Finding your comfortable posture,
In any way that's comfortable.
Letting go of the idea of doing it the right way.
Say you can lie down if you need to.
You can sit on a meditation cushion or a stool,
Or a straight back chair.
Or you can even sit on your sofa,
Lie back into it.
Place a few cushions around you to feel comfortable.
Listening to what your body needs today.
And take a nice deep breath in.
Breathing out.
Letting your whole body sink into the surface you're sitting or lying on.
Letting go of the morning or the day you've had.
Giving yourself permission to be here.
This is a time to recharge,
To regroup.
We can often feel so fragmented in everyday life.
Allow yourself to settle and come back together as one.
Just taking another deep breath in.
Breathing out.
Allowing your body to sink a little deeper into the surface you're resting on.
Letting go.
Now feeling your body as a whole.
Doing a little scan through.
Noticing any areas of your body that need some care and attention.
Just inviting those areas to soften and release.
And this is where we begin.
The body listens to the sweet and less sweet music in our lives and plays it back to us.
And being with your breath now.
Noticing the air coming in and out of your nostrils.
Feeling that coolness as you breathe in.
That warmth as you breathe out.
You may have done this a hundred times in your practice before.
But allowing yourself to come here with a beginner's mind.
Each in-breath is a new beginning.
Each out-breath is a release.
Allowing your breath to be that healing force.
Breathing in nourishing oxygen.
Imagine it meeting and restoring every cell of your body.
As you breathe out.
Letting go.
Your body returning to its rhythm.
Rising and falling as you breathe.
And of course our minds like to wander in meditation.
Not much to do when this happens.
Just a gentle noticing.
And as you breathe with your body rising and falling.
Notice who's in there right now.
Who's noticing this unfolding of life.
Just saying an internal hello.
Welcome whoever that is.
Whoever is having this experience right now.
Even offering them a gentle smile.
An understanding smile that says I know.
It's not that easy being a human being.
It's okay.
There are emotions and thoughts.
There is darkness and light.
No need to change a thing.
And asking yourself.
When are you?
Where is this mind right now?
Is it casting a line into the future?
Fishing for trouble?
Or maybe there's some reaching into a timeless past.
Searching for buried treasure.
Polished with nostalgia.
Inviting you now to leave it all be.
Putting it all down.
You are just here.
Feeling the space around you.
And feeling any space within you.
Maybe sensing a lightness.
Or feeling your body as a sense of energy.
Maybe noticing the hum of the space that you're in.
A background drone or noise.
Listening to your breath.
Your heartbeat.
This is life unfolding.
It can be trusted.
It's on your side.
And as you sit here breathing.
Sensing that space between your awareness and life unfolding.
There is your awareness.
And your felt senses.
Where does your awareness and this sense meet?
Could they be the same?
Awareness and life.
Together.
And saying to yourself.
I am here.
I have arrived.
I am enough.
I am here.
I have arrived.
I am enough.
Maybe sensing an isness of being here.
Of perhaps everything being as it is.
And that being okay.
Of course the mind will come in.
And list some reasons why life is not okay.
Just see if you can bring that awareness to that voice.
Giving that to a kindly attention.
An inner smile.
Saying again.
I am here.
I have arrived.
I am enough.
From the state of the uncarved block.
Comes the ability to enjoy the simple.
And the quiet.
The natural and the plain.
Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously.
And have them work.
Benjamin Hoff.
And take another nice deep breath in.
Breathing out.
Allowing your senses to move into the outside world.
And when you are ready.
Gently opening your eyes.
As we end this meditation.
