The City of the Air-born King
Read slowly, aloud or from a recording; twelve to fifteen minutes.
Before you begin. This practice uses a tree-top seat, a parable and the letting go of one desire. It is suitable for most adults. If you currently self-harm, have obsessive-compulsive disorder, or have a dissociative or psychotic illness, practise only with a clinician; if you have OCD, do not use the offering below as a way to cleanse or neutralise a thought. Sit upright, supported. Never practise while driving or operating anything.
How to return at any moment. Open your eyes, put both feet on the floor, and touch something solid.
Sit upright. Let the eyes look up for a moment, as if to the top of a very tall tree. Then let the lids close while the eyes are still looking up, and let them settle. Call the mind back to yourself.
Imagine a seat high in the crown of a kadamba tree, among leaves and flowers. It is safe; the branches hold you. Bees hum. Below, far below, is the ground.
From here, look at the ground you have judged. Notice where you have found it unclean, unworthy, not good enough. Only notice. You are not going down yet.
Now make one offering, in the mind only. Not a cleansing. A gift. Take one thing you have wanted for a long time and lay it on an imagined fire. Watch it become light.
Now listen. A father is telling his son a story. There is a king made of air. He has built a city in empty space, full of houses with nine doors, and at each door stands a guard called I, fierce in the dark and shy in daylight.
Watch the king. He lives in one city and is already building the next. Look closely at the new house he is building now. Whose desire is that? What is it made of?
Do not tear it down. Simply stop thinking of what it is for. Let the thought of the thing you want be forgotten, the way a hand opens without effort. Watch the new house thin out, like a cloud in morning light.
Rest in the tree for a few breaths. The night is passing quickly, as nights do among friends.
Now it is dawn. Climb down. Feel your feet reach the ground and stand on it. It is ordinary ground. It holds you.
I will count from one to five. One: breathe in fully. Two: feel the feet on the floor. Three: move the hands. Four: roll the shoulders. Five: eyes open, fully alert.
Say your name, today's date and where you are. Name three things you can see, and touch the floor or the chair. If anything still feels far away, repeat the count and walk a few steps.