We'll begin with a bell just to announce our intention to be ready for bed.
Make yourself as cozy as you can.
Let darkness fall all around you.
The quiet descend and suffuse your experience.
Let gravity pull you down and draw you in,
Coming into a greater stillness,
A deeper quiet that is not silent.
In the profound embrace of rest,
Begin to let the day go.
Shake and shimmy and fidget all you need to make yourself just a little more comfortable.
Just notice where your breath is.
Shallow,
Sustained,
Irregular.
It doesn't matter.
We're just starting to observe ourselves as we prepare for rest and perhaps sleep.
You could use your breath to guide some relaxation into any places that are tough,
Stiff,
Or maybe agitated.
You might notice your thoughts rambling and meandering,
Doing what thoughts do,
Because neurons have to fire.
There's no escaping it.
You wouldn't want to in this lifetime.
Meditation isn't about emptying one's mind,
Thinking about nothing.
I don't think that would be possible.
It can just be about thinking about nothing in particular and giving yourself the freedom to let your mind wander,
Maybe even to be.
It's a good and liberating thing.
Letting gravity sink you down.
Breath,
Make you feel a little lighter,
Heavy,
And then light,
Heavy,
And then light.
Your thoughts can drift.
That's the nature of coming into dreams and losing consciousness.
That if you start to fixate on something uncomfortable,
Just listen to my voice.
Notice your body,
That you're breathing,
That you are glorious.
To sleep,
We need to let go.
Let go of conscious striving.
Let go of what was in the day that preceded our sleep.
And let go of what could be after we sleep.
None of those things have any material reality right now.
All that matters is this experience,
Trying to stay awake,
Letting ourselves fail.
I can't think of anything better to fail.
Perhaps as you review the day that was,
Maybe there's a grating thought,
An experience you didn't like,
Someone hurt your feelings,
Some yelling,
Some rudeness,
Some discounting of your humanity.
You could be angry about it now,
But it probably wouldn't help you sleep.
Maybe you can tentatively forgive the object of your disappointment,
At least for now,
At least for this moment or this night.
You let go.
A provisional forgiving.
And you might notice with a touch of irony that just as much as someone has probably hurt your feelings,
We've probably done it too to someone else.
Okay?
It's natural,
Normal,
Unavoidable.
Everybody makes mistakes.
We're not always our best selves.
It happens.
Maybe you ask forgiveness.
Maybe you just forgive yourself a little.
In your breathing,
You might start to notice the light changing,
Fading,
Flowing and drifting behind your eyes as your consciousness plays tricks on you and dreams their way through your frame of reference.
Perhaps tonight will be filled with glorious dreams.
Who's to say?
And as you let the light fade,
You might expand your consciousness broader into the universe around you and have an inkling all of this shares a common story.
You,
Me,
Everyone and everything started from the same experience and is part of the same web of destiny.
Take a moment to acknowledge the unity of all creation and created life.
And perhaps out of that acknowledgement comes a deep and reverent love,
A faithfulness to creation that you can carry with you at every moment.
As you lie down,
You are in this moment gathered,
Sheltered by eagle's wings,
Shielded,
Lifted so that you don't trip or endanger yourself,
Guarded and safeguarded.
Breathe into that certainty,
Security.
You may want to breathe in and then breathe out with the ancient word selah,
Breathing,
Knowing that your world is filled with great,
Good presences that watched over those who preceded you,
Marvels that watch you now,
Good and great forces that will watch the world comes after you.
You're breathing,
You're settling in,
Your thoughts are becoming less logical,
Less regular,
Less constructed.
And if at any time you get fixated on something from the day that was,
The week ahead,
Come back to my voice and your cushion,
Your body,
Your breath.
You are safe,
You're breathing,
You are blessed and you are guarded.
The universe is shining upon you with great thread in.
The universe is looking at you right now to give you the gift of peace,
Wholeness,
Quanimity.
There are amazing protectors that will surround you in your sleep,
Great and good forces that will attend to you and attend to all of the things that may have troubled you when you were awake.
You must have so many questions during the day,
So many curiosities.
At night,
You can deposit those questions and curiosities with the force that attends to all questions,
Your right hand.
During the day,
You struggle,
You wrestle,
You combat mentally,
Perhaps physically.
And while you sleep,
It's time to let go.
You can deposit all of that courage and all of that vigor at your left side with a great and good force responsible for strength.
During the day,
We lose our way,
Get lost,
Get confused.
While we sleep at our feet,
There is a good and great presence holding the lamp of wisdom ahead of us like a nightlight.
During every day,
So many aches and pains,
Mental and human suffering.
Asleep,
You can let all that go and deposit it,
The good and great force responsible for healing that will rest right behind you as you sleep and hovering above you.
Great,
The entire universe attending to you.
As you breathe,
You're probably starting to lose alertness,
Maybe your mind becoming gently confused with the edges of dream.
Maybe you need to make one last adjustment physically.
Shiver,
Scratch,
Last deep breath and then out on the word SELA.
You are held,
Contained as you prepare for sleep.
The universe holds you in its hand.
You have nothing to fear.
