Okay friends,
Today is a live session on nature,
Meditation on nature.
So it's a new topic,
So we will just see how it unfolds and if it resonates with all of you,
We will do it more often.
So to begin with,
I want to just ask you all the question,
What does nature teach us?
When you have been in nature,
What have you learnt?
Anything you know,
What have you learnt?
Welcome Gail,
It's good to see you.
Angel was here last session,
I think she has joined today also,
I'm not sure.
What do we learn from nature?
We have a natural pull towards nature,
Right,
I'm glad to hear that Gail.
Jenny,
Appreciation of slowness and silence,
That's so beautiful,
Yeah.
Is it good to say stillness,
Okay,
So just sticking with stillness also,
You know somehow when we see nature,
We,
Like how Jenny said and Isikul is saying,
Silence and stillness.
Something when we see that silence and stillness,
We feel it in our own heart and there is a connect,
Right,
Welcoming of all weather,
Yes,
Right,
So many seasons keep changing and it looks like,
You know,
The nature is just moving from one season to the other and each season has its own glory,
Own beauty,
It's only the ego mind which kind of differentiates and says like and dislike but the nature seems to have its own cycle and seems to be totally okay with that.
Sounds of nature are healing like the birds singing,
Oh that's beautiful,
Yes,
Yes,
Yeah,
There's something very beautiful about just being with the sounds of nature like the birds and sometimes when it rains,
You know,
You feel the smell of the mud and that's also beautiful,
You know,
Smell that you get whenever it rains,
It just takes you back in time.
Julie,
Nature teaches us patience,
Perseverance and resilience,
Yes,
Yes,
Right,
Because if you look at,
You know,
A young sapling,
Each of its phases are just beautiful and when there are buds,
The bud takes its own time to bloom,
Right,
It's not in a hurry,
Right,
It doesn't seem to have any schedule,
It just blooms so beautifully,
So naturally,
Right,
Impermanence,
Yes,
That's true,
You can look at a beautiful budding,
You know,
Flower and next to it is a flower which is just,
You know,
Fallen off or maybe withering and yet,
You know,
Both seem to be at ease and there is a beauty in both,
You know,
We just generally feel like a new flower or a blooming flower is wonderful but not,
The withering is not so good but if you really look at it,
I know many of you like the meditation looking from the eyes of the heart,
Seeing with love,
Similar meditations,
So when we remove our judgments and see something,
It looks beautiful when we drop our judgments,
Flow and interconnection,
Beautiful,
Yes,
How everything is like so interconnected,
Right,
Like the plant,
There is mud and there is water,
The rainfalls and the sunlight and all are working together in one unit without any kind of bargaining or talking or meetings or anything,
Right,
Just interconnectedness,
Like how the five fingers are all interconnected and they don't need to talk to form a fist,
Right,
They're just doing it naturally and the truth is that there is an interconnection between all of life but we are so many times we are in the head and we are more like what can I get from this and you know,
That kind of attitude that we miss out on the interconnectedness or sometimes we are so caught up in our story that we don't see,
You know,
Sense the presence of the person beneath the form,
Right,
Yeah,
Beneath and,
You know,
The reality of the form we can see.
Teresa says,
I really like to watch my vegetables and flowers grow and change and in the earth is therapeutic and healing,
Yes,
Yes,
Totally agree,
Yeah.
Rose,
That's also beautiful,
Giving without expectations,
Like,
You know,
There is,
I was telling in the last session,
There are two beautiful mango trees in front of my house filled with fruit and they're really,
You know,
Quite big trees so there is a lot of shade under the trees and then when we look at these trees we feel that,
You know,
They're just giving,
Right,
They're just giving.
Anybody can go and pluck that fruit,
The tree will,
You know,
Not object to it and they give shade and they,
You know,
They hear,
You know,
Almost like giving us love in a way and it's very,
Very beautiful to feel that giving energy of nature.
How nature cooperates with each other,
Yes,
The interconnectedness,
The cooperation,
Like some flowers are designed where only a hummingbird can reach and collect the nectar,
That's beautiful,
Alice,
Yes.
Angel,
Yes,
The sun and the warmth,
Right,
It is so beautiful,
Like in the early morning,
Just after the sunrise,
Just sitting under the sun and yeah,
It's a beautiful feeling,
Makes you feel so alive and so grateful.
Beautiful responses,
Everyone,
I mean,
It's just beautiful what all of you have shared and so true and there is that Rumi,
Not Rumi's poet,
There's a Sufi phrase,
Right,
The sun always gives but never says I owe you,
You owe me,
Right.
If any of you remember that,
You can quote it here,
I think it was Shams who said,
The sun never says you owe me,
Right,
It's always just shining.
I think it was Shams the priest,
It's even after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
You owe me,
Right,
It's Hafiz.
Hafiz,
Nature does not have that insecurity that human beings have,
Right,
That ego which separates everything from life,
We are always one with life but the ego will always create a sense of separation,
I'm separate,
I need to fend for myself,
I have to be careful,
Oh there's my competition,
You know,
How is he doing,
How is she doing,
How to better this person but actually there is no lack in nature but the ego mind does not understand that,
So once we recognize our oneness,
There is no competition,
We are all one,
Right,
So we just work together like how a plant,
Like I said,
The mud,
The water,
The sun,
The air,
They all work together,
Right,
So we all also like work together because we are one.
So let's start the meditations,
So you can close your eyes,
If it was the daytime for you,
I would ask you to keep your eyes open and watch the sky but I'm assuming it's night for most of you,
So we can do it with closed eyes but do try this again in the morning when it is bright,
So visualize the open sky,
Visualize the sky,
A blue sky and notice the quality of openness,
Notice the quality of openness,
You see that the sky never closes down,
Never contracts,
It's always open,
It allows all the clouds to be there and all types of clouds,
All formations and it's completely open and even if there are no clouds,
It's completely open.
