Let's take a couple of intentional breaths.
Let's come into the breath to allow these deep contemplations to land deeply through the silence and the stillness of our breath.
So I invite you to close your eyes just for a moment,
Find a comfortable stance in your body,
And bring the light of your awareness to your breath,
Remembering the micropause at the bottom of the exhale.
Blowing out the exhale as if you're blowing a pile of sand slowly and intentionally,
Pausing at the end of the exhale,
Noticing that the body is here for us,
Taking care of us,
Ready to take the next inhale without our permission.
It's caring for us,
Keeping us alive.
And if a yawn comes up,
Just invite the yawn.
That's another way to stimulate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system into regulating us back to rest,
Restore,
Relax.
And just taking a moment to contemplate on these four thoughts,
Also known as the four preliminaries,
The first being impermanence,
Everything changes all the time.
The more I accept this truth,
The more I can let go and the less I suffer.
The second thought is that everything is interconnected through causes and conditions and karma.
So my words,
My thoughts,
My actions are extremely important because they affect the next cause and effect.
So I breathe deeply into this truth that everything and everyone is interdependent and interconnected through our cause and effect,
Through our thoughts,
Words,
And actions.
And our third preliminary to contemplate is the unsatisfactory nature of this life,
That dissatisfaction is simply inherently built into this existence,
This human life.
It's not a moral judgment,
It's not good,
It's not bad,
It just is my friend.
My friends,
It's just the way things are.
So when we try to cling onto pleasureful things,
We suffer.
And when we try to push away painful things that we don't want to happen and we resist,
We also suffer.
And so when we accept the unsatisfactoriness built into this human existence,
We no longer suffer because we simply acknowledge that this is the way things are.
Everything that arises passes away.
All thoughts arise and pass away,
Emotions arise and pass away,
And our bodies arise and pass away.
Pleasant experiences arise and pass away,
And painful experiences arise and pass away.
And we contemplate the fourth thought,
Which is a reminder of the preciousness of this human life,
Truly knowing the miracle that is being born a soul in the body,
Being born as a human rather than an ant or a goldfish or a fly.
We have the opportunity and the freedom to live as we choose by getting to know our mind.
By getting to know our belief systems,
Our emotional heart space,
By creating a practice that serves us in lessening our suffering.
And by taking care of our own suffering,
We in turn bring less suffering to others.
We bring less suffering into the world.
And so we vow to wake up,
My friends,
To wake up out of the conditioned mind,
Out of autopilot,
Out of regurgitating the cud of thoughts and beliefs that we were raised with.
And we awaken into this moment,
Into reality,
Into acceptance,
Into the way things are.
And it's by dropping the resistance that we drop our suffering.
Deep inhale through the nose and long exhale through the mouth as if blowing out a pile of sand,
Slowly and intentionally bringing the light of awareness to your breath.
A little micropause at the end of the exhale,
Sitting in that stillness and silence just before noticing the body breathing you.
So I invite you to bring some movement into your body,
Perhaps a little stretch,
Neck roll,
Shoulder rolls,
Opening your eyes when you feel ready,
Maybe a little tapping on your bony prominences.
