Welcome.
I'll invite you to find your seat or lie down.
This is a meditation for freedom through the body.
This is an important meditation because you can learn how to experience the body as four primary elements.
These elements are air,
Water,
Fire,
And earth.
As you start to get more and more comfortable,
I'll invite you to close your eyes and start to feel carefully.
You won't feel a body.
This is just a word,
The idea or concept level.
You'll start to actually feel areas of hardness or softness,
Pressure,
Heaviness,
Roughness,
And smoothness.
This is earth.
You'll start to feel areas of warmth and coolness.
This is fire.
You'll start to feel areas of vibration and stillness.
This is air.
You'll start to feel fluidity.
This is water.
You can allow yourself to swallow,
To sense it.
We know our body most directly this way.
Sometimes,
Though,
It's hard to let go as we dive deeper into a direct investigation of these bodily elements.
But through time and effort,
We can free ourselves from the deep layers of identification and entanglement.
It can be simple.
So start to notice the areas of your body again.
Are there any areas that feel hard or soft,
Dense or smooth,
Heavy or light?
What about warm,
Cool,
Or maybe even neutral?
Are there any areas that are vibrating or do you feel stillness?
Maybe you start to see colors.
Continue to notice whatever feelings and images are associated with these elemental sensations that are present.
There is a story behind these.
This could be a story of abandonment or grief,
Anger or loss,
Or even fear.
Start to recognize the repeated patterns that the story is telling you.
Now,
Can you offer compassion to this story,
Compassion to yourself and to anyone else that has experienced a similar story?
Start to notice both the personal and universal nature of your suffering.
Allow your experience to gradually become more impersonal.
Allow yourself to be a person who is simply a meditation.
The whole stream of the history is just being consciously witnessed.
And then start to take a nice deep breath in and out.
Slowly start to blink your eyes open and witness your new experiences of the present moment.
Thank you so much for coming to this meditation and regulating yourself,
Understanding the elements of your body.
Return to this practice anytime you feel the story starting to take over again.
Gradually you will become more and more of a witness,
A meditator,
A peaceful person.