Dear friends,
Wasn't it John Lennon who coined the memorable phrase,
Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
And isn't it so very true?
In this meditation we'll try to see if we can recover our awareness of life as it comes to us.
An opening thought.
Let us not look back in anger nor forward in fear,
But around in awareness.
These are the words of James Torber.
When I look back at my own life I cannot fail to notice that it has largely been a life lived in non-awareness.
Certainly it has been a life lived in the present moment,
But frantic for the most part,
With little time to stop and think along the way.
I look back and ask in amazement,
Where have these years gone?
In recent years I've tried to become more mindful.
And that's why you're listening to this.
But taken as a whole,
The moments of reflection have been disappointingly few and frighteningly sporadic.
But,
Undaunted,
We begin again today,
You and I together.
Can we pause to see if we can become aware of what is going on for us in this present moment?
In this first pause let's concentrate on our body,
Our breathing,
Our heartbeat,
Notice our bodily sensations and notice the gift of our existence in this time and place.
In this first pause let's concentrate on our body,
Our breathing,
Notice the gift of our existence in this time and place.
In this first pause let's concentrate on our body,
Our breathing,
Notice the gift of our existence in this time and place.
We live and move and have our being in an amazingly indescribable reality.
Science has revealed an inner world of matter,
Far within and beneath what we can see with the naked eye.
At the other end of the scale we observe countless billions of stars in billions of galaxies,
Worlds beyond counting,
The stuff of imagination.
When on a clear night and away from the pollution of city lights,
The magic of the night sky is only a fraction of the amazement that lies beyond.
Yet sometimes we trouble our minds with complaints about traffic jams and we can spend our days alternating between a frenzy of work and an orgy of consumerism.
We have the extraordinary image of people working hard so that they can afford a break from work,
Laboring extra hours so they can afford labour-saving devices.
In our next pause let's examine our relationship with work.
Is it a healthy balance that allows time and space for awareness?
Awareness of the fact that we are alive in a magical existence.
Next we go on to consider the people in our lives.
Our family,
Our friends,
People we have worked with,
People we have learned from.
As you go through the list just consider where each of these people will be in 100 years.
I look out my window and it is a sobering thought to realise that not one person whose house is in my view will be here in that relatively short time.
This reminds us it is time to be kind to those around us.
Time to forgive any grievances.
Time to put aside any feelings of jealousy.
So what if someone has a bigger house?
A more amazing car?
Money for more exotic holidays?
Time to put upon one and all with eyes of compassion.
We all share this gift of life and we will have the experience of death.
We each enter and each of us will leave this world alone.
We need to be more aware of our shared humanity.
So a final pause to allow us to give thanks for the people in our lives and resolve to notice and take care of them.
Our failures in awareness in the past need not be a discouragement.
We can turn around and redirect our lives in one minute,
In this very minute.
Indeed this is the only minute in which we can put our good intentions into effect.
So let us begin.
A closing thought in a message of hope and encouragement from the Dalai Lama.
We are visitors on this planet.
We are here for 100 years at the very most.
During that period we must try to do something good,
Something useful with our lives.
If you contribute to other people's happiness you will find the true meaning of life.
Namaste.
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