This is a conscious time mastery meditation called Walking with Trees.
We are going to do a walking meditation based on the Japanese practice called Shinran-Yoku.
The word means forest bathing.
It is not simply walking through the forest or nature,
But doing it in a very mindful way,
With all of your senses engaged,
Immersing yourself fully into it,
Like you would immerse yourself in a warm bath.
Let's start off with some general instructions as you begin walking forward slowly.
You're invited to meander gently and softly,
Without a specific destination in mind,
And to go slowly,
Only about a quarter of your normal walking speed.
Go where your feet wants to go as you explore this piece of nature with all of your senses.
Let your curiosity be your guide.
Pause from time to time to admire things that catch your eye.
Be mindful of each step you take.
Spend some time with the animals and insects that cross your path.
There's no need to think about other things,
To evaluate,
To make assessments or tell stories in your mind.
For now,
Just open your senses and allow nature to enter fully.
Breathe in deeply.
What can you smell?
Notice the earthy smells that's in the background that we don't often take note of,
Unless we're concentrating very hard on it.
What can you see?
Can we think of something of interest?
Where can we find the How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Can you feel the wind on your face?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
What can you hear?
Listen to the creaks and the soft sounds of the leaves,
The birds,
All the different sounds of life all around you.
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How many different kinds of birds can you hear flattering or calling?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Can you see any of them?
Can you hear the sound of your own footsteps or the snapping of twigs beneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
The forest breathes.
Can you hear it?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Breathe with the forest and immerse yourself in it.
Become one with it as you feel what it feels.
It can strengthen you,
It can support you,
It can replenish you and sustain you.
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Explore the different textures around you.
Feel what the bark of a tree feels like underneath your fingers.
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Touch a leaf,
Take it in your hand and smell it.
Feel its texture,
The little knots on its surface.
How does the earth feel underneath your feet?
Feel and close your eyes for a while.
Notice how much sharper your other senses become.
Breathe,
Just breathe.
Open your eyes again and imagine that you are seeing the world for the very first time.
Almost as if you've just been born.
To walk in nature in this way is to witness a thousand miracles.
Notice the tiny creatures that call this place a home if they cross your path.
Really see them and observe them.
Reflect on what you can learn from them.
Everything is in the right place including you.
Breathe in the world that is yours.
Feel what the bark of a tree feels like underneath your feet.
Look at the trees as you walk slowly among them.
See how their tops move,
How they sway but how their trunks keep them rooted.
Look at the sunlight filtering through the leaves of the canopy.
Does it make any patterns that you can observe?
Feel the shifting terrain underneath your feet.
But most of all just be here.
Feel how the soft wild animal of your body relaxes and settles into a soothing rhythm and peacefulness.
Just feel where your feet want to take you and follow the gentlest of urgings from your heart.
If your thoughts drift just bring them back gently to this present moment.
Learn to recognize the difference between worry and distraction and presence.
You are communicating in a way that the forest understands,
The only way it understands namely in the present.
This is the language we speak with the planet,
The language of now.
It is not thought based but presence based.
In this moment you have nowhere else to be,
Nothing else to do except be here.
Connect to the heart of a wise and aging tree.
Feel its trunk high into the sky.
Feel the touch of the spreading branches.
If you could live in this forest and became a tree,
What type of tree would you choose?
If you could live in this forest and become a tree,
What type of tree would you choose?
What noble qualities do you feel trees express?
A tree's deep roots reach into the lower world,
The unconscious,
While its branches reach to the heavens,
The source of destiny.
To be whole in your life's journey,
It's important to have deep roots and high branches.
A tall tree with shallow roots falls in the first wind,
But a tree with deep roots can weather any storm.
Turn your face to the sun and feel its warmth on your face.
Feel how your own roots extend into the earth.
Imagine what a leaf feels like,
Absorbing the rays of the sun,
Turning light into life.
Notice the cooperation and harmony all around you.
As you walk,
The universe is walking with you.
Beauty is on every side.
As you walk,
You walk with beauty.
As you continue your meandering walk,
See how many different shades of green you can identify,
While you listen to this poem by David Wagner called Stand Still.
The trees before you and the bushes beside you are not lost.
Wherever you are is a place called here.
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes,
Listen,
It answers.
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it,
You may come back again saying,
Yeah.
No two trees are the same to raven,
No two branches are the same to ring.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows where you are.
You must let it find you.
Now think and reflect on this as you continue to walk.
This place called here is at the same time both utterly ordinary and normal and on the other hand totally magical and unexpected.
The forest which you are in lives in this place called here all of the time.
It lives here,
Sleeps here,
Breathes here.
It doesn't just visit you sporadically like we do.
There is no way to communicate with it or experience it unless you join it where it is,
Which is here.
And whenever you choose to show up here,
The forest is here to greet you.
In this place there is no future and no past.
Whatever trees fell before has fallen and have become a part of the orderly chaos of wholeness,
Cooperation and connection before you.
They are not mourned because they are not lost.
In this place,
Like in life,
Nothing is ever truly lost.
The forest doesn't worry about the future,
The winds here to come or about the fact that all trees eventually fall.
In this place everything simply is.
The soft breeze welcomes you and the leaves smile shyly as you brush past.
Many walk the forest paths who are not really here,
But you are here and the forest notices and welcomes you.
It doesn't matter how long it's been since your last visit,
It is always glad to welcome you back,
To greet you and to share a few special moments with you.
You can tell the forest all of your secrets.
You can tell it how you are really feeling inside.
There is no judgement in this place called here.
So open your heart and tell the forest the story that you've told no one.
A story that you barely tell to yourself because you are so afraid of what it means.
In this place called here it is all okay.
You can leave this story or emotion here so you don't need to carry it any longer or further.
If you can set it free here among the dancing leaves,
You can move on without the burden of it.
So whisper it to a tree,
The sky or the little stream running through.
Tell it to one of the forest birds or a beetle that crosses your path.
Bury it beneath a heap of dead leaves or give it to the wind to blow it gently away.
Music and home home home and home home home home You are loved here.
Your beautiful soul needs some respite.
You can leave that story or emotion right here and the forest will take care of it and transform it into new life.
The forest says it's all going to be okay.
It always is here and now.
The forest says be at peace.
The forest says be still and know that life is meant for you and that it is happening for you and not to you.
The forest says there is a purpose and higher order that uses the chaos to unfold beautifully and perfectly.
Here and now in this place you are perfect and you are right where you need to be and are meant to be.
Know that it is all beautiful in this place called here.
Your heart knows the truth of this even if your mind sometimes forgets.
In the piece of the wild things by Wendell Berry the last line is for a time I rest in the grace of the world and I am free.
I hope that you encountered that grace and freedom today.
Think on this as you slowly start making your way back.
