Temple Rain

Welcome to Temple Rain. It's a cool, rainy evening here, at the end of the pine tree grove. The abbot is away this evening, and although he is a kind and generous man, he can be a bit of a stickler, as you might expect of someone who has dedicated his life to the observance of ceremony. He is also, I might say, an extremely well-read individual, and I don't think such a person can look at an evening like this one, with the sun setting beyond the trees, and the rain dripping from the eaves, and suggest that it's wrong to simply relax, and enjoy the scene. So please, get comfortable, grab a cushion, or three, and relax. This place is so familiar to me. I could describe each thing in it with my eyes closed. I'll try to bring it to life as vividly to you, as it lives for me, in my mind's eye. Before we begin, let's just do a little wind-down exercise. Tonight's wind-down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So just take a moment to get comfortable, letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped. of having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind, on the different parts of the body. Noticing as the muscles and the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested, and leaving the mind more at ease. So starting down at the toes, feeling a sense of the muscles switching off, the feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. So any tension being let go of, as the muscles switch off, shut down, in the upper half of the legs. Any tension melting away, being let go of, into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night, completely at rest. Everything from the waist down is heavy, at ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach. Now switching off. Middle of the back, around the diaphragm, the upper back and the chest. So any muscles not needed, shutting down, switching off for the night, the shoulders switching off, the upper half of the arms, and the lower half of the arms. Switching off. The hands, the fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension, melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off. At rest for the night. And allowing the thoughts to come and go. Allowing the mind and body, the space they need to rest. Our temple has the newer style of garden. And when I say newer, I mean introduced in the last 700 years or so, in which gravel is used in place of water. The rock garden by the temple door is contained within a marble plinth, somewhat like a raised coy...