So,
You might take a few longer,
Deeper breaths,
Just as a way of kind of letting yourself settle and arrive,
And then opening to whatever is arising for you in the body,
In the mind,
In the heart.
Just let it come,
Let it be,
Let it go in its own time.
So,
Inviting an attitude of not controlling,
Not trying to do anything,
Get anywhere,
Simply letting everything be as it is,
Changing,
Flowing,
Coming,
Going,
Arising,
Passing.
So,
Whatever you notice in your body,
It's letting the sensations come,
Letting them be,
And letting them go.
Imagine yourself just for a moment as just witnessing it all,
The bodily feelings,
Any emotion that might be present.
Maybe there's some excitement or there's some sadness.
Just allow that to express itself,
Just the feelings to come,
To go in their own time.
It's making space for whatever is here.
And if thoughts come up in the mind of,
I'm sad because of this or that,
Just let the thoughts go,
Or I'm excited about this coming up,
Let the thought go,
Let it be.
Not pushing it away,
But just letting it come and go.
We're not trying to control anything or resist anything or hold on to anything or change anything or judge anything.
If it's helpful,
You might think of the image of a wide open sky and your mind like an open,
Spacious sky.
Everything can come and go,
But the sky remains spacious,
Open,
Unaffected by what passes through it.
In the same way,
Our mind,
The awareness can know the feelings,
The sounds,
Thoughts,
The impulses,
Know all of this,
All of these changing experiences that we easily get hooked up in,
And to see them coming and going like clouds passing through the sky or like birds flying through the sky.
And if you find that your mind has been pulled into thoughts about the future or the past or planning or memories or daydreams,
Just let the thought go and think of it as like a cloud passing.
And rather than fueling the thought,
Which we often do by thinking more about whatever it is,
We just choose to let it go,
Let it be,
Let it pass.
So that nothing that comes up needs to be a problem,
All just coming and going,
Everything impermanent,
Changing,
And not a problem if we don't get tangled in it,
Don't get in a fight with our experience.
I like this,
I don't like that,
I want this,
I should be like this.
We just let go of all of that and just watch coming and going of all of these experiences,
All of these states and sensations,
Everything that comes from outside,
The sounds,
Maybe sounds around you,
Again,
Just coming and going,
That are only a problem if we get into some kind of conflict with them.
The sound of a dog barking,
You know,
For a long time,
Sometimes seem like it shouldn't be happening,
They should be doing this or that,
You know,
The mind gets hooked on that.
And then we can ask,
Can this just be sound,
Coming and going?
What happens when it's just the sound rather than the sound and the story?
Just notice what happens when you bring a non-controlling attitude towards your experience and meet it in this non-judging,
Non-clinging way,
Just letting everything be,
Letting it come and go in the midst of everything.
Can this be a moment of peace,
A moment of freedom?
This moment,
The mind often might respond,
Well,
I could,
But if it weren't for this aching back or this tiredness or restlessness or whatever it is,
You can just come back and say,
Can I be at peace in the midst of this too?
Whatever's here,
Whatever's coming up,
Doesn't need to be an obstacle,
Can just be seen and known and experienced and come and go in its own time.
The Buddhist teachings and other wisdom teachings point to the freedom that is available right here,
Right now,
In this moment.
And it's always this moment,
This moment.
But so much of the time we're somewhere else,
We're caught up in something,
We're holding on to something or fighting with something.
The invitation is to keep,
Just to come back right now,
Here now.
Thich Nhat Hanh spoke about keeping our appointment with life,
Our appointment with life is here now,
Not tomorrow,
Not next week,
Right here,
Right now.
This potential for freedom,
Krishnamurti said,
We come to this infinite web of life with a thimble,
So we go away thirsty.
We come to this infinite web of life with a thimble,
So we go away thirsty.
Finish off the meditation with this poem by Mary Oliver in Blackwater Woods.
Look,
The trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light,
Are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment.
The long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds.
And every pond,
No matter what its name is,
Is nameless now.
Every year,
Everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this.
The fires and the black river of loss,
Whose other side is salvation,
Whose meaning none of us will ever know.
To live in this world,
You must be able to do three things.
To love what is mortal,
To hold it against your bones,
Knowing your own life depends on it.
And when the time comes to let it go,
To let it go.
