Developing Bliss And Dropping

This meditation uses a constructive, fabricated approach to help you gradually develop heat in the belly, then use that heat to suffuse your body with a warm, loving bliss. Once full of bliss, we bring our focus to the heart. And relaxing into the clear, luminous blissfulness in the heart, we allow the bliss and luminance to radiate through the body and the whole of phenomenal experience. At the very end, we drop all fabrications, and rest in what remains.

Transcript

Hello,

Friends.

Today we're going to be exploring a type of meditation which will use visual imagery and construction in the relative field to produce great bliss,

At which point we will allow both the bliss and the imagery to dissolve in its own right,

Leaving us with the openness of blissfulness.

I hope that you find this a useful meditation,

And I hope that it leads you towards your most meaningful goals and aspirations.

Ideally,

Once you come to understand the meditation a bit,

You'll practice it repeatedly until it becomes very natural and easy for you.

That's when things become truly powerful.

So we're going to be sitting or laying down with our backs straight,

Whether we're kneeling or cross-legged in a chair or on the bed,

Any of them are fine,

As long as our back is straight,

And we'll begin,

As always,

By relaxing the body,

Maybe shaking out a little bit of the extra energy in the body and taking a few deep breaths.

When we breathe in,

We experience the knots and clusters and tightness in the body and in the emotions and the mind.

We experience them in awareness,

And as we breathe out,

We release them,

Just like holding your hands tight and then opening your hands.

You might even do that as you're breathing in.

You might want to clench your hands tight,

Experience the tightness in the hands as a metaphor for the tightness that's in the emotions,

That's in the energies,

That's in the body.

And as we breathe out,

We release the hands,

Just as we're releasing the energies,

The knots and tightnesses in the energies and emotions,

Mind and body.

So we'll do three breaths,

And then we'll rest for a minute or so,

Just to allow that openness to sink and settle throughout the body-mind.

And after this last breath,

We just allow ourselves to rest,

Breathing normal,

No need to alter anything.

Now we allow that relaxation,

That openness to serve as the basis for our practice today.

I'm going to begin with visualization of a sphere,

A tiny sphere,

Perhaps the size of a nickel or a quarter.

And we're going to place that sphere just below the belly button in what the Taoists call the Dan Tian region,

Just a little bit below the belly button on the interior of the body,

Really right at the center of the body.

So we visualize this molten sphere,

Small molten sphere there,

Like lava,

And it's hot.

We also visualize three channels running up through the body.

The central channel is blue,

And at the base,

Down near your perineum,

It's fairly wide,

And as it moves up towards the crown of your head,

It becomes very,

Very narrow,

Like a straw at the crown of the head,

And wide like the size of your hand or so at the base.

So we'll imagine this blue central channel,

And we'll also imagine on your right side a smaller white channel that runs up parallel to and alongside this blue channel.

And on your left side,

We'll imagine a red channel.

So let's spend a moment imagining these,

The three channels,

White on the right,

Red on the left,

And blue in the center,

Running up through,

Very American or French perhaps,

Running up through the body and simultaneously down just a bit below the belly button in the center of the body,

We visualize a molten red sphere.

Let's begin with this,

And spend a moment just very gently building this imagery.

We don't want to force it or push on it,

We just visualize it lightly,

And we won't see it clearly,

But we see it a little bit,

We have almost just a sense of it,

And we allow that sense to be stable.

Don't worry about getting it perfect,

We just want just a sense,

Just a sense of these three channels and this sphere.

And now we begin to visualize or imagine the heat that's radiating off from this sphere in the belly,

And as we breathe in,

It's like an air being pumped into a stove,

It brings the heat up,

And as we breathe out,

We experience the heat rising up through the central channel through this blue channel in the middle,

And it rises all the way up to the crown of our head.

So again,

Breathing in,

We experience the heat building,

We breathe into the belly,

And then as we breathe out,

We don't force anything,

We experience the heat rising up through the central channel.

Breathing in,

The heat gathers and forms,

Breathing out,

The heat rises through the central channel,

Gathering and forming,

Rising up through the central channel.

Let's just experience,

Let's just build and spread this heat for a moment.

