We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds. We got lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating - lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems.
We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be - to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: Here and Now. ~Eckhart Tolle
Good evening and welcome to Monday Group Meditation, we will be sitting from 7:30 to 10:00 PM EST. It is not necessary to sit for the entire extended time, which is set up to make it convenient for people in four North American Time Zones; sit for as long as you like and when it is most convenient for you.
Monday Group Meditation is open to everyone, believers and non-believers of all stripes who are interested in gathering in silence. If you are new to meditation and would like to try it for yourself, Mindful Nature gave a good description of one way to meditate in an earlier diary, copied and pasted below:
"It is a matter of focusing attention mostly. In many traditions, the idea is to sit and focus on the rising and falling of the breath. Not controlling it, but sitting in a relaxed fashion and merely observing experiences of breathing, sounds, etc. Be aware of your thoughts, but don't engage in them. When your mind wanders (it will, often), then return to focus on breath and repeat."
This month circumstances have forced me to slow down and just be. It's going on three weeks now since I've come down with Shingles, and this enforced retreat has taught me a thing or two about myself. It is visibly apparent that I am getting better, but the discomfort seems merely to morph into new and different discomfort rather than simply and gradually fading away like the rash. I have discovered I am impatient for this discomfort to pass, and powerless to do much about it.
So I sit and wait. I've read numerous books and watched more television than usual. But the best bit of this time has been spent sitting on my deck and enjoying Nature. I've seen and identified a number of butterflies which I have never seen before, one in particular, the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, is so large its wingspan would cover the palm and fingers of my hand. I saw my first Rufous Hummingbird, and I've been entertained by the male Ruby Throated Hummingbirds protecting their territory, my feeders, from other hummingbirds.
The blessing of the discomfort is it has precluded all thoughts of running around and trying to get photos; I've been forced to sit still, watch and enjoy. Through it all I've been continually reminded that animals are animals, they are mindlessly doing what is necessary to survive; and yet they are completely of the moment, neither distracted by thoughts of the past nor plans for the future.
“Just watching an animal closely can take you out of your mind and
bring you into the present moment, which is where the animal lives all the time – surrendered to life.”~Eckhart Tolle