So the first quality we will meditate on is the openness of the sky and with your eyes closed,
Know that you are a spiritual self,
What the world sees or what you see in the mirror is only a small aspect of who you are,
It's the form self is a small aspect but beyond the form self,
Around the form self and holding the form self,
Permeating the form self is the formless spaciousness,
Notice that your true self,
The spaciousness is also very open,
Completely open,
Notice this quality,
Even the resistance when it arises,
The openness is open to that resistance,
It doesn't say why is this resistance here,
Complete openness of your formless self,
Notice that it has no boundaries,
No inside or outside,
No dimensions,
Completely open.
Another quality of the sky is it does not discriminate,
It does not lean towards one cloud or does not say why are you here,
It does not say yesterday's clouds were better,
It just is the space for all clouds to appear.
Similarly friends,
Your true self allows thoughts,
Allows emotions,
Allows sensations,
Allows taste right,
So maybe you taste something,
You say I like it,
I don't like it,
That is for the ego mind but actually the open spaciousness has already allowed the taste,
Even if it's something which is not your preference,
Thoughts you know we like to which is not your preference,
Thoughts you know we like positive thoughts,
We don't like negative thoughts but the open spaciousness has no discrimination,
Emotions,
We love happiness,
We love peace but when there's sadness we're like oh no why is this here,
But that's not how your true self is,
Your true self allows everything because it loves everything,
It is love itself,
So when it sees sadness it holds it,
Transmutes it back to love and just like how all clouds are temporary but the sky is permanent,
Your true self is the permanent container,
What arises and subsides in the container keeps changing,
The problems that you had five years back you hardly think about it now,
The beliefs that you had when you were younger may not be valid now,
It allows all the changes but it itself is changeless,
This voice is allowed in your open spaciousness,
Notice that how beautifully it allows this voice,
This sound,
So the sky is your open spacious true self,
The clouds are thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations,
Taste,
Smell,
They all come and go,
Come and go and if you don't,
If you stay as the open spaciousness you'd realize that it's just a temporary phenomenon,
You don't have to be worried about it,
You don't have to believe it and you are not it,
Another penetrance just being aware of the openness and the allowing nature of your true self,
Untouched nature,
The sound leaves no impact on the spaciousness that you are,
Even if i scream now it leaves no impact,
It'll be over,
It'll be temporary arising,
See how nice it feels to be complete openness,
Complete allowing,
Non-identifying,
No thought is your thought,
It's just a thought,
No emotion is your emotion,
It's just an emotion,
Now visualize a lake,
Let's visualize a lake and visualize the water which is still and notice the stillness that is here now in your heart,
Now visualize a river,
A flowing river and there is a saying that you can never step into the same river twice because the river is never the same,
It's always flowing and the person is also not the same because every moment we are changing so notice,
Know that the nature of all phenomena are constantly changing and it's a flux so with the river we can learn newness,
That we can be new every moment if we choose to stop our fascination with the past,
If we can let go of the ego's insistence that things have to be a certain way I have to have my way,
I have to be this way,
I have to live in this kind of house,
My partner has to behave,
My partner has to do the things that I want,
What happens those other so that's the way we are bound to the past,
We have our own ideas about how life should be but if we let it go the nature of our life is newness empty hands how does it feel to be empty and then the newness can flow if we let go of the past and let go of insistence about the future it has to be this way the kind of connected the past and future so looking at the river noticing how it's flowing and noticing that the river is never the same every moment it's changing and realizing that newness is possible is in fact the reality if I can let go if I can be silent just visualize the river flowing friends you're sitting there and it's just flowing and flowing just notice that it's always new and know that you are always new if and you're working towards that or you're open to that newness now let's say you're open to the newness now because you're silent and you're watching when you're silent you're not knowing your complete openness just a minute in silence now the quality of the river is that no matter what obstacle comes it finds its way if there's a large boulder it will go around it if it is a small stone it will go over it or under it so no matter what obstacle comes the river is fluid the river is flexible and it overcomes those obstacles and in your true nature is also you know if you can soften if you can soften your stand if you can work on your healing be compassionate towards all of the energies that are coming up and move to higher levels of consciousness of peace and love then the solutions to whatever is there in front of you the challenges will come the solution always comes from higher levels of consciousness not at the level of consciousness in which the problem was created so know that in you is the ability to overcome anything in your true self so in order to go into the that levels of consciousness where the light is so strong that darkness does not stay just have to work on your healing you are the true self but the old wounds are wailing that light and the last guidance friends is on is about a mountain visualize a mountain standing tall notice that the mountain is unmoving unchanging irrespective of how the weather is notice the sturdiness of the mountain now visualize yourself going and sitting at the base of the mountain and asking the mountain you know that i want to connect with you i want to connect with that strength that you have the sturdiness the groundedness just visualize and feel that you know that as you are so close to the mountain you're touching it and you're you know you're resting on it all the qualities of sturdiness groundedness a feeling of i'm here i belong feel if those qualities you can allow yourself to receive from the mountain so firmly grounded on mother earth so as you're sitting feel that groundedness with mother earth with the mountain with the strength of the mountain the sturdiness of the mountain the unwavering nature i belong i'm here each mountain is unique and beautiful in its own way each of us are unique and beautiful in our own way and we have a purpose each of us belong that's why we are here we have a purpose last one minute rinse be aware of the mountain connect to mother earth sturdiness of the mountain and feel that you're receiving those qualities okay whenever you're ready you can open your eyes be aware of the silence
