When human beings meditate
They sometimes close their eyes
And feel this body-a flickering field of sensations-
A tingling, hot and cold,
Gravity here and there.
And attend to the breath
At the belly or nostrils
Choose one
And stay there five years-
Not the thought of the breath
But the sensations accompanying
Each inhalation
Each exhalation.
The beginning
The middle
The end
Of each in-breath
And the space between
Where thinking wriggles free.
The beginning
Middle
And end
Of each out-breath
And the space between
And thought
And the space between thoughts
Returning to the breath-
Just sensation breathing itself.
Sensations sensing themselves
Floating in space.
Even some idea of who
Is doing all this
Floats by
Just another bubble
Another thought thinking itself
Mirroring like Escher
The fragile moment
Vanishing in space
Returning to the breath “like a devotee who has broken a vow a thousand times”
And returns unruffled once again.
Watching thoughts think themselves
One into the next-
Beginning momentarily to exist
And dissolving-even such notions as impermanence
Passing in the flow.
Observing feeling arise uninvited-unexpectedly impersonal
No one to blame
Or be blamed only
Just rope burns
From grasping to change.
And return to the breath again
Awareness making the old brand new.
Content dissolving into process.
Process floating in space.
Watching consciousness dream
Self and the world-constantly creating more
Of there less to be.
We seek only to discover
That what is sought
Leaves the seeker far behind.
We are what we are looking for,
For lack of a larger term,
God.
-Stephen Levine
