As The World Turns, Life Goes On: A Guided Zen Meditation.
For the next little while, try to suspend your own belief system and come at this with a relaxed and open mind. This is perhaps one of the most difficult guided-mentations one can go on; and because of that, it’s often the most effective.
Take a deep inhale.
Exhale—let it all go.
Begin to breathe calmly and normally.
Now, start to imagine that you have ceased to exist.
All of your problems have suddenly slipped away.
All of your anxieties have left you.
All of your burdens, extinguished.
Your entire to-do list, abolished.
No one to remember you.
No one to sing your praises or condemn you for all that you have done.
No one to laugh at you.
No one to laugh with you.
No one to mock you.
No one to help you manage your day to day.
No ‘you’, just the vacuum and void of infinite space.
Nothing weighing you down.
Nothing holding you back.
Nothing for you to do to push yourself forward—nothing to progress toward.
You have no life.
There is no you.
There is nothing to do.
No ideas.
Not thoughts.
No feelings.
No consciousness.
No awareness.
Just a void in the vacuum of infinite space.
Floating effortlessly in the calm openness of all that surrounds.
Realizing that, in a thousand years, when all of this is said and done; when you have returned back to who you believe yourself to be in this life; when you’ve re-entered your body and left this exercise; this will eventually be the case.
Nothing to do.
Nothing to want to do.
Nothing to say.
Nothing to see.
Nothing to be.
Just emptiness.
Take a deep inhale—hold.
Exhale—hold.
Return back to a normal and calm breathing pattern.
Now, return back to your body.
Remember who you are; who your friends are; what you’ve done; and want you want to do.
You are back to being you.
This is the true miracle of life. When all is said and done, in a thousand years from now, when you have left this world along with everyone and everything you’ve ever known, you will be right back where you were. In the effortless vastness of empty of space.
To realize this is one of the greatest illuminating moments one can have in life.
To live consciously knowing this is one of the most difficult, but greatest achievements one can have in life.
It’s what brings life to life itself.
The embrace of this transient gift.
The gift of living before we die.
Every experience is a new experience.
Every waking moment is a gift—of either joy or sorrow.
The dichotomy of life itself.
The dance between seasons.
Winter is cold and summer is warm.
Pain is real and so is pleasure.
Yet, without this moment—without this conscious experience—you would not have any of it.
Live for today, because truly living is finite.
-Carpe Diem.
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“I’ll tell you a secret; something they don’t tell you in your temple. The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” - Achilles, Troy