Peace Train

 

At the end of every class we always find a few minutes to lie or sit and absorb our practices in to our being.

Simply close your eyes every so often as or after you read this…….

Be aware of your physical body.
Feel its weight on the ground.

Become aware of your breath.
Feel its rising and falling.

Feel how as the breath sinks, your body also sinks down into the floor.

Feel how as the breath rises, your body rises towards the sky above.

Place the tip of your tongue to the top palate,
near the teeth,
not touching.

Become aware of your brain above the roof of your mouth.

Observe the exhalation and the space which follows it.

Allow that space to open as you relax.

Observe the inhalation and the space after it.

Allow this space to open as you attend to it.

Observe the spaces after you breathe for a minute or so…………

You may become aware of the subtleties of movement in the body and also the subtle vibrations of the mind. The awareness that thoughts are about to form and arise in the mind.

This happens to us all each and every day – most moments, waking or sleeping.

Thoughts come in TRAINS and we usually jump on board each day without being conscious that we have done so.

We are normally only aware that we have been thinking when we get off the train and are standing on the platform in the open space once again.

The space after we breathe is an ideal opportunity to become aware of the rising and falling of the mind – the rising of thoughts

Tongue on the top palate and aware of the breath.
Aware of the space after the breath.

We are now conscious that thoughts enter our mind like trains, taking over until we have finished with this train of thought. This means that we begin to develop a level of awareness that allows us to observe the ‘train is coming’, before it arrives at the platform. If we don’t realise the train has arrived we jump on board without consideration and lose ourselves in thoughts/feelings which either make us feel good or cause us to suffer. Once again we may only realise this after we leave the train and stand on the platform before thought and breath return.

The next day has arrived. You are standing on the platform. The train is coming. You can hear it coming. A few moments pass. You can now see it coming and it is definitely heading to your platform. More awareness this time and you jump on board. You are becoming engrossed in thought.
This time however, you have raised your level of awareness to the extent that you are slightly aware that you are thinking. You are aware that you are enjoying your thoughts and feelings one moment and then aware that you are suffering, feeling the effects of some of the more stressful thoughts. The train is slowing down, the platform is drawing near, the train has stopped and you step off. You are on the platform once again, between thoughts.
It is peaceful. The ais is fresh and you feel alive.
No thoughts, just the awareness of your breath.

Another day and you are standing on your platform. Birds sing, the breeze whispers and the space after your breath smiles.
The train is coming.
You have once again raised your level of awareness through practice.
You can feel the train is coming as the most subtle vibration in your mind –
You sense the train of thoughts prior to manifestation.
The next moment you can feel the air and then the ground vibrating and this is followed by the sight and then sound of the train appearing to your awareness.

You have stood on the platform so many times now, you can tell from the sign ‘Hell’ on the front of the train, exactly where it is going to take you.

You know the kind of journey you are going to have and you are familiar with the kind of passengers on such a train.
All the same you jump on board due to the force of momentum and there you are again, being heated by the fire of your own passions and cravings.
The journey lasts a while and then you dismount at the platform, knowing full well you have told yourself so many times before that you are ‘not going to take that train ever again!’

You are there standing on the platform in the space between that train and the following one, highly aware that your breath and the space after it  hold the potential for immense peace for you.

The next time you are on the platform you observe all of these stages even more consciously, noticing greater detail than ever before.
However this time, when the train finally stops at the platform and the doors open, you pause before jumping on board.
You wait for the breath to commence and having noticed that the train is heading for hell yet again, you discriminate……..
Today you discern, ‘I think I’ll give this train a miss today’.

You remain on the quiet platform, full of the empty space of your being.
You bathe in this blissfully perhaps for the first time in a long time.
Perhaps the first time since childhood.
Maybe for the first time in your whole life?

Another day arrives and you are enjoying much space and peace of recent.
All of the usual signs reveal themselves to your awareness.
Today’s train is signed ‘Hell’ and as time is of the essence you decide you must step on board when it arrives.
You do so and observe the entire journey; all the negative passengers and dark thoughts and feelings which are still passing through your mind, yet, you are not attached to them as such.
They just pass.
You observe, they pass and before long the train has arrived at its destination and you hop off.

Nearly at your highest peak, you realise the next day as you stand before the opening doors of the train that you haven’t even checked where it is heading.
It no longer matters to you where the train is heading –
whether the thoughts that pass through your mind are ‘positive’ or ‘negative’.

You can board the train or not and either way you feel content in the peace provided by your awareness of the space between and behind thought.

You have understood that your mind has been inherited from society, your parents and ancestors and although yours, has become conditioned hard/soft-ware which either serves you well or, not.

You continue to aspire to the greatest peak, whereby you know that one day, if the space between your thoughts can be expanded and prolonged, you may continue to enjoy this expansion for as long as you choose.

Matt Gluck – March 9th 2015
For my father Michael x