This is a 15 minute meditation.
Bob Sharples wrote,
Don't meditate to fix yourself,
To improve yourself,
To redeem yourself.
Rather,
Do it as an act of love,
Of deep warm friendship yourself.
In this way,
There is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement,
For the endless guilt of not doing enough.
It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.
Instead,
There is now meditation as an act of love,
How endlessly delightful and encouraging.
As we begin this meditation,
Let us allow our mind to do whatever it wants to do.
If the mind wants to think,
Let it think.
If the mind wants to wander,
Let it wander.
If you get lost in a storyline about past or future,
Give yourself permission to do so.
If you find that there is agitation,
Distraction,
Or resistance,
See if you can make some space for all of that to happen.
Exclude nothing.
Include everything.
At the end of the day,
There is no right or wrong way of doing this meditation,
Because there is no right or wrong way of just sitting with whatever arises.
So let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
David White wrote,
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation.
The kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink.
The cooking pots have left their arrogant aloofness and seen the good in you at last.
All the birds and creatures of the world are unutterably themselves.
Everything is waiting for you.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Alan Watts wrote,
How can we bring ourselves into accord with the Tao?
The curious thing is that you cannot get out of accord with it even if you want it to.
Though your thoughts may run into the past or the future,
They cannot escape the present moment.
For those thoughts are themselves of the moment just as much as anything else they partake of.
And indeed,
The thoughts are the movement of life which is Tao.
You may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal now,
But you cannot be.
For you are life and exist now.
Otherwise,
You would not be here.
Hence,
The infinite Tao is something which you can neither escape by flight nor catch by pursuit.
There is no coming toward it or going away from it.
It is and you are it.
So become what you are.
So become what you are.
So become what you are.
So become what you are.
So become what you are.
Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote,
The ultimate understanding is that there is no ultimate understanding.
Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote,
The ultimate understanding is that there is no ultimate understanding.
Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote,
The ultimate understanding is that there is no ultimate understanding.
Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote,
The ultimate understanding is that there is no ultimate understanding.
Michael Gungor wrote,
This is all there is.
Yesterday and tomorrow are just wounds and stories.
This is not all there is.
There is also that desiring milk while you drink water.
That is suffering.
Of course,
That is absurd.
For this is all there is.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Pema Chodron wrote,
I think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem.
But the truth is that things don't ever really get solved.
They come together and then they fall apart.
Then they come together again and they fall apart again.
It's just like that.
The healing.
The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen.
Room for grief.
Room for relief.
Room for misery.
Room for joy.
Thank you.
Thank you.
In a few moments,
The bell will ring,
Signaling the end of this meditation.
As we transition from more formal meditation practice to more informal daily life.
Perhaps we can find some inspiration in the words of Mary Oliver,
Who wrote,
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair,
Yours,
And I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile,
The world goes on.
Meanwhile,
The sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes.
Over the prairies and the deep trees,
The mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile,
The wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again.
Whoever you are,
No matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination.
Calls to you like the wild geese,
Harsh and exciting,
Over and over,
Announcing your place in the family of things.
