ORANGE MEDITATION

When you eat an orange, make the eating into a meditation. Sit in a way that you feel comfortable and solid. Look at the orange in such a way that you can see the orange as a miracle. An orange is not something less than a miracle.

Hold the orange in the palm of your hand, look at it and smile. You see the orange tree, the orange blossom, you see the sun entering the leaves and the rain penetrating the ground beneath, and you see the tiny fruit form; and now the fruit has grown into a beautiful orange. So just looking and smiling to the orange, you get in touch with the wonders of life, because an orange is a wonder of life. Due to our lack of mindfulness and concentration we ignore this fact; we don’t see that the orange in the palm of our hand is really a miracle. When you look at the orange and smile to the orange, you really see the orange in its splendor, in its miraculous nature. And suddenly you yourself become a miracle, because you are a miracle. You are not something less than a miracle. Your presence is a miracle. You are a miracle encountering another miracle.

You peel the orange. You smell it, and in you there is the element of solidity, true presence, and awareness. Life in this moment becomes something real, something wonderful.