Fifth Meditation

Hylas said:
The night is a preparation for the day.
The night is peaceful, if you let it be so;
the day is stressful, if you let it be so.
Carry the peacefulness of the night into the day:
where is the stress I was expecting and fearing?
Coming from the night into the day is called awakening;
this tells me I am here, but not who I am or where here is.
Remembering follows, quickly as in a flash, or slowly as in a fog.
This reminds me of who and where I am,
of what the day has in store.
Then come in turn rising and resolve.
Do not ask: "what must I do today?"
Ask: "how can I be myself today, for myself and for others?"


Sixth Meditation

Hylas said:
Resolve is the power of the day, direct it wisely.
Practice overlapping:
when you have begun the first task,
know what the second will be.
When you come to the second,
know the next and so forward.
Know also that not everything needs to be a task.
There is resting,
there are moments of beauty and meditation,
there is companionship, there is love.
And with all, continual mindfulness.


Seventh Meditation

Hylas said:
Moment follows moment: in traveling, in waiting, in enduring.
Build on a moment, a small thing, one small thing at a time.
Perhaps these small things will accumulate, perhaps not.
But a small thing is better than no thing,
between nothing and even the smallest thing
a great thing can begin.
Between nothing and another nothing
no thing can begin.
Let me be open to some small thing in this moment.


Eighth Meditation

Hylas said:
Sometimes, through weariness or discouragement, no new thing arises.
Sometimes, through pressure and anxiety, many old things overwhelm.
Learn to wait, for the stirring or for the subsiding.
Learn to wait, for the turmoil to be still, for the stillness to speak.
Let memory recall times of taking refuge, times of setting forth anew.
Bring to mind times of comfort or times of purpose.
You have passed this way before.
You have left markers along the way — look for them.
Go back to where you were, begin again.
Do not lament lost time. There is always time.
Time need not be measured out.
Time need be neither spent nor wasted.
Time is for living, and that is enough.

Look! There is the small thing I was waiting for!