AM_SA_You-Are-the-Sky-Meditation [00:00:00] You can practice this meditation lying down on your back, or if you can't do that, whatever posture works for you right now. Take a few moments to feel your body as a whole. Release any tensions that you can easily release. And notice what it feels like to bring your whole body into awareness. Noting the rhythm of your natural breathing.

Now I'd like to invite you to try a short visualization. In this exercise, just practice as best you can. You don't need to be able to visualize [00:01:00] perfectly. Whatever you manage to do is what it's meant to be. Now, imagine you're lying down on your back in the grass, gazing at the sky.

You feel safe and secure. The temperature is just right for you. A gentle breeze is blowing that feels wonderful. You have a slight smile upon your face as you look upwards. A smile of contentment.

[00:02:00] As you look at the sky, you notice various clouds passing through. In this exercise, each time you have a thought, imagine placing your thoughts upon the clouds. Your thoughts can be words or images or whatever other form they take. Just imagine placing them on the clouds. If [00:03:00] when you do this exercise you don't seem to be having any thoughts, then just enjoy the peace of mind that you're experiencing.

And each time you have a thought, place it on the cloud, watch it float by. [00:04:00] As you lie here looking at the sky, you realize sometimes there's lots of clouds flowing through the sky, and sometimes very few. Sometimes the clouds are white and fluffy and sometimes their dark and heavy. Sometimes the sky looks angry in a storm. And other times it looks as if it's happy with hardly any clouds at all.

Just keep placing your [00:05:00] thoughts upon the clouds as soon as they come up. Practicing as best you can. Imagine day turns to night and you see a beautiful sunset. And then at night time, once the sun goes down, the sky turns to black and the moon comes out and millions and millions of stars. It's beautiful.

The sky, well, you could say [00:06:00] space allows all sorts of clouds and rain and storms and sunshine to come and go. The weather seems to be ever-changing, but the sky doesn't resist it at all. The sky, the space is untouched by the weather. No matter how dark the clouds, no matter how stormy the weather, the sky is unaffected. The weather seems to just come and go.

In the same way, your essence, your deepest being, it's just like the sky. [00:07:00] You have all sorts of thoughts and feelings. Challenging thoughts, uplifting thoughts, difficult feelings, pleasant feelings. They all come and go, just like the weather comes and goes. But the sky remains untouched.

Pure, perfect, whole and complete. Your deepest essence is also pure, perfect, whole and complete. It's your true nature. You can call that sky-like nature of yourself [00:08:00] whatever you wish. You could simply call it awareness or even friendly awareness.

Allow yourself to rest in that kind and friendly awareness, and allow any thoughts or feelings to just come and go. As best you can, you're like the sky that makes plenty of space for weather to come and go. I invite you to try gently smiling [00:09:00] and let your smile remind you that you're not just your thoughts or your feelings, you are awareness itself. Pure whole, and complete. Now, as we slowly come towards the end of this meditation, finish by letting go of all effort, even the effort to practice meditation.

Just rest in your being.