Meditation on Interdependence

Sit comfortably, and breathe normally. Let your awareness become focused on a glowing circle at the center of your chest, and let the outside world slip away until you are only aware of this glow, and my voice.

See before you a field of grain in the sun, swaying gently in the wind so that it looks like a golden ocean. Sharpen your focus on a particular stalk of grain. Watch it moving in the breeze, heavy with the kernels at its head. Focus closely on one of the kernels, go closer, closer, let your awareness of the grain fill you until you are the kernel. There is no difference between you and the grain.

Feel how you are warmed and ripened by the sun, growing and swelling slightly. Feel the nourishment which comes to you through the stalk, and which feeds you and the other kernels. Your whole existence is taken up by growing and warmth.

Now you can hear something, far away at first, then coming closer. A swishing sound is going through the grain, and you can feel its passage. the sound comes closer, and closer, and you can see what it is it is a scythe, sweeping through the grain and cutting it down. You can see the sun glinting on the metal, then the scythe passes through your stalk, and you fall to the ground, cut off from the Earth.

You lie on the ground feeling only the warmth of the sun. Then you are gathered up, and separated from the other kernels. You are, for the first time in your life, alone. You are placed into a dark place with other kernels jostling you, but you are no longer connected to them. There is a sense of movement, but you cannot see where you are being taken.

When you can see again, the sun fills your vision, and you can feel its warmth flowing into you. You are cast upon the Earth, and you feel the moist soil under you. Then you become aware of a sound, a thudding noise that is coming closer to you. As the noise comes nearer, you can see a chicken, pecking at the ground. It comes closer, then its beak descends and grabs you up. As it swallows you, you plunge into darkness.

You can feel yourself moving down through its throat, down into its stomach. And there you feel yourself begin to dissolve, your body coming apart and being reduced to its smallest parts. Yet your awareness remains, and you realize that you are becoming part of the chicken — and you can trace back your journey. There is no difference between you and the grain and the chicken.

Look out through the chicken's eyes, and see the world around you. The sun is shining above you, warming your feathers, and you stretch your wings to allow the wind to ruffle them. You can taste the grain that you have just eaten. The Earth is firm and warm under your feet as you walk around the yard, pecking up kernels of grain and swallowing them.

As you eat, you become aware of a sound, a rhythmic thumping noise that comes closer to you. You look around, and see a man coming towards you. He reaches down and picks you up. There is a sharp pain, and you can see no more. Your awareness continues, however, and you feel yourself being carried somewhere.

In the darkness, you can feel things being done to you, and for a while, there is a great warmth like the sun, but much, much stronger. Sight returns to you for a moment, and you can see the man looking down at you. You feel him cutting into your body, but there is no pain, and all your awareness pours into this small part of you that is being carried towards his mouth. He swallows you, and you begin a long journey in darkness down his throat, into his stomach — and there you feel yourself begin to dissolve, your body coming apart and being reduced to its smallest parts.

Yet your awareness continues, and you realize that you are becoming part of the man, spreading throughout his body — and you can trace back your journey. There is no difference between you and the grain and the chicken and the man.

Look out through the man's eyes. You can taste the chicken you have just eaten, and on the plate is a small heap of bones. Around you is a kitchen, and you realize this is your home. Now you begin to feel a fullness in your bladder, and you stand up and go out of the back door.

Out in the yard, you can see the sun, and feel it shining down on you, warming you. The Earth is firm under your feet, almost time for the seeds you have recently planted to start growing. You walk away from the house, and relieve yourself. As the urine drains out of your body, you feel your awareness going with it. You feel yourself fall upon the ground, and soak into the Earth.

As you spread into the Earth, you feel yourself beginning to dissolve, your body coming apart and being reduced to its smallest parts. Yet your awareness continues, and you realize that you are the Earth, and you can trace back your journey. There is no difference between you, and the grain, and the chicken, and the man, and the Earth.

As your awareness spreads into the Earth, you can feel the small things which move in it, the worms, and beetles, and small animals. And now you come upon something small and hard — a seed of grain which has been planted. You feel your awareness flowing into the seed as you nourish it, and becoming part of it — and you can trace back your journey. There is no difference between you, and the grain, and the chicken, and the man, and the Earth, and the seed.

As you feel the Earth nourishing you, you feel yourself swell, and the first roots begin to push out of you. You take a firm hold in the Earth, and begin to push your shoots upward, up through the soil until you break through and feel the sun warming you. Drawing nourishment from the Earth, and feeling warmed by the sun, you continue to grow, becoming longer and larger until you feel a heaviness at your tip. Your awareness moves up through the stalk, and you realize that there is a group of kernels at the top, and your awareness flows into one of these kernels.

You feel the sun warming and ripening you, and the Earth nourishing you through the stalk, and you can trace back your journey. There is no difference between you, and the grain, and the chicken, and the man, and the Earth, and the seed, and the grain.

Let yourself pull back now, out of the kernel of grain, away from the field of gold, back, back until you become aware that you are seated in this room, and you are focused only on the glowing center of your body, and my voice. As you come back, carry with you what you have learned — that the life which is in everything is all part of the same whole, that it is a cycle, a circle, and nothing is greater or lesser than any other.

When you feel able, begin to increase your breathing slightly, and slowly allow your focus to widen, until you become aware of other sounds and sensations. Come back to yourself, and slowly begin to move and stretch, and when you feel able, open your eyes.

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