So for this practice you need something beautiful,
Made of flower,
Something natural,
A shell,
A crystal,
Something that you want to look at.
Let's make ourselves comfortable.
Putting our body somewhere it can sit for a little while and be comfortable.
Our limbs at ease,
The joints,
The knees,
The elbows at rest.
Resting our hands somewhere they can be still and we'll take a few deeper breaths as we make ourselves comfortable.
Next time we inhale let's get a tiny bit taller and exhaling we relax a little bit.
And so we have that balance between alert and relaxed.
Not so alert we're gritting our teeth and not so relaxed we're going to sleep.
A bit of both.
So let's relax our body a little more.
So we can imagine a wave of relaxation starting at the crown of our head and flowing down our body.
It's going to start to flow over our temples and our forehead and that'll get softer.
Our scalp and our eyes.
And as it passes our muscles become relaxed and soft,
Into neutral.
Our jaw relaxed,
Our head balanced at the top of our spine so we hardly need any effort to hold it up.
That wave of relaxation flowing down our neck to our shoulders which soften.
Flowing down our back,
Down our arms and our chest.
If we're sitting using the bare minimum to keep us upright.
Everything else allowed to relax and to rest.
Lower arms and fingers soft.
Down to our hips.
Pelvic floor relaxing.
Thighs.
Knees flowing all the way down over our feet to the tips of our toes.
Your body's feeling more relaxed.
The breath is comfortable.
Natural.
We're going to become mentally relaxed.
And to do this we're going to recall or invent somewhere we're completely at ease.
Somewhere we love to be.
Might be a real place.
Might be an imagined place.
Somewhere we'd like to try.
Somewhere to go.
Doesn't matter where it is who you're with.
What's important is that it feels good.
We'll go there now.
Hopefully you've got a little smile as you remember,
As you imagine.
How good it feels.
See what you can see there.
Feel what there is to feel.
Resting there for a few moments.
And if your mind wanders we just return to that amazing place.
Returning to the present moment with the breath and the body.
So without disturbing yourself too much we're going to turn to look at our object.
You can very slowly carefully put it in front of us.
Let our gaze rest upon the object.
Relaxed eyes.
We're very relaxed way just looking.
Noticing the shape,
Colour,
Colours.
You might like to smell.
And now I invite you to become aware of your awareness.
So we're noticing that our attention is on the object.
We're noticing that our attention is looking at different parts and I invite you to let your attention wander around you a little bit and see if you can keep your awareness on your awareness.
Notice as your gaze wanders over there.
Notice as your awareness goes into your mind to think about something.
So we're not doing this with gritted teeth in a tense way we're just doing it in a relaxed fashion there's no test.
Just becoming aware of our awareness what it's doing how it feels.
As best we can.
Metaphorically taking a step back from our object taking a rest from this awareness we can recall that the object is made of the same stuff as us and we can imagine the atoms it's made from.
The points of light that go to make up its molecules.
It's just the same stuff as us.
It's made of energy and parts of it have coalesced into physical form and we can imagine Indra's net grandmother spider web connecting us to the object.
All those atoms in the object connected to each other in a web.
We are also connected in the same way our atoms all connected to each other.
All in communication with each other.
I invite you to visualize that now whichever way works for you.
This u-shaped part of the universe is connected to your object.
The atoms the energy in your object that's connected to you.
Let's let our gaze rest upon the object once more and see if we can get a sense of how we are one.
Although it's over there maybe in front of us in another sense there is no separation.
Both you and the object part of the living universe all connected.
Where no separation is even possible.
This beautiful thing in front of you is clearly a manifestation of the divine principle.
It's source made physical.
Source in physical form as is everything.
And as we contemplate our object I invite you to consider it as the divine in physical form.
As the living universe in the shape of this object.
Excuse me and there may even be flaws.
What part of you wants to think of as a flaw?
Maybe a bug has nibbled a leaf,
Maybe there's a crack or a chip,
Dirt,
Something like that,
An imperfection.
This too is divine.
It's all expression of the living universe,
Perfect just as it is.
Even with the things we think of as imperfections.
And I invite you to consider yourself in the same way.
As the unseen made seen.
Energy made physical.
Walking talking universe.
Even the things you think of flaws.
Allowing your awareness to rest with the object once more.
Becoming aware that your awareness is resting there.
Is it possible to enjoy this awareness?
If you've just arrived on another planet and you're taking it all in and you're having a lovely time,
See if you can enjoy the awareness.
Love the awareness.
If you can get a sense of enjoying the experience of being aware,
No matter where it's resting upon.
This is Ananda,
This is bliss.
Unconditional love of one's own power of awareness.
And what a powerful tool to have in your pocket.
Switching on the enjoyment of being aware in a supermarket queue.
It's a completely different experience.
Even of the flaws.
I'm aware that I think that's a flaw.
How interesting.
The more we cultivate beauty,
The more beauty there is.
The more we cultivate love,
The more love there is.
The more we cultivate peace,
The more peace there is.
Allowing our awareness to rest in our breath and our body.
And let's see if we can maintain that sense of awareness as we start to move our body.
So energizing ourselves with the breath,
Starting to move our fingers and toes.
Having a stretch.
We're knowing that awareness is always there for us.
Thank you for practicing with me.
