I invite you to enter a period of quiet for a guided meditation. You may wish to adjust your position so that your spine is straight, your body relaxed, your hands resting gently in your lap. You will probably want to close your eyes and shut out all the distractions of the light....

Ah, it’s true. When our ancestors spoke of heaven, they were speaking of this moment. When they went on about nirvana they imagined a time like this. When they sang of paradise, it was this morning they imagined....

Let us join hearts in the spirit of meditation and prayer: Juntemos corazones en el espiritu de meditacion y oracion: Mysterious Presence, Presencia misteriosa, God, our Father and our Mother, Dios, nuestro Padre y nuestra Madre, Spirit of Life whom we struggle to name in our joys and our sorrows...

In this familiar place, listen: to the sounds of breathing, creaking chairs, shuffling feet, clearing throats, and sighing all around Know that each breath, movement, the glance meant for you or intercepted holds a life within it....

As we settle into our seat all of our life comes down with us, like an extended slinky retracting into a single cylinder Back you snap into this body and breath where each day is born and done familiar in this cushion familiar in this ache....

Let us take a moment to settle into the silence. Hear and feel your quiet breathing. Hear and feel the quiet of this room and this community of quiet people. As we sit in the quiet, feel the life that stretches between us, that fills this room....