The moment is ‘NOW’.
Exercise- Pebble Meditation
by meditative - March 29th, 2010.Filed under: Attending Meditation Exercises.
[audio:MM-Pebble-Meditation.mp3]
Attending to the question from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Pebbles & Pearls”…
Let’s sit in this meditation in a posture that is both comfortable and stable. Again,we will begin by just tuning into the breath for a moment or two and the body as a whole, and dropping into silence- giving it full care & attention moment by moment- just feeling the whole body sitting here breathing… dropping into the breath with the entirety of your attention… riding on the waves of the breath.
When ready, imagine or visualize in your mind’s eye the best you can a well, and yourself sitting on the wall of the well, or by the well. However it is, you are sitting or standing by the well. Then just drop a pebble into the well. Let’s let the pebble take the form of a question…“what brings me here today to this practice?” When you are ready, letting that pebble drop into the well, and listen… listen as it descends… listening for the splash of a response…“what brings me here now at this point in my life?”
Whatever response you hear in the form of a splash staying with the pebble and following it down beneath the surface… listening and attending… following the pebble down into the heart… into the mind… into the well until perhaps it comes to rest at the bottom… just listening. What brings me to this practice?”
Underneath the surface- responses, impulses, or expectations- is there anything deeper? Just listening- just inquiring in silence and stillness- in openness- staying with the pebble- breathing with the pebble- and when you’re ready perhaps drawing in a slow, deep,more intentional breath, and cradling it down in the belly- letting it fill right up into the apex of the lungs and the shoulders- holding it for a moment, cradling it, this breath- and then just letting it go, and as you do allowing your eyes to open…