Thursday, November 1, 2012

Peacetime (A Pre-Election Special) by Dean Solon

become, and be, comfortable in your meditation posture and position;  don't rush.
be taking a couple of slightly deeper breaths, allowing your body to relax.  feeling your shoulders easing, your face softening.  feeling a sense of letting go of the night dreams and daydreams, and be coming, just be coming, into the here and now.
have a sense of the body becoming quieter, becoming still.   have a sense of the space your body fills and the space around you, that your body does not fill.
and, without any special effort, begin to be noticing, lightly, the breath.
there is no need to be grabbing at it---the breath is going nowhere.

44 years ago, an american political figure said this in a speech:  "what we need in the united states is not division;  what we need in the united states is not hatred...but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black....let's dedicate ourselves to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.  let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people."

(robert f. kennedy, minutes after the shooting and killing of martin luther king, and two months before he  himself was shot and killed)

what is the prize?
is it fame, fortune, family?  is it happiness, is it love?
what is the prize, in the crackerjack box that is your life?
perhaps it is THIS moment
perhaps it is THIS moment
perhaps it is THIS moment
...of breath, of awareness, of awakeness, of life

perhaps it is this moment