This is the time of the year I can do some Santa Claus meditation.
I trust you are familiar with Santa Claus,
Saint Christmas,
The guy in the red coat and the white beard and the sleigh and the reindeer and his job is to deliver all the Christmas gifts to all the kids worldwide.
So he carries usually this huge sack full of gifts and there are many kids in the world so he has got a very big sack where he carries all the gifts.
And he is not supposed to bring them back home or keep them until next year,
But he has to give all the gifts away to the kids who were well behaved and were requesting that gift.
So we all as meditators metaphorically we are all Santa Claus.
The big sack with the gifts is our mind and all the stuff we have in our mind,
Thoughts,
Ideas,
Emotions,
Plans,
Worries,
Feelings,
Images,
Fantasies.
Probably have that already all bubbling up,
Isn't it?
And our task is very simple.
Whatever is there in that big sack,
Whether it's a memory or a future hope,
Whether it's a feeling or a thought,
An emotion,
The job is simply to give it away.
So we can stay with the breath as our anchor,
The feeling the breath going in,
Feeling the breath going out,
Experiencing every in-breath,
Experiencing every out-breath,
Feeling our whole body,
Breathing,
Feeling our whole body when we breathe in,
When we breathe out.
The breath is the anchor for our awareness.
But for all the stuff bubbling up in the mind,
All these distractions,
Worries,
Concerns,
Feelings,
Little traumas,
Just imagine you are Santa,
You're grabbing one of the gifts,
Your job is not holding on,
You don't even have to look at all the details,
Just take it out of the sack and give it away.
And none of that stuff belongs to Santa,
None of the stuff bubbling up in our mind belongs to us,
Our job is just giving it away,
Giving it away.
We breathe in,
Giving away,
We breathe out,
Giving away.
It's all kinds of different stuff in Santa's big sack.
Because nowadays there's endless gifts you can buy for kids.
Santa takes something out of the sack,
A beautiful Barbie doll or Elvis doll,
Doesn't mind beautiful or cute,
We give it away,
It doesn't belong to us.
Next there's this hideous little plastic monster which one kid asked for,
Ugly,
Hideous,
Doesn't matter,
Cute or hideous,
Santa's only job,
Our only job is giving it away,
Not holding on,
Emptying that sack,
Just acknowledging whatever gift is in there,
Cute,
Beautiful,
Disgusting,
And then just giving it away,
Letting go.
Don't do that.
And we stay with the breath,
Feeling every in-breath,
Experiencing every out-breath,
Breath going in,
Breath going out,
Our whole body breathing in and out,
Feeling the whole body with each in-breath,
Each out-breath.
And here a beautiful diamond necklace and Santa is getting quite excited,
Wow,
This may be worth several million,
And he looks at it and then he tries it on and the little kid in front of him starts crying that he doesn't get his gift.
That's not a good Santa.
The job is not trying on the gifts,
The job is giving them away to the kids there.
The meditator's job is emptying the mind.
Whatever,
The precious memories,
Happy times,
We don't hold on to it,
We just give it away.
Awful times,
Painful times,
Worries about the future,
Hopes,
Expectations,
Whatever is in the sack,
Our only job is taking it out,
Giving it away.
Santa working very hard,
Giving the gifts away,
The sack is getting lighter and lighter and it feels so good.
As we meditate,
Giving things away,
Whatever it is that comes up into awareness,
Giving it away,
The heart is feeling lighter and lighter and it feels so good,
Less to carry,
Less to drag around,
So we're really getting into it,
Grabbing deep into the sack.
What's that,
A frog,
A spider,
A scorpion?
It doesn't matter,
Some kid may want a frog or a scorpion.
So Santa is not shocked whatever he finds in the sack.
He's not horrified or frightened.
After all,
His only job is giving it away anyhow,
Why getting excited,
Why getting frightened,
Why getting startled or shocked?
Whatever's in the sack is just to give away.
Whatever we encounter in our mind,
In our awareness,
We're not shocked,
Frightened,
Startled,
Terrified.
We just give it away,
Lightening our burden.
Giving away,
Giving away.
Wow.
In the beginning,
When Santa's sack is brimful,
It's a little bit easier.
Just taking out the gifts right on top there.
As he continues working and the sack gets emptier and emptier,
Of course he has to dig in deeper,
Has to dig into all the last little folds in that big sack to get out the very last gifts.
Similar,
In our mind often the more superficial things surfacing quickly,
We give them away.
But over time we have to go to the more deeply lodged issues,
Subconscious,
Deeply ingrained attachments.
Digging deep into there in order to give it away.
The mind is really empty,
Sunyata.
We don't stop giving away,
We don't stop looking for any remaining gifts in that big sack.
We won't be finished with our job as Santa until the mind is completely empty,
Completely sunya,
Sunyata,
Emptiness.
And then we continue giving away,
Giving away.
Hey!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
