Temple Rain

Welcome to Temple Rain. It's a cool, rainy evening at the end of the pine tree grove. The abbot is away this week, and although I know him to be a man of boundless kindness, he is a stickler for tradition. That said, it is a beautiful evening, and I think if he were here, even he would insist that we relax and enjoy it. The patter of the rain on the roof produces a lovely soundtrack. And you can't provide quite so many pillows and comfortable places to sit and not expect people to stretch out every now and then. 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. But before we begin, let's just do a little wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is an exercise we call noting. It helps to soothe the mind, and once you've learned it you can even use it if you wake up during the night. We're going to be counting our breaths, and then just gently noting thoughts and feelings as they arise. We're not trying to change them, we're simply labeling thinking as thinking and feelings as feeling. It may sound incredibly simple, but it can help to create distance between ourselves and a thought, and ourselves and the feeling so we don't get so involved in it. That, in turn, creates a more restful state of mind. In other words, the ideal state of mind for a gentle, restful sleep. So, to begin with, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you're nice and cool. Just starting with some nice, big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, in and out through the nose, and just feeling the weight of the body pressing down into your bed. And in your own time, starting to count the breaths as they pass, one with the rise, two with the fall, just up to a count of 10. When you get to 10, you can stop and start again at one. And remember, any time you get distracted, the moment you realize you're distracted by thought, simply note it thinking, and return to the breath. Or if a feeling arises, feeling, and return to the breath. Noting is very gentle, not harsh at all. Think of it like a feather, just gently touching the surface of a crystal glass. I'm going to give you a few moments just to keep counting the breath and noting ant thoughts and feelings that arise. That's great. Along either side of the long path that leads from the temple gates to the temple doors are many small statues. Each one, about 12 inches high. It's said that they represent people who, sometimes quite...