Welcome everybody to another meditation.
I've just come back from spending a week at the monastery up in the Jarrah Forest at Serpentine.
And it was such a wonderful experience to feel so connected to the environment around me.
And while I was there I was reminded of the Satipatthana Sutta,
And the concept of the four elements.
The four elements being earth,
Wind,
Fire and water.
The concept being that just like the environment around us is made up of these four elements,
We can consider the composition of our body in the same way.
Realizing that we are connected,
We are a part of the natural environment around us.
So please make yourself comfortable.
Settle down into your chair or your bolster and allow yourself to close down your eyes.
Start to take some deep breaths and come into the body,
Allowing the day to slip away into your own place of peace.
As together we enjoy 12 rounds of breath,
Sending a clear signal to our nervous systems that it is time for rest.
Feel the experience of the in-breath.
Feel the letting go of the out-breath.
This very simple truth of breathing.
Our body instinctively knows how to breathe.
We just forget to tune into it.
So breathing all the way in,
And releasing all the way out.
As you get to the end of the 12 breaths,
Just allow your breath to return to a nice,
Even,
Steady rhythm.
Notice how much calmer you feel,
Even with this very simple exercise.
We're going to start a bit of an exploration,
A body scan,
Based on the four elements.
First of all,
We'll start with the earth element.
So we know,
Looking around us,
That the earth is covered by many things.
The beautiful grasses,
The trees and shrubs,
Rock formations,
Rivers,
Streams.
It's affected by the sun and the wind.
We'll start off by focusing on the earth element.
So first of all,
I want you to bring your attention to your hair.
The hair on your head.
It might be long,
Like luscious grasses,
Or maybe it's clip short.
See if you can bring your attention to your scalp.
You might have to feel very closely.
Just see if you can get a sense of the hair on your head.
And then move your attention to the hair on your body,
The eyebrows.
Maybe you have some facial hair,
A beard or a mustache.
All the little fine hairs on your skin.
All the way from your scalp,
Right down to your toes.
Just see if you can feel a sense of the surface of the skin,
All those fine hairs.
Feel your clothes touching the hairs on your body.
Next,
Bring your attention to the nails.
The nails on your fingers and toes.
Might be long or short.
Different sizes,
Just like the rocks on the surface of the earth.
Attached to your body,
Like the rocks are attached to the earth.
The hairs like grasses attached to the earth.
Next,
Bring your attention to your teeth.
The shiny white teeth.
Attached to our jaws.
Now feel the skin.
The inside of your lips.
The skin on your face.
Next,
Bring your attention to your lips.
Brows and cheeks and eyelids.
Nose.
Chin.
Neck and shoulders.
Skin of the arms.
All the way from the shoulders,
Right down to the fingers.
Just feel the skin of the fingers.
Chest and upper back.
The tummy,
Nice and soft.
Lower back.
The buttocks,
Feel the pressure on the buttocks as you sit.
Pressure on the skin.
Upper legs and lower legs.
Right down to your feet.
It's amazing covering.
Like the crust of the earth.
Next,
Bring your attention just a bit further into the body.
Feel the muscles and the flesh of the body.
Feel the slight springiness as you place your fingertips together.
Like all the layers of the earth.
Bring your awareness to the bones.
The bones of the skull and jaw.
All the vertebrae.
Running all the way from the base of your spine,
Right down to your tailbone.
Spine,
Perfectly balanced as you sit.
Feel the shoulder bones.
The scapulas.
The shoulder blades.
The clavicles.
The big humerus spine.
Hard as rocks.
Strong and stable.
The bones of the forearm,
The radius and ulna.
Wrists,
Fingers,
All the little bones in the fingers.
Feel the ribs.
Feel the way the ribs gently rise and fall.
Each and every in-breath and out-breath.
Feel the pelvis bones.
Hips.
Big femurs.
Tibia and fibula.
The lower legs.
The knees.
Ankles and feet.
All the little bones in the feet and the toes.
As we feel the bones,
Get a sense of the ligaments to hold all our bones together.
Allowing us to run and move freely.
Move with ease.
The whole skeleton.
As we sit calmly,
Just bring your attention even deeper.
Feel the tongue.
Feel the tongue as it moves around the mouth.
Feel the trachea.
It allows us to draw in breath.
Life-giving breath.
Feel the lungs.
Feel the lungs expand and contract.
Feel the heart area.
Feel the heart area relax.
Feel any tightness subside.
Feel the diaphragm.
That wonderful structure which helps our lungs to to move up and down.
See if you can really bring your attention inwards.
Get a sense of the organs in the body.
The stomach.
The spleen,
The liver,
The intestines,
The bowel.
The mesentery,
Which holds them all together.
The reproductive organs.
All these parts of the body grounded within us.
Just like all the forms we see around us grounded to the earth.
Made of the same organic matter as ourselves.
And one day we'll all return to the earth,
All be,
All be one.
Now bring your attention to the,
The water elements.
As you swallow,
Feel the liquid in your mouth.
The saliva.
Maybe even some phlegm.
Feel the liquid in your nose.
Feel the soft,
Liquid nature of the eyes.
The eyes that allow us to gaze out at horizons.
If you're very quiet,
You might even feel your pulse,
Or hear your pulse.
Hear the,
The heart beating.
Pushing the blood around our bodies.
Get a sense of all the liquid in the body.
We're more than 75% water.
Around the organs.
Bladder.
All the watery elements.
The veins and arteries.
Just like rivers and streams.
We feel the earth elements.
Feel the water elements.
Now bring your attention to the fire elements.
The fire.
Often associated with the digestive system.
Maybe your tummy's got a bit of a rumble.
The fieriness of the stomach.
The fire in your belly.
The passion in your heart,
Like a fire.
The warmth of the body.
Like a flame.
Like the warmth of the sun.
That makes things grow,
And brings vitality and life to the ecosystem.
Now bring your attention to the,
To the wind elements.
The wind that blows.
Across the earth.
The wind of our in-breath and out-breath.
As we inhale the air,
The life-giving oxygen,
Into our bodies.
From our environment.
And exhale.
And carbon dioxide back out into the air.
It's taken up by the plants to produce more oxygen for us to breathe.
To sustain life.
Same oxygen as all the other animals.
Across the earth,
Breathe.
All connected.
I feel the spaces.
The space in your nostrils.
The space in your mouth.
The space in your lungs.
The space in your trachea and your lungs.
Feel the expansion and contraction of the lungs.
Feel the spaciousness within the whole body.
Bring your attention to your mind.
Whether it's in your head,
Or the spaces of the brain,
Or the spaces of the heart.
Place your whole awareness on the mind.
And watch the space open up.
Watch the way.
The thoughts stop.
Revealing an abundance of spaciousness.
Sense of openness.
Sense of emptiness.
Emptiness in a sense of.
Noting up a space,
A creation of space.
Space for love.
Space for kindness and compassion.
A sense of equanimity.
We'll take a few moments to just enjoy the silence.
The stillness.
That comes from being fully connected.
In tune with the earth.
Feel the space inside the body.
Feel the space around the body.
Now imagine the boundary between the inside and outside dissolving.
Like the body falls away.
Into open space.
The only movement is your breath.
Completely at ease.
Now I'll bring the meditation to an end.
By ringing the bell three times.
When you open your eyes.
Just watch what happens.
Watch the luminosity.
Of the colors around you.
Feel the calmness and the clarity of the day.
And take your time.
To come back to the room.