Now at the crown of the head,

Just above the crown of the head,

We visualize a flower,

Perhaps it's a lotus flower or some other flower,

It has many petals that are open,

And when the heat rises up and it touches this flower,

The flower begins to drop down a clear white light,

An essence,

Sweet and blissful,

And this essence slowly passes down through the central channel,

And as it passes through the central channel,

We gradually feel it filling our entire body,

And wherever it touches,

We experience bliss,

Not the bliss of sex or of orgasm,

But the bliss of a radiant,

Joyful openness,

Very present and free and sweet,

A certain sweetness.

So again,

We're bringing the heat into this ball,

This sphere at the belly,

As we breathe in,

As we breathe out,

The heat rises up,

Touches the flower at the top of our heads,

And this nectar begins to pour down,

Filling our body with bliss.

Wherever it touches is released,

Opened,

Made clear and joyful,

And the stream of nectar that's coming down,

Dripping out of this flower is a constant stream,

It's flowing constantly.

The more heat that we generate in the belly,

The bigger the stream,

The more rapidly the flow goes,

But always a constant stream,

Just filling,

Evenly filling the body,

Evenly filling the mind with this blissful spaciousness,

Relaxing everything it touches,

Opening everything that it touches.

The mind may feel clear,

Or the mind may have thoughts,

And either way is fine,

This nectar as it touches the thoughts,

As it touches the clarity,

It just allows everything to be just what it is,

And makes it an experience of bliss,

Whatever thoughts are arising.

And as it moves into the torso,

The emotional experiences we're having,

Or energetic movements in the torso,

The same thing happens,

Whatever's happening there,

This blissful nectar,

It just surrounds it,

It permeates it all the way through,

Completely soaks it,

And now your whole body is filled with this warmth,

This buzzing,

Blissful,

Joyful nectar that's gradually streamed down from the flower,

The crown of the head,

As it's been warmed by this hot sphere,

Lava sphere in the belly,

Whole body filled,

Now we feel the warmth,

Feeling the heart,

Feeling a sphere right in the center of the breast,

Center of the chest.

We continue as we breathe in,

We feel the heat in the sphere at the belly.

As we breathe out,

The heat raises up,

And it continues to melt,

Melt the nectar from the flower down,

And it fills the heart,

Until the heart is radiating white light sphere,

Radiating white,

Beautiful bliss.

We experience the purity of the bliss of the heart,

The whole body buzzing with warmth,

The heart radiating the warmth of blissful love,

Compassion,

Joy,

Gratitude.

We feel the heart filling,

We feel the heart growing,

We feel the heart radiating out,

Out into the body.

It's so easy,

We just allow it to radiate out,

With every breath in,

The heat,

With every breath out,

The melting drops,

Until the heart is filled,

Pure radiating sphere,

Light,

Bliss,

Radiating out from the heart.

Rest in that pure white light of bliss,

The clarity.

Just relax into that,

Drop the flower,

Drop the sphere of lava in the belly,

Bring all your consciousness,

All your awareness into the sphere of the heart,

The body,

Warm,

Buzzing,

Blissful,

The heart,

Full,

Clear,

Radiating bliss.

Rest in the heart of that bliss,

Everything relaxed,

Everything free,

Just the heart of bliss,

Radiating.

Now,

We'll open our eyes if they haven't already been opened,

And we're going to allow the bliss of the heart to radiate through the body,

The body already so blissful,

But now as the heart bliss radiates out into every muscle,

Every pore,

Every fiber and sinew of the body,

As it radiates through the channels and energies,

The emotions,

As it radiates through the mind,

Everything is clarified and opened,

Freed.

We experience the whole body as the white light of bliss,

Radiating from the heart,

The heart becomes the body,

The body becomes the heart,

And all is white,

Bliss,

Light,

Clear,

Free.

Now that light,

That bliss radiates out from the body,

And it fills the space around you,

All the space in front of you,

All the space behind you,

To your right,

To your left,

All the space above you,

Below you,

All of your space,

The entirety of your phenomenal experience,

Is pierced through with clear,

White light bliss.

You experience that bliss even in distant objects you perceive,

Or in the sounds you hear,

Or the sensations you feel,

Everything pure,

Clear,

White light bliss,

Clear and free.

Now drop the bliss,

Drop the heart,

Drop the belly and the head,

Drop the body and the mind,

Drop all the phenomenal experiences,

Drop the self and the other,

And just rest in what remains for the rest of this meditation.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure,

This meditation together,

That each of us must take separately.

I hope that you will dedicate whatever good has come from this meditation to your highest aspiration,

Whatever that may be,

And I thank you again.