The Spiritual Embodiment Ritual
The Spiritual Embodiment Ritual is a short, simple sequence of movements and inward sensing that helps you settle into presence through the body.
It can be practiced standing, seated, or lying down.
It takes anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes.
It requires no special equipment, clothing, or belief.
The ritual is not about achieving a state or improving yourself.
It is a way of coming home to the body as it is.
This ritual draws on decades of practice in Zen, Yoga, Tai Chi, and Somatic Psychology, yet it remains intentionally ordinary—what Zen sometimes calls “nothing special.”
Like eating or walking, it works because it is simple.
The Four Symbols of the Ritual
Each movement is associated with a simple symbol.
These are not ideas to think about, but qualities to feel.
1. The Leaning Mountain — Embodiment
The leaning mountain represents the body’s natural balance between strength and surrender.
A mountain stands solid and rooted.
When it leans, it shows responsiveness rather than rigidity.
This symbol reminds us that embodiment is not stiff or heroic.
It is grounded, weighted, and alive.
2. The Center — Stability
The center represents the body’s natural axis of balance.
When attention returns to the center—low in the belly, deep in the torso—the nervous system settles.
We feel more here.
Less scattered.
The center is not something to create.
It is something to remember.
3. The Heart — Connection
The heart symbolizes our capacity to feel, receive, and relate.
In this ritual, the heart is not emotional effort or sentimentality.
It is simple openness—toward yourself, toward life, toward what is present.
The heart softens the practice.
It brings warmth without strain.
4. Alert Presence — Awareness
Alert presence represents a quiet, awake attention.
Not focused thinking.
Not drifting.
Just a clear, relaxed awareness that includes body, breath, and surroundings.
This is awareness with the body, not above it.
How to Practice the Ritual
Begin
Choose a position that feels natural:
Let your eyes be open or softly lowered.
Take a moment to feel the weight of your body being supported.
1. Leaning — Embodiment
Gently allow your body to lean.
Let the movement be small and unforced.
Forward. Backward. Both Sides. Twist.
This is not exercise.
Don't stretch.
Wait. Wait. Wait some more.
Wait until your body lets you it.
Let yourself arrive in the body.
2. Centering — Stability
Slowly bring your attention to all points of contact with the earth.
The chair. The bed. The floor.
Anything you are touching. Every part of you touching
Slowly bring attention to your belly center.
Put your palms over it. Feel it from the inside..
Let the body gather around its center.
Slowly bring attention to your breathing.
START HERE NEXT
3. Opening the Heart — Connection
Bring gentle awareness to the area of the heart and chest.
There is nothing to force open.
Simply notice:
You might sense a feeling of warmth or ease.
You might not.
Both are fine.
Let the heart be included in your awareness, just as it is.
4. Alert Presence — Awareness
Allow your awareness to widen.
Include:
Be awake and relaxed at the same time.
Rest here for several breaths.
Closing the Ritual
When you are ready:
Notice how you feel now compared to when you began.
There is nothing to conclude or accomplish.
Simply continue with your day.
A Note on Practice
This ritual can be practiced:
Short and regular is better than long and occasional.
The ritual is meant to support daily life, not replace it.
The Spiritual Embodiment Ritual is a short, simple sequence of movements and inward sensing that helps you settle into presence through the body.
It can be practiced standing, seated, or lying down.
It takes anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes.
It requires no special equipment, clothing, or belief.
The ritual is not about achieving a state or improving yourself.
It is a way of coming home to the body as it is.
This ritual draws on decades of practice in Zen, Yoga, Tai Chi, and Somatic Psychology, yet it remains intentionally ordinary—what Zen sometimes calls “nothing special.”
Like eating or walking, it works because it is simple.
The Four Symbols of the Ritual
Each movement is associated with a simple symbol.
These are not ideas to think about, but qualities to feel.
1. The Leaning Mountain — Embodiment
The leaning mountain represents the body’s natural balance between strength and surrender.
A mountain stands solid and rooted.
When it leans, it shows responsiveness rather than rigidity.
This symbol reminds us that embodiment is not stiff or heroic.
It is grounded, weighted, and alive.
2. The Center — Stability
The center represents the body’s natural axis of balance.
When attention returns to the center—low in the belly, deep in the torso—the nervous system settles.
We feel more here.
Less scattered.
The center is not something to create.
It is something to remember.
3. The Heart — Connection
The heart symbolizes our capacity to feel, receive, and relate.
In this ritual, the heart is not emotional effort or sentimentality.
It is simple openness—toward yourself, toward life, toward what is present.
The heart softens the practice.
It brings warmth without strain.
4. Alert Presence — Awareness
Alert presence represents a quiet, awake attention.
Not focused thinking.
Not drifting.
