It’s just as important to open to the moments of goodness in your life as the moments of suffering. Thich Nhat Hanh as many of you know, Vietnamese meditation master, he said it’s not enough to suffer; you also have to touch peace and happiness and inner ease. So, that’s all to say that we’re going to be doing a short meditation that’s really how to nourish happiness, nourish our hearts with rain. So please find a comfortable position. You may already be in, it but do whatever adjustments allow you to feel perhaps that you’re sitting in a way that’s alert, you’re upright, but there’s also some ease.
{Meditation}
You’re comfortable,
you might let your attention go inward,
take some moments to settle with the breath
You might sense as the breath comes in, that you’re receiving this life breath,
opening to receive, just feel it enter your body, enter the cells, nourishing,
and then with the out breath, a sense of releasing, letting go, whatever’s not needed
It’s kind of like a balloon opening to receive, expanding,
and then the deflating, releasing, letting go
And notice that you can really relax with the breath,
so relaxing open, and relaxing as you release
And you can continue with the breath, but notice it’s possible to soften the eyes,
visualize and sound, say the curve of a smile spreading through your eyes,
so your eyes are smiling
Softening the eyes, letting the brow be smooth,
and continuing to feel that relaxing breath,
and let there be a slight smile at the lips
You might feel the inside of your mouth smiling,
and continue this breathing and feel
that smile spread through the heart
So you’re visualizing the curve of a smile and actually smiling into your heart,
you might sense some more space in that heart region,
kind of widening out space for your shoulders to relax back and down
Still feeling the relaxing breath, and perhaps letting go of any tightness
or tension that you feel in the shoulder area,
letting go letting go, it’s such a gift
Still breathing, feeling the presence of the breath,
softening the hands, feeling the movement of the breath,
Letting the chest be open and softening down through the belly,
letting this next breath be received in a softening belly,
this breath, and now this one, and again
You can visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the belly,
and then through the pelvic region,
so you’re relaxing deep in the torso, aware of the length, volume, weight of your legs
Feeling the pressure places of contact where the feet are on the ground,
and perhaps imagining and sensing this vast earth energy,
flowing up through the feet through the body up the spine,
Filling your whole body with aliveness,
sensing the space around you feeling
that aliveness filling the space around you
Imagine the curve of a smile filling space,
so the atmosphere and sense of a smile
is inside you and around you,
relaxed and open,
still feeling the gentle movement of the breath,
and from this presence, you might scan
your recent life for an experience
where you felt in some way touched by
beauty or touched by a sense of gratitude,
touched by kindness…perhaps another person’s kindness,
in some way inspired…some moment that stands out
as a moment of grace or presence or goodness,
It could be simply a moment of
connecting with another person where you
felt your heart connection
let your attention focus in on this situation,
whatever brought to you that sense of goodness,
it’s a place that has some beauty
a sky, flower,
just let yourself see it close in
If it’s a person, an interaction,
see the person’s face so you’re seeing
what’s around you, you’re hearing if
there’s words or sounds,
Take a moment to just describe to yourself
whatever the feelings are that come with this experience,
It could be presence or gratitude, tenderness, aliveness,
so you’re recognizing this the beginning of rain,
What you’re experiencing, whatever the positive emotion is,
and allow it just consciously let be,
and say okay there’s space for this,
You can dive in, attention with the eyes,
they investigate by inviting those feelings into their fullness,
and you might, as if you’re creating a sculpture,
just let your face express what it’s like when those
feelings are here and let your body your posture
express the feelings,
whatever the feelings of goodness are…
gratitude, tenderness, care,
So let your body express at your face, so
you’re sculpting and expressing,
Invite the feelings just to fill your entire body and beyond,
so you’re feeling an intimate presence with them,
You might notice what feels important or special or memorable about
this experience, and the end or nurturing is really an honoring,
just honoring that in this life there are joys and sorrows,
and that it’s beautiful to honor, to appreciate the goodness that arises,
it’s your bowing in some way to experience of the sweetness of life,
It could be that you mentally whisper, “thank you”,
and then in the after the rain step,
just to sense the quality of presence that’s here right now
since who you are when you’re fully open to experience
The poet Naomi Shivnai, she writes,
“It’s difficult to know what to do
with so much happiness, with sadness,
there’s something to rub against a wound,
to tend with lotion and cloth,
when the world falls in around you you
have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands like
ticket stubs or change,
but happiness floats…it doesn’t need you
to hold it down… it doesn’t need anything…
happiness lands on the roof of the next
house singing, and disappears when it wants to.
Since there’s no place large enough to
contain so much happiness, you shrug,
you raise your hands and it flows out of
you into everything you touch…
you are not responsible… you take no
credit, as the night sky takes no credit for the
moon, but continues to hold it and share it
and in that way be known.”
These last few moments, take a few full breaths,
Thank you
you
