chill room   you are the buddha

There are many ways to describe life, none of them quite satisfactory. The Victorian Transcendentalists who clustered around Emerson explained life in terms of gases. We see it variously as bio-magnetic, electrical or chemical. Some people see only the physical; others claim it is really spiritual. It may be a challenge, a game, heaven or hell.

Seeing life as a meditation adds a depth and dimension to any of the other descriptions. Every moment becomes enriched, enhanced by the awareness of the color, sound and texture of the scene in which you find yourself. The nuances of your inter-relationships with people and things, the colors of emotions that resonate in harmony or dissonance within you, the shifts in reality through which you move become more vivid. A tree is still a tree but you become alive to each leaf, to the birds perched on it and to the myriads of creatures who burrow in its bark and know no other universe.

We are all at least semi-asleep, and these mini-meditations are meant to help shake your sleeping perceptions awake.

1st Mini Meditation
You are walking down the street. Feel yourself as a god-dess striding through a world that has been created just for you. See the trees, the houses, the people. Recognize their solidity. Remember the people who have created this for you - the illegal Mexican bent long hours over endless rows of vegetables picking your produce in the heat of summer in fields that stretch forward to the end of his life. Be grateful to the workers with jack hammers building your road; thank the clerk in front of an insurance company computer in a row of fifty other identical desks with identical computers. So many people doing all of this so you could walk down this street at this moment and thank them. Walk with your head in the heavens, feel the air against your skin, the texture of your clothing as you move. Take a deep breath - and know that This IS It!.

2nd Mini Meditation
You are walking down the street. Feel yourself as a god-dess striding through a world of amazing variety. Hear the sounds. Be aware that every molecule in every blade of grass is an individual entity, that each house is a unique configuration, that each person in each building has their own consciousness. Experience each cell of every brick, every flower, every telephone pole and automobile as unique, separate, peerless, a phenomena unto itself.

Then know them all as one. The street, the automobile, the school, the store, the garden, the farm, the animals, the people all one, one giant miracle spinning on its axis around infinite suns. Feel the inter-relatedness of all things everywhere in the universe. Take a deep breath - and realize Our Unity!!

3rd Mini Meditation
Walk barefoot on grass or beach. Feel the push of sand against the soles of your feet filling you with its warmth; feel the comfort of dust or the prickle of old leaves. Put your mind behind your ears and hear the many sounds of the river, the trees or the deep percussion of the surf. Feel the sun comfortable and relaxing upon your skin or the cool prickle of evening air beginning to stir. See. Hear. Feel. Take a deep breath - and enjoy!!

4th Mini Meditation
Beat on a

drum

for a long time!

5th Mini Meditation
Stare at a very small patch of grass or weeds for at least five minutes . If you are very patient, you will begin to see living creatures that are so small they make ants look as though they are giants. Relax, and this universe will let you in. What variety of life in such a small space, tiny specks of red that climb grass blades to their heaven, minute green flecks which still have wings and antenna, beetles like great god-people scuttling under the shade of tiny weed-trees.

Then, having become a part of this miniature universe, lift your eyes to our skies. Take a deep breath - and realize how limited our human vision is.

6th Mini Meditation
Take a minute in the middle of the day to pray! Prayer is intent of mind directed like a laser beam; it is an acknowledgment of forces beyond our ability to intellectualize or perhaps even ken. It is taking control through a small act of surrender. It doesn't matter to whom you pray or how. Focus your energy in a prayer that sends healing in all directions. It's fine if your prayer is for yourself or for people you love, but remember it helps creation if your prayer includes all of us. Spread your hands out, palms up. Let your prayer circle the planet and return to you to enter your own heart. Take a deep breath - and give Thanks.

7th Mini Meditation
Go to a good rock or reggae dance. Let the music completely fill you; feel its vibrations in your chest, your loins. Give in to the music; let it carry you beyond self consciousness. Your body takes over, dancing, moving, weaving through the centuries, winding through forever. You are one cell bouncing joyously in an eternal Brownian movement. You are all cells.You are movement itself; nothing else remains.

8th Mini Meditation
See a sick friend and be joyful; let your caring illuminate the room. Give money to the homeless. Praise the cashier at a super market. Touch somebody with your love, somebody you pass on the street, somebody you know or do not know. Say hello to an old person. Reach out beyond your self to find your Self.

9th Mini Meditation
make up your own mini meditation

and

enjoy!