Just a clear, relaxed awareness that includes body, breath, and surroundings.
This is awareness with the body, not above it.
How to Practice the Ritual
Begin
Choose a position that feels natural:
- standing
- seated
- or lying down
Let your eyes be open or softly lowered.
Take a moment to feel the weight of your body being supported.
1. Leaning — Embodiment
Gently allow your body to lean.
Let the movement be small and unforced.
Forward. Backward. Both Sides. Twist.
This is not exercise.
Don't stretch.
Wait. Wait. Wait some more.
Wait until your body lets you it.
Let yourself arrive in the body.
2. Centering — Stability
Slowly bring your attention to all points of contact with the earth.
The chair. The bed. The floor.
Anything you are touching. Every part of you touching
Slowly bring attention to your belly center.
Put your palms over it. Feel it from the inside..
Let the body gather around its center.
Slowly bring attention to your breathing.
START HERE NEXT
3. Opening the Heart — Connection
Bring gentle awareness to the area of the heart and chest.
There is nothing to force open.
Simply notice:
- breath moving in this area
- space
- softness
You might sense a feeling of warmth or ease.
You might not.
Both are fine.
Let the heart be included in your awareness, just as it is.
4. Alert Presence — Awareness
Allow your awareness to widen.
Include:
- the whole body
- the breath
- sounds
- the space around you
Be awake and relaxed at the same time.
Rest here for several breaths.
Closing the Ritual
When you are ready:
- let the movement come to rest
- feel your body one last time
Notice how you feel now compared to when you began.
There is nothing to conclude or accomplish.
Simply continue with your day.
A Note on Practice
This ritual can be practiced:
- once a day
- several times a day
- or whenever you feel disconnected
Short and regular is better than long and occasional.
The ritual is meant to support daily life, not replace it.
To Be Is Enough is a collection of short reflections on presence, meaning, and the possibility of rest in a culture shaped by striving. The essays are not instructional. They are written as companions — meant to be read slowly, returned to, or set down when enough has been said.
“Sheridan has a rare gift: he makes non-dualism feel natural, experiential, and human.”
“Sheridan re-enchants the ordinary. After reading him, even washing the dishes feels sacred.”
“His Zen is alive, embodied, and compassionate—something you feel in your bones, not just understand in your mind.”
“Each sentence feels like it has been polished by decades of practice—pure, distilled insight.”
“Sheridan re-enchants the ordinary. After reading him, even washing the dishes feels sacred.”
“His Zen is alive, embodied, and compassionate—something you feel in your bones, not just understand in your mind.”
“Each sentence feels like it has been polished by decades of practice—pure, distilled insight.”
“I have shelves of Buddhist books. The ones I return to most often are Tai Sheridan’s—because they remind me to actually be here.”
“I never understood meditation until I read Tai Sheridan. His words helped me feel the body, breath, and moment in an entirely new way.”
“This is Zen without pretense—gentle, direct, and startlingly alive.”
“Few authors write about awakening with such warmth. You feel accompanied rather than instructed.”
“I never understood meditation until I read Tai Sheridan. His words helped me feel the body, breath, and moment in an entirely new way.”
“This is Zen without pretense—gentle, direct, and startlingly alive.”
“Few authors write about awakening with such warmth. You feel accompanied rather than instructed.”
Reflections...
These are not endorsements.
They are encounters.
They are encounters.
The Spiritual Embodiment Ritual is an invitation into your own body and breath — a way of noticing what’s here without judgment.” It is a simple sequence of movements and inward sensing that awakens deep inner silence, presence and wholeness.
The Spiritual Embodiment Ritual is an invitation into your own body and breath — a way of noticing what’s here without judgment.” It is a simple sequence of movements and inward sensing that awakens deep inner silence, presence and wholeness.
Begin Here
Words offered as companions, not instructions.
These writings are offered freely.
They are reflections rather than instructions.
They do not argue or persuade.
They point quietly toward lived experience.
Some readers spend time with them.
Others simply pass through.
Both are enough.
You may read one page or many.
You may return later.
You may never return.
Nothing here is meant to be consumed.
They are reflections rather than instructions.
They do not argue or persuade.
They point quietly toward lived experience.
Some readers spend time with them.
Others simply pass through.
Both are enough.
You may read one page or many.
You may return later.
You may never return.
Nothing here is meant to be consumed.
Words offered as companions, not instructions.
Spiritual Embodiment Practice Series
These books explore presence from three complementary angles: essence, practice, and reflection. To Be Is Enough addresses the ground of being itself. Spiritual Embodiment Ritual offers a simple, body-based practice for returning to presence. Scribbles supports reflective journaling that stays close to lived experience. Together, they form a quiet ecosystem of embodied spiritual practice—meant to be lived with, not read through.
