Begin by finding a comfortable meditation seat.
Know that meditation can look like many things.
If you need to move,
You can move.
Also see what it's like to stay with an uncomfortable sensation for a few moments longer than you normally would.
Get curious about what might be on the other side of that.
Once you're settled,
Simply close your eyes and take your attention first to the sounds around you.
Listen to all the sounds you can hear within the room you're in.
All the sounds you can hear beyond the room you're in.
Listen also for the sounds you can hear coming from your own body.
And allow each of these sounds as they roll in and out of your soundscape to simply touch you.
No need to interpret or judge.
Allow sound to simply be vibration touching your inner ear.
Experience each sound as a sensation,
Neither good nor bad.
If you notice your mind,
Hold on to any particular sound or start to build a narrative around that sound.
Just notice how the soundscape has changed,
How at each moment new sounds are entering,
Past sounds are fading.
Choose to experience the present moment,
The soundscape right now.
Now take your awareness to the sense of taste within the mouth.
Notice any taste lingering in the mouth or notice the absence of taste.
And simply noticing is enough.
If you find your mind building a story around your experience,
You can simply come back to the right now of experiencing taste.
Be gentle with your attention.
Be gentle with your mind.
And just feeling taste with a kind attention.
And now take your awareness to any sensation you can feel on your skin.
Noticing how your clothing feels against your skin.
Noticing the touch and the temperature of air around your skin.
Noticing the sensation of the support beneath you.
Feeling how that support from the earth rises up to meet you so that you can rest down into it.
And feel held by your seat.
Take your awareness now to your sense of vision.
Even from behind closed eyelids,
Become aware of your scope of vision,
Your ability for vision.
Imagine the periphery that you could see in this moment.
And see from behind your eyelids.
And seeing the black from behind your eyelids.
And from these external senses,
Now take your attention into your breath.
Simply notice your breath as it is.
Trace the movement of breath through your body.
Notice also if taking your attention to your breath may have changed the way you're breathing.
Again,
Simply watch here,
Observe with kind attention towards yourself.
Experience what it's like to be with your breath with ease.
Watching breath flow in and flow out.
Residing also in the spaces between each breath.
The space between inhale and exhale.
The space between exhale and inhale.
Imagine your breath just like waves coming up onto shore.
Coming and going.
And riding in on these waves,
You may notice thoughts like material from the ocean.
Allow the waves of breath to wash away any thoughts so that the thoughts can come and go with the ease and fluidity of the water.
You may notice one particular thought get caught on the shore of your awareness.
Simply send a breath,
A wave to reach that thought.
Encompass it with your inhale and send it back to the ocean on your exhale.
Letting go of any holding,
Any tightening around any particular thoughts.
The truth of our mind is like this bubbling up of experience.
Any given thing may hold our attention at one time.
It is when we try and grasp onto those things,
When we try and hold them,
That suffering occurs.
Because the truth is you can't hold onto water.
It is impossible to live in the past.
What would it be like to relax and ease into the wonder of it all?
Ease into the nature of coming and going.
Ease into the present moment.
The present moment is a simple one.
You are breathing in and out.
From this awareness of your breath,
Expand your attention wide enough to notice your community.
Notice that we are all breathing the same air.
We all share the same ocean.
Expanding your awareness with kind attention to your broader community.
You reside in your basic interconnectedness.
We walk the same earth.
We share the same oceans.
We drink the same air.
And from this basic feeling of interconnectedness,
Call to your awareness one person you love.
Hold this person in your awareness,
Someone you already feel an abundant feeling of goodwill toward.
And offer them this wish using my words or using your own.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And repeating again for this person you love,
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And now call into your awareness a friend,
Perhaps an acquaintance.
Someone you don't have as strong a feeling toward but still a general feeling of goodwill for.
Offering this person the same.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
Repeating again holding this person in your awareness,
Using your own words or using mine.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And now calling into your awareness someone entirely neutral to you.
Perhaps someone you don't have a relationship with but you see on a walk in the grocery store.
Extending this same feeling of goodwill,
This same wish of goodwill towards this neutral person.
Using your own words or using mine.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And repeating again for this person.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And now turning your attention back towards yourself.
Offering yourself the same wish of goodwill.
May I be safe.
May I be healthy.
May I be happy.
May I be free.
And repeating again that wish of goodwill towards yourself.
May I be safe.
May I be healthy.
May I be happy.
May I be free.
From this awareness of yourself,
Now call into your attention a difficult person.
Someone you have a difficult relationship to.
And see what it's like to extend this same wish of goodwill towards this more difficult person.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
Repeating again,
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be free.
And from this particular awareness of this one difficult person,
Expand your awareness now.
Expand it wide and broad,
Encompassing all beings everywhere.
And from this open-heartedness offering the same wish of goodwill towards all beings everywhere.
May we all be safe.
May we all be happy.
May we all be healthy.
May we all be free.
And repeating again this wish of goodwill towards all beings everywhere.
May all beings everywhere be safe.
May all beings everywhere be healthy.
May all beings everywhere be happy.
May all beings everywhere be free.
