What would you see if you spent time looking deeply at the world in the place where you stand?

Weeks ago, Rev. angel Kyodo Williams and I led thirty-five Dharma Leaders practicing in the tradition of Spirit Rock into Chicago’s Lincoln Park to find out. This was part of a five-day retreat entitled Taking Refuge in Our Bodies: Human, Dharma, and Earth. The exercise goes like this:

Stand in place in a body-neutral posture. Put your eyes at the horizon and soften your gaze, focus on nothing in particular. Place half of your attention on your breath and feel the sensations of breathing in and out. Place the other half of your attention on what is in front of you. Do not “look around.” Instead, simply absorb what presents itself to you. Welcome what arises, acknowledge it, and let it go.

As you stand and take in the world, turn ever so slowly in a clockwise direction. You will make one complete turn while standing in place for the duration of the meditation. Do you want to meditate for thirty minutes? Then you will turn one-quarter of a circle in seven and a half minutes. Is the meditation one hour? Then each quarter-turn will take fifteen minutes.

It is impossible to predict the insight that will arise in the moment. For me, turning in a park wedged between Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline, I saw not only by the vibrant energy of nature on a spring day, but by the energy of nature reverberating in the raw materials of high-rise buildings. City structures echoed with the life of mountains, rivers, and the equally organic creativity of architects, engineers, and construction workers. There was harmony and equanimity in the balance.