Free Downloads Available Jan 10, 2026
To Be Is Enough To Be Is Enough is a collection of contemplative essays on presence, embodiment, and the quiet sufficiency of being. Written in a calm, reflective voice, the book explores what it means to live without constant striving or self-correction, and to trust that nothing essential is missing from experience as it is. |
Spiritual Embodiment Ritual
Spiritual Embodiment Ritual offers a simple, body-based practice for cultivating presence, calm, and continuity in daily life. Grounded in direct experience rather than belief, the book presents the ritual itself, reflections that support long-term practice, and guidance for integrating embodiment into ordinary living. |
Scribbles Spiritual Journaling for Scribbles: Writing from the Inside is a gentle invitation into reflective, unguarded journal writing. Created for spiritual seekers and ordinary humans alike, this chapbook offers short essays, quiet prompts, and poetic reflections that help you listen inwardly, write honestly, and reconnect with what is already alive within you. No techniques to master—just a page, a pen, and permission to begin where you are.. |
Zen Anthologies & Chapbooks
eBooks - Print - Audible Click to View or Purchase on Amazon
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Please note: many single editions are included in the anthologies.
Revised and Audible Editions are on Amazon and at other Online Booksellers
Revised and Audible Editions are on Amazon and at other Online Booksellers
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Buddha in Blue Jeans: Anthology is a five-book collection blending Zen insight with everyday life. These writings explore awakening, embodiment, love, work, and freedom—offering a grounded, accessible spirituality for living fully in the modern world.
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Zen Collection
Zen as lived life.
Dishes, breath, aging, love.
Dishes, breath, aging, love.
Zen and Spiritual Embodiment, as it appears here, is not a system of belief.
It is a way of meeting life directly --
without ornament,
without explanation,
without spiritual ambition.
These writings remain grounded in everyday life:
walking, aging, relationships, uncertainty, and attention.
It is a way of meeting life directly --
without ornament,
without explanation,
without spiritual ambition.
These writings remain grounded in everyday life:
walking, aging, relationships, uncertainty, and attention.
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Zen Single Editions / Now in the Anthologies
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BUDDHA IN BLUE JEANS: AN EXTREMELY SHORT SIMPLE ZEN GUIDE TO SITTING QUIETLY AND BEING BUDDHA
An extremely short, simple, and straight forward universal guide to the practice of sitting quietly and being yourself, which is the same as being Buddha. |
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ZEN PRAYERS FOR REPAIRING YOUR LIF
Zen Prayers addresses what is unsettled within you and cultivates integrity and virtue. A book for sorting yourself out. |
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RELAX..YOU'RE GOING TO DIE
A contemporary and contemplative spiritual exploration of death. Relax, You Are Going To Die is an invitation to examine your relationship with death and with your ability to live with grace and dynamic vitality. |
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SECRETS OF TRUE HAPPINESS
Secrets of True Happiness is a simple and straight forward guide to becoming happy by living wisely. When you are truly happy you can be at ease in the world as a Buddha in Blue Jeans: a person of presence, openness, love, and benefit. |
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A ONE HOUR SHORT & SWEET ZEN RETREAT
A One Hour Short & Sweet Zen Retreat encourages you to enjoy quiet, gather your wits about you, delight in nature, nourish yourself, focus your attention, love the world you inhabit, clarify your spiritual intentions, and deepen your connection with the whole of you. |
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THE DHAMMAPADA: BIG MIND BIG LOVE
This modern poetic interpretation of the well loved Dhammapada transforms the original using minimalistic images and modern meanings |
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CELESTIAL MUSIC: SUTRAS OF EMPTINESS
Modern interpretations of the Lotus, Diamond, Heart Wisdom, and Loving Kindness Sutras in easy to read and inspirational verse. Journey through the depths of human experience: living and dying, love and loss, anguish and peace. |
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SNOW FALLING IN MOONLIGHT
Twelve of Dogen's spiritual essays from the Shobogenzo transformed into poems about luminous mind loving kindness. |
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WARM ZEN PRACTICE
An easy to read and understand poetic interpretation of Dogen's complex philosophical essay Bendowa and experience of 'no-self'. |
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RICE EYES
A poetic presentation of Dogen's essay Tenzo Kyokun, Instructions to the Cook. "Rice Eyes" is a metaphor for the non-dual world. |
Out of Print
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LIVING IN BUDDHA'S THREE BODIES
These bodies are an infinite and borderless landscape which unifies your inner and outer worlds. Your Body Buddha manifests as your immediate experience and authenticity. |
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THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT BUDDHAS
A sophisticated Zen fairytale about enlightenment and the empty ground of Being.The author transforms eighteen stories into lyrical ballads abou the Universal Self. |
