Returning Winds

A contemplative practice on what comes, what leaves, and what remains.

Opening: Settling into Ephemeral Stillness

Sit where the breeze finds you, and just for a moment, let it pass over you. Not grasped.

Not followed.

Just received.

Allow the eyelids to slowly fall closed.

A tangerine sun settling into soft clouds; themselves setting down into the far shore.

Quietly colorful.

Let the body soften, as if exhaling all the way to the floor. You are not the center of attention here - You are one small part of a great pattern.

Feel the quiet repetition -

the fan turns, the air arrives...

the fan turn, the air leaves...

You might already feel it:

this is a meditation on change.

The Movement that Arrives

When the breeze returns, meet it with Mind Heart Spirit gently.

Let yourself attend to what is present now:

• The air cool against your cheek • A distant voice, or a dog bark carried faintly • The smell of dust, or rain, or yesterday’s coffee • A shifting shadow on the inside of your eyelids

Everything here is borrowed. A fleeting visitor.

Even this breeze.

What you notice, you notice once - it won’t ever be this way again.

You won't ever be this way again.

Let this moment pass.

Let the next moment arrive.

The Movement that Leaves

The air drifts off. Warmth returns to the skin. Now the silence has edges.

Turn gently toward what remains:

• A slight ache in the hip • A thought flickering and dissolving • Hunger in the belly or heart

• Anxieties roiling like bubbling sewer waters beneath the well-lit cityscape • A tightness, or dullness, or hollowed-out quiet

This, too: a visitor. This, too: will leave.

You are the host-

Let all visitors come.

Let all visitors go.

You are the host- Stay seated by the door.

The Fan as a Teacher

The fan does not chase or resist. It simply turns.

Returning, leaving.

Turning, returning.

Returning, departing...

And so, with awareness:

Let it come.

Let it go. Let it all be a path of return.

All is but a visitor.

All is generously and genially hosted...for a time.

For its time.

You are not trying to hold on. You are learning how to open.

You are learning to see all experiences as visitors.

Visitors to your deep emptiness...

Visitors to your deep stillness...

Visitors to your deep welcoming...

Closing: What Remains when All Passes

As you draw the practice to a close, feel what’s still here:

The body, breathing. The presence, quiet. The space, open.

feel what’s still here:

a Host

Visitors

Emptiness

Presence

All that passed was real. and yet, here you are - clear as a teacup

full of water.

Your eyes, all three, smoothly roll open.

A new day dawning. The sun and its light dawning.

Your eyes, all three, receiving light with newfound clarity.

Thank you.