Seasonal meditation
Finally today I'm sharing a meditation for gratitude of the abundance we have at this time of year. You can find this and more practices in my book Sattvic Soul.
Sit and make sure you are comfortable.
Begin by bringing to mind a bowl of freshly cooked rice - you might even want to cook some specially and have this in front of you. Notice everything about it. How many grains there must be in just this one bowl. How warm it is, the colour and how the light falls upon each and every grain. Perhaps there is steam coming from the grains. Consider how it will nourish the physical body and the effect it will have on the mind. How comforting and lovely it is to eat. Notice how all the rice grains are the same, in shape and size, and yet each one is also subtly different somehow, unique.
Now consider where you purchased this rice. Maybe a shop or online. Consider the person who helped you to purchase this, in whatever way. They too have a home, if they’re lucky they have people who love them, they eat food and navigate through life, just like you do. Send gratitude to this person. And to the people connected with them, the people who love and support them. Also to the food this person eats that sustains them so they are able to help you. You can now follow this back to the person connected to them who serves their food and so on, or continue as below.
Now consider the person who transported the rice to wherever you purchased it. Consider them in the same way as the previous person, their life, loved ones, home, food and so on. Take your time over each stage and see if you can really visualise these things and people.
Beyond this transportation we have the people who packed the rice. Who are they? Where did the rice get packaged? And what do they need to sustain and nurture them in their everyday life? How did the rice reach the packaging people? Keep going back and back and in and in until you get all the way to the person who planted the rice seed and the people who cared for it as it grew. Consider now their life, their home, their loved ones, the food they eat, and where this comes from? How is their life? Can you send them your love and gratitude?
Sit with this for a while. Feel the enormity of it all. You may never meet these people but know that somehow you and they are linked. We are all interconnected and everything is interwoven. Just like the grains of rice.
We are all the same and yet at the same time unique.
Send them your deepest heartfelt gratitude and love and know that in some small way this vibration of awareness is reaching out to them. Wish all the people in your sphere of awareness well. Hold them in your awareness and in your heart for some time.
