Find your posture of pleasant seat today.
It could be a pleasant seat really with your knees down on the ground and ankles crossed,
Your hands on your lap,
On your tummy.
It could be a laying down posture.
Just ask yourself as you get set up,
Is this really what I want to do?
Should I be standing because I'm about to fall asleep?
I better stand.
Should I be laying down because my body is too haky?
And then find the place of gently rocking your body.
So if you're sitting you're going to rock on your seat bones.
It's very gentle.
You can close the eyes please and just walk.
If you're laying down you can also kind of rock your pelvis.
Don't go with your effort in there.
Just accept the movement as it comes.
Don't let it rule you.
Just let the movement arrive and go.
Using the center of your body being the pelvis for now,
The root.
And little by little invite that movement to become smaller and smaller.
So if I was looking at you I would not almost sense that you are moving.
But you know inside that you are.
And as this movement resumes bring your awareness to the movement of your breath.
Follow your inhale from bottom to top.
From bottom to top inhale there.
Notice a pose between your inhale and your exhale.
Can you imagine your body,
Your center of the body,
Belly and chest to be like a bottle you're filling up.
As you inhale fill it up with water.
Starting at your pelvis.
And then exhale emptying up at the chest,
Upper belly,
The mid belly,
The lower belly.
And keep going like this with me in silence.
Inhaling,
Filling up.
Exhaling emptying.
If your mind drifts away bring it back.
With kindness.
Notice the envy to move your neck,
Your hands,
Your body and try for a second or two to stop the movement and just stay with the movement of your chest and belly.
And maybe by now your shoulders are also involved in that deep breathing.
And then imagine,
Imagine your leg transforming into roots.
The roots of an ancient tree,
An oak,
Some sinuous roots digging down through the earth.
And as you breathe through your tummy and chest and throat this is your trunk like a tree,
Massive.
Imagine water resting between the roots and the tree.
And your background may come up and stop you from being that tree,
The siren of the city,
The police car passing,
The honking.
Maybe in a city that is very noisy or you may be in a very quiet space.
No matter what if you're distracted from being a tree by those sounds,
Bring an image of the tree.
Notice the sound coming in and out like if you say we're birds landing on one of your branches.
Staying a little and then moving on.
Maybe you could pin each noise you hear from the outside into a branch as a bird.
And if it's possible just come back to being your roots received by the earth,
Watered by the rain or the morning dew.
Moving on up your tree trunk towards the warmth of aliveness of the siva.
Maybe the center of your tree is more yellow or cur.
Be there for a little bit.
Feeling your willingness to be present with this meditation and to not run away with the birds,
Not fly away with the sound.
And move on to your siva towards your branches and maybe a few green leafs there.
Your branches extending like hands and arms extending and reaching out for space,
For breath,
For freedom towards the sky.
And as you bring into your mind the sky,
Maybe imagine a blue sky there.
The top of your trunk is a burst of many branches and the blue sky in the background.
That expressiveness of being you,
Of stretching,
Of breathing and of yet being rooted,
Centered.
And then moving on to a few knots in your branches and knowing deeply that you know where to grow,
You know how to grow,
Most likely up.
So following your instincts and keeping on growing branches and buds and leaves and maybe flowers.
Thousands of flowers blooming there at the top of your branches,
At the top of your tree.
Sense yourself blooming here with this meditation,
With this breath,
With this tree.
Blooming as a meditator,
Being thrust right here,
Right now.
No one else to be but yourself.
Blooming with pride,
With the softness of your humanity.
Your mind buzzing about,
Maybe like a bee coming in and talking to you about some thoughts,
Making noises like the bees.
And once your mind is satisfied,
The bees go away.
Keep observing the movement of birds,
The sound of bees,
The thoughts of winds,
Maybe as emotion.
Can you be all this?
Birds and sounds,
Bees and thoughts,
Winds as emotion in your tree.
And yet feel the root,
Feel your ability to be the trunk,
Feel your ability to keep some stillness and to stay present in your body.
As it breathes,
In and out from your roots feet to your branches top of the head.
You will be silent for a little bit and please stay here without intention,
Being the tree.
Just like the flower allowing the bee to land,
Take her dew and go.
Just like a branch allowing the bird to land there and to move on.
A mushroom brushing your soul,
Brushing your heart,
His tension,
His warmth,
His heat,
His coolness,
His agility and then moving through.
Since your knee pressing on the floor,
Since your seat bone pressing on the pillow or the ground,
Since your feet holding ground.
And make,
Take a picture in your mind eye of this tree and it's like if it was a maximum 3D picture.
You can see it from side,
From bottom,
From the bottom.
You can also sense it.
Let yourself be really impregnated with it.
So you can recall this picture of the tree when you are back in the city or back in your life.
The noise are unsettling and moments are unsettling that you are able to connect back with your tree.
Place that picture somewhere in your mind,
Maybe in a wallet,
Maybe on your phone,
Maybe on your computer screen saver.
Maybe find a few trees that you take a picture of as a reminder as you end this practice.
It takes a commitment to find a picture of the tree to hang somewhere in your vicinity in your house so you remember.
And slowly open your eyes.
