If you remember the elephant and the four wise men,
Each saw a different part of the elephant.
However,
Being sightless,
They couldn't imagine what the entire elephant looked like.
The same with meditation.
There's many different faces.
One of them is contemplation.
But before we can do some contemplation,
We need concentration.
Concentration is like clearing the clutter from your mind before you start to contemplate.
It's like cleaning your desk off so that you have a nice,
Open,
Clear surface to work with before you start to do your work.
For concentration,
Very often the breath is the focus of attention.
Just notice where your breath is right now.
How your breath is moving in and moving out.
Now bring to mind an old habit,
Something that you might be ready to change.
Maybe one of those New Year's resolutions.
Something that you have good intention for,
But not the action to actually change it.
Imagine the earth revolving around the sun.
Each year it comes back to its relative position around the sun,
But since the sun is moving through space,
The earth is not in the same place it was the year before.
So too with your mind.
Each day your body is moved.
It's as though you're flowing down a river of energy.
Imagine your body moving through space from day to day as the earth rotates and as the earth revolves around the sun.
And as the sun moves along with the rest of the Milky Way through space.
So take this habit that you would like to change and think of that habit,
The energy of that habit,
The feeling,
The sensation of that habit,
What that habit gives you and what sticking to that habit holds you back from.
And imagine that habit were embodied in a car.
What part of your car represents that habit?
Many parts to the car,
Just like the elephant,
Brakes,
Windows,
Upholstery,
Radio,
Sunroof,
Tail lights,
Engine,
Battery,
Wires,
Oil,
Water,
Computer,
Buttons,
Sounds,
Wheels,
Tires,
Metal,
Plastic.
Pick one part of the car that embodies that habit.
Maybe if you're indecisive,
You might think of the car hesitating sometimes as you drive.
Taking that car and that part of the car representing your habit,
Think now of an animal,
That that car part would be represented by some animal.
If you chose a car part of gas pedal for speed,
Running quickly,
You might think of a cheetah running through the woods.
Now bring that car part and the animal back into yourself,
Back to the original habit that you had.
And see if you can move something within yourself as if you were fixing the car.
What would change in the car?
What might change within yourself?
Not just a thought or the computer of the car,
The programming,
But something physical in the car.
What would change?
And what would represent that change in your body?
Your body is different now.
It's changed,
It's moved from a few minutes ago when you started this exercise.
Just as the water flowing down the river is constantly changing,
We think of the river as one river,
One thing,
But it's continually flowing.
Just the same as you and your body are continually moving and flowing.
So you can make a change somewhere along the way.
What's the new habit?
What's the action that starts to create the change in your old habit that you can do right now?
Feel deeply inside your body,
The foundation of all thought,
Effort and energy.
Make that slight shift,
Very subtle,
Breathing in deeply,
Attention on the new action,
That subtle shift of movement,
The continual new you that keeps becoming.
Hold that thought,
Hold that feeling,
Hold that sensation,
Breathe deeply into it and allow the vibration of that small subtle shift to vibrate through the entire sense of your body,
Waking up to that new energy,
The new sound of that vibration as that sound starts to form thought and comes out in sound from your mouth in a slight quiet hum,
Joining with the sound of om throughout the universe.
BLiberd now.
