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STAR GAZING

Stargazing tonight helps us connect with something bigger than ourselves and with each other. Imagine all of us… 500 Good Shepherd people across Asia Pacific, gazing together at our common sky and universe.

This activity is an intentional pause in the program to relax, gaze at the sky, and explore what’s happening at the moment for you. 

INSTRUCTIONS

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  • Sit or lie down comfortably and relax. Settle into the natural rhythm of your breathing.
     

  • When your body feels relaxed, move your attention to your out-breath and lightly rest it there. If you have a hard time relaxing, rest your attention on your exhale breath anyway and notice what happens in your mind and body.
     

  • Look at the horizon or a place in the sky and rest your gaze. Keep your eyes soft and open, not focused on any particular object.
     

  • Notice any changes that you see in the sky.
     

  • When thoughts, emotions, and body sensations bubble up, let them be. If you let them alone and don't engage with them, they tend to stay for awhile and then fade away on their own.

Image by Na Inho
Image by Gabriele Motter

REMEMBER

  • Whatever happens in your mind and body is part of Star/Sky gazing. See if you can include whatever shows up and hold-back from analyzing it.
     

  • Star/Sky gazing is not about spacing out; it's about staying with and seeing through the comings and goings of your mind.
     

  • Notice the instruction to ‘lightly’ rest your attention on your out-breath. 
     

Pema Chodron, one of the leading American teachers of meditation in the Tibetan tradition, explains this important instruction:
 

Some people prefer to focus only on the out breath. Either way, the attention should be so light that only one-quarter of our awareness is on the breath. The breath goes out and dissolves into space, then we breathe in again. This continues without any need to make it happen or to control it. Each time the breath goes out, we simply let it go. Whatever occurs – our thoughts or emotions, sounds or movement in the environment – we train in accepting it without any value judgments.  (Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully 2012)

 

Adapted from: 

https://www.susankaisergreenland.com/blog/new-to-meditation-consider-gazing-at-stars-or-at-fireflies  

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