Let us begin,
Going way,
Way down,
My friends,
Where there is nowhere to go.
There's nowhere to go.
Arriving here in your breath,
Letting the body settle,
All the movements,
Relaxing into stillness,
All the movements,
Relaxing into stillness.
And I know that this can take a moment.
So be gentle with yourself,
Gentle with yourself,
Resting into this moment.
Feel how you can be held in silence in order to notice the beauty,
The beauty within you,
The beauty around you,
Sounds,
The sights,
Textures.
You need to slow way,
Way down.
And most of us,
Especially if we live in the West,
Are going at a fast clip.
And truthfully,
You can move fast anywhere in the world.
Well,
Let us practice the art of slowing down because it is in the slowness that you can begin to notice the nuance.
Maybe you take a walk through your neighborhood or a walk through your woods on a regular basis.
And after a while,
It can be easy to take it for granted,
To stop noticing,
To simply forge ahead.
So this,
My friends,
Is a practice of slowing down,
Of dropping in,
You might even relax the eyes into their sockets,
Opening the vision,
Opening the vision by softening.
Noticing is different than scanning.
Noticing means opening your awareness,
Opening your awareness,
Allowing yourself to be surprised,
Surprised by beauty,
Surprised by colors and textures,
Surprised by the sound of the birds,
By the sound of your own voice,
Opening our awareness and opening our senses.
And there's something else that avails itself to us in the meeting of these.
When the mind is wandering,
Gently call it back.
This is not the time for thinking,
Analyzing,
Pondering,
It is a time for being,
Widening the aperture of your noticing.
Slow down and open.
You will notice many,
Many things.
You will notice the pattern on the flower and the tree.
You might notice how a colony of ants is hard at work,
Or to give yourself the gift of noticing,
Noticing how the light is hitting someone's eyes or the glistening in their blonde hair.
Slow down even more.
Surrender into a slow and fast open space.
What you will discover by slowing down,
You will encounter beauty.
So my friends,
Let yourself be surprised.
Let yourself be tickled with joy.
It's about your orientation and your devotion to noticing what is already here,
What is already given on the outside and on the inside.
That pulse of silence,
Let it sink in a little bit deeper,
Softening and widening,
Slowing down.
