This is a meditation on generosity and also a kind of introduction to meditation for all of you – to get a taste for it again.

So, as usual, I’d like to ask you to stop speaking and to sit down in a comfortable position, everybody on their own with enough space between each other, so that you can be undisturbed and focus on yourself.
Only with small children I would suggest that one parent can have them on their lap or next to them, helping them not to get lost and restless. (wait)

So now try to find a position in which you can sit comfortably for about 5 minutes, back fairly straight but still relaxed and flexible. And I would recommend to close your eyes, because that helps with staying undistracted from outside, although I know that some people will find it difficult to stay with eyes closed for 5 Minutes. Please make an effort and close your eyes now – and then, when you hear the bell ringing, you can open your eyes again.

What can you be aware of now, when you have your eyes closed: Any sounds? --- Any smells? ---Any sensations in the body? ---Any feelings?--- Any thoughts? -----

How do you feel right now? --- Excited and curious about what will be happening? Where in the body can you feel that? --- Or do you feel tired after a day’s preparation with packing and travelling, arriving and meeting many new people? Where in your body can you feel tiredness? --- Or what else do you feel right now? --- Just say silently ‘hello’ to these feelings, like somebody who says ’hello’ to their visitors. Allow them to settle down inside of you.

Now direct your attention to the body: Can you feel your body, sitting here --- the ground which supports the body, receiving your weight? --- Can you allow the weight of the body to sink into the ground, and give your spine more lightness and possibility to move a bit and find a comfortable balance in itself?

Can you feel your breath moving in and out? --- Take a few deep in-breaths and let the out-breath flow out long.

In this meditation we want to reflect on GRATITUDE. The first idea was to reflect on gratitude for the monastery which makes it possible that all of you can come here for the Camp --- gratitude for the Retreat Centre which is set up so nicely for you with the effort of many people ---gratitude for your mum and dad, who gave life to you and brought you here ---and so on. ---
But when I wanted to prepare the meditation in this way, I felt slightly resistant to this approach. Instead I would ask you to reflect on it in a different way:

What does the word ‘gratitude’ bring up in your mind? Being asked to reflect on “GRATITUDE”?

Is this perhaps one of the terms which press your buttons – may be after your mother has told you so often not to complain about what she was cooking for you and to be grateful that you have a healthy meal while other children are starving!?

This example is actually true for me. Just one of the situations I remember, where I was told to be grateful, to say ‘thank you’, because that was what you were supposed to do. --- To be told to be grateful seems to spoil my readiness to feel any sense of gratitude. Instead I use to feel resistance or anger, because I’d rather express myself freely. --- How about you? --- Take some time now to remember situations where you were expected to say ‘thank you’? --- Have you then been able to say ‘’thank you’’ from the bottom of your heart? Or what was happening in your mind instead? ---

Or is there anything coming to your mind now, in this situation, which you can really appreciate and feel grateful for, just from your own heart? ----- Is there anybody with whom you would like to share your sense of joy or gratitude, may be later, with whom you want to celebrate what makes you feel happy and grateful – just between you, so that the other person can know, what is alive in you? --- There is no SHOULD. Only if it would mean something for yourself. ---

Now just feel your breath going in and out gently. ----- Is that a calming or an upsetting sensation? -----
Is that anything you would ever feel grateful for? -----

Some of you might feel grateful when they hear this:

-Bell –

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