Brother Richard

But for the purpose of this meditation, which is aural in form, I will introduce a phrase from scripture that we can work with ourselves.

However, the method remains the same and you can bring it to bear on scripture or spiritual reading or indeed any kind of text that you wish to draw meaning from.

So let's begin.

Coming to stillness.

coming to meditation, making the deliberate choice to be here, to be open, to be still.

We make our ritual gesture.

We sit with attention and open awareness.

We feel our connection with the ground

with the chair, with the cushion.

We are ready and expectant.

We are relaxed and open.

Coming to the breath, we allow it to draw us into the fullness of stillness.

Breathing with attention,

breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing out all stress, breathing in only peace.

Breathing out all anxiety, breathing in only calm.

As we breathe, we breathe with every pore of our skin, feeling the body relax, feeling the body settle, feeling the mind come to rest.

Gently, peacefully, without any agitation,

but knowing that if you need to move at any stage, you may feel free to do so.

And resting with the breath, we introduce a phrase that is found often in scripture, a phrase that is at the very heart of our tradition.