troubling feelings and emotions be.
We watch them,
We accept them,
But we don't get caught up in them,
Nor do we reject them.
And thirdly,
We notice the ground of non-reactive awareness,
This emptiness,
Which lies at the heart of our experience and affords us the possibility of living a life no longer driven by reactive habits,
Fears,
Desires,
Hatreds,
But which is open to the suffering of the world,
The suffering of life,
To which we may now respond rather than merely react.
And at that point,
We find ourselves entering a path,
A path rooted in freedom,
Openness,
And love.
You may find it useful to remember the acronym ELSA.
Embrace,
Let be,
See the stopping,
And act.
Actualize a path in life.
So thank you very much.
I hope you found that helpful.
I wish you well.
You
