Just bringing your awareness to being here this moment.
The sounds,
The sensations in the body,
Thoughts arising and passing away.
Being aware of the breath in its natural rhythms.
Coming to the middle of your chest.
Start to focus right in the middle of the chest as if you were breathing in and out of the point in the middle of the chest.
Let the breath make the place in the middle of the chest soft and warm and liquid and light.
Soft,
Soft.
If you feel hardness or coldness in the chest,
Soften it.
Warm it with the breath.
Just allowing the sweetness of the heart.
Soft,
Sweet,
Flowing,
Light.
A quality of radiance coming from your own heart.
Softening,
Lightening.
Now using your imagination,
Just imagine that everybody in this room has exactly that same place in the middle of the heart.
Place of light,
Place that is liquid,
That is soft,
That is radiant,
That is warm.
All of us the same in that way,
And yet so different in all that surrounds that heart.
If you knew that in every human being there was that quality of spirit and truth,
And that's what you focused on when you met another person,
How different it would be.
Now expand to all of the people that you came upon today in the subways,
On the streets,
In meetings,
In offices,
In bed,
At the dinner table,
At newsstands,
Wherever you went today.
And think of each of those people as another point of light,
As a container containing an essence,
A quality of softness,
Of caring,
Warmth,
Of light.
Think of the people you've interacted with today,
And think of how often,
How frequently or infrequently you remembered the light that is in the center of the container.
It's as if the body is the holder of the light,
And often the holder of the container is so opaque that you can't see the light.
And people keep saying to you,
I am the container.
And you keep,
When you remember,
You say to them,
No,
You're the light.
And they say,
No,
I'm the container.
But now look at yourself through today.
How often did you remember today that light that is the center of your being?
How often were you quiet enough,
Or was there a pause long enough for you to remember?
Because unless you can see your own light,
How can you truly see another's?
For it takes a light to know a light.
Who did you meet today?
Did you meet partners,
Or children,
Or parents,
Or business people,
Or people asking for money,
Or social workers,
Or kids,
Or troublemakers,
Or politicians,
Or newspaper vendors?
Is that who you met,
Or did you meet the light in all of its various ways of being contained?
Any time of the day,
You always can come back to the breath.
Bring the breath as if you are breathing out of the middle of the chest.
And with each breath,
Brighten the light that sits in the middle.
Soften,
Warm,
Brighten.
Let the light shine.
Oh.
Let a sound rise from that point of light.
