Sunday morning meditation

I've been having some good conversations with my local meditation buddies as well as with some friends who came down from the cold north.  Although this is Florida, we had some cool weather during Sunday morning meditation.  We started a fire in the fire pit and each person talked about their philosophy concerning life, death and the hereafter. After the discussion we sat in silence for an hour and enjoyed the peacefulness of the crackling fire and sounds of the forest creatures. 

Being with friends and sounds of nature allowed my consciousness to expand to its outer most limits, beyond the thinking mind.  Slowly and methodically breathing through each chakras, one by one, brought energy finally to the crown chakra where everything opened into pure awareness.  It was as though every cell in my body separated from each other and flew out in all directions.  There was no longer a "me" or an "I" to relate to.  All there was was awareness.  It was neither good nor bad - it just was.  When the timer went off everything slowly came back together and there I was once again sitting by the fire. 

An hour had gone by in the wink of an eye.  Clock time had gone by very fast.  The experience of being in pure awareness seemed like only a few seconds but is was actually one hour.  This is because pure awareness has no time.  There is no passage of time, it is always NOW.