Welcome to this meditation to hold space for peace.
The meditation will start with a brief guided section,
Then a single bell will mark the beginning of a two-minute period of silence.
During this time,
Simply breathe and focus on holding the frequency of peace in your heart.
At the end of the silence,
Three bells will signal the conclusion of the meditation,
But you're welcome to remain in this peaceful space for as long as you wish.
Let's begin by taking a moment to ground and centre in our bodies,
Bringing your attention to your breath,
Noticing the quality and rhythm of your breath,
Whether it's slow and deep or fast and shallow.
As you continue to breathe,
Notice how it tends to naturally slow down and deepen just with the quality of your awareness.
Now allow yourself to fully arrive in the here and now with whatever is alive within you,
Offering all that you're holding,
All the pain,
Suffering,
Grief and despair and the loss,
To the here and now,
And allow all of it to be welcome here,
Offering it all up to the sacred altar that is your life.
Standing in the fullness of yourself and all that you're feeling,
Even the fear,
Feeling the heat of the world's despair growing in you.
Do not turn away from this pain and do not fight it,
Because it is in the fighting and the resisting that the despair grows,
That the cycles of violence and aggression against ourselves and others are perpetuated.
For peace to have a chance,
We need to bear witness to the pain and suffering of our shared humanity and unite in compassion and understanding.
Your heart is big enough to hold this pain,
To bear witness and to open into compassion and kindness.
Without trying to control or change what's present in your experience,
Acknowledge what's real,
Including the anger and fear,
The overwhelming sense of loss that is really love in disguise.
Just witnessing these emotions,
These feelings,
We don't need to understand or justify them,
Just as sometimes there seems to be no logic or reason for the wars that rage within and around us.
For those of us whose lives are not caught up in the physical ravages of war,
Conflict,
Injustice and oppression that is happening around the world,
We need to follow the wisdom and guidance of those that have come before us.
Elders like Nelson Mandela,
The Dalai Lama and Dr Martin Luther King Jr who said that peace is not just the goal but also the means and that we must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
So let us be that peace that the world needs as the world seems to swing into more chaos and turmoil.
Let's be the centre of calm and harmony that anchors our hearts,
Spirits,
Minds and bodies.
