Pebble Meditation

Pebble Meditation   Thich Nhat Hanh taught this to the children at a family meditation retreat in Santa Barbara more than 20 years ago.   I want you to reach down and find it four pebbles. You can either put them in a pocket or hold them in your left hand.   Take one pebble and hold it in your right hand. With this pebble I want you to think of a flower. Flowers are lovely, they are life itself. I want you to take a breath, and think of the fundamental quality of a flower which is freshness.   Breathing in I think of a flower, breathing out I think freshness. Breathing in I visualize the flower, breathing out, I circulate the quality of freshness through my body.  In flower, out fresh. You can do this. You can use the energy of your breath to circulate freshness throughout your body.   Holding the pebble, seeing the flower, breathing in the life of the flower, breathing in and out and circulating freshness throughout my body, I practice like this.   Taking the second pebble into my right hand I think about a mountain. This pebble is a piece of a mountain. Mountains are firmly rooted in the earth. They are the earth itself. I want you to breathe in and think about a mountain. We all have mountains that we can hold in our mind, rising up against the sky. They have a fundamental quality of solidness. When you’re standing on a mountain you can feel your connection to the earth. I want you to breathe in and think mountain, solid. I want you to breathe in and think flower/ fresh, mountain/solid.   Breathe in and out and practice like this and make yourself fresh, solid. You hold the reminder of this in two pebbles, in your hand. You bring the qualities of the flower and the mountain to yourself with your breath of freshness, solidity.   Now take the third pebble, and transfer it to you right hand. I want you to see a beautiful mountain lake. That lake is perfectly clear. You can see rocks way down in the bottom, perhaps the flash of little fishes.  You can see where the stream comes down out of the snows, and that it also flows out down to water the valley below. You know that that taste of that water is clean and fresh. I want you to breathe in, and bring the aspect of the pure water of that mountain lake to yourself, clarity.  So breathe in mountain lake, and breathe out clarity, and circulate that quality throughout your body.   You are making yourself, fresh and solid and clear. Breathe in and out and see that flower reflected in the lake and the mountain itself. That beautiful clear lake reflects just the flower, just the mountain, just what actually is. Breathe in and out and make yourself clear, solid and fresh.   Take the last pebble, and hold it with the others in your hand. Breathe in and out and know that the mountain lake reflects the blue sky during the day, and at night, the stars. You know in order for a flower to be beautiful in an arrangement, and for a mountain to be a mountain, they each need some room to be themselves. Each star twinkles in its own way.  So I want you to breathe in, and think about the night sky and its fundamental quality of freedom.  Breathe in the vastness of space, and breathe out freedom, to make yourself fresh, clear, solid, and free.   You can do this, the mind can hold up to five discreet objects. But here you are just holding one picture; the flower, the lake, the mountain, the sky. Breathe in and out, make yourself clear, solid, fresh, free. You have this power in your breath and in your mind, and four pebbles in your hand.  Practice when it is quiet, and build a reserve, a reservoir that you can go back to, and dip a drink of the clear water of that mountain lake, Breathe in the freshness of the flowers, feel the solidity of the mountain, and expand into the vastness of the blue sky.