Hi,
This is Lydia Nitya Griffith with Nitya Living,
A wellness yoga refuge.
Thank you for joining me today in this heart opening meditation.
Find yourself seated comfortably or lying down.
Try to find a place where you won't be disturbed and you can truly relax.
So good just to stop,
Isn't it?
Just take a deep breath in and exhale slowly.
Tune into yourself and recognize where you are.
Take in all your senses,
What you're hearing,
What you're smelling,
What you're seeing,
How your clothes feel,
How the surface that you're sitting on feels,
How your body is doing today,
And take a big full breath into the belly.
Lift that breath to the chest,
All the way up to your collarbone.
Hold,
Open your mouth and release.
So good.
This practice is from my teacher Geshe Tenzin Wengal Rinpoche and it is an ancient,
Ancient Tibetan Buddhist practice.
I'm going to begin by first reading to you a poem that I wrote inspired by one of Rinpoche's readings many years ago in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
And at this point,
Just feel your spine lengthened long if you're sitting up.
Your shoulders are back and relaxed and your eyes are closed now if that feels safe for you.
And see this poem as the doorway in which you are entering this time of meditation.
Cultivating Heart.
The bird-like mind flitters,
Flapping its winged thoughts into the vista.
How can you hold a bird?
How can you hold its wings against its quivering body?
They long to fly both the bird and the mind,
Soaring high into daydream clouds,
Dipping down into the mire of pessimistic gloom,
Darting in and out of life's trees and brushed as the mind-bird go.
Come into the nest of stillness.
Slow the breath.
Close the eyes.
There is a beautiful darkness behind the screen of sight and light.
Allow the mind to fold in its winged thoughts that insist to continue its endless flight.
As you sit with eyes closed and breath calm,
Bring your mind in its luminous stillness to your heart.
Bring the bird to its nest.
Hold your focus there.
Breathe into your heart and feel love glow,
Expand and grow.
Love is a sweet elixir manifesting from your heart nest.
Allow it to seep through every cell and pore of your being and bathe in the light of your love.
As you sit,
Feel love running off of you,
Pooling into a golden puddle.
Imagine it seeping into the earth,
Creating fertile ground for all of life to manifest.
Bring your love up through the center of your body and straight out the top of your head.
Like a beacon,
Send your love light to the universe,
Blessing all sentient beings.
Cradle your mind like a tiny wren into the still radiance of your heart,
Trusting that as you cultivate this love with the universe,
So too are you loved.
Let's take a deep breath in here and exhale slowly.
If you'd like,
You can join me for the sound vibration.
Om.
We'll take three deep breaths and release into Om.
Breathing in.
Om.
Om.
Tune into the rhythm of breath.
We've reached the doorway of yourself.
That poem brought you to this doorway.
Leaving behind all that your day has been and may still be.
Letting go of all your roles and responsibilities.
Letting go of all agendas and schedules.
In this now moment,
You are liberated,
You are free.
To cultivate the qualities needed for you to learn to live your authentic self in any given moment of your day.
To have the courage,
The strength to be yourself.
And it is a perfect,
Beautiful self.
Let's take a big three part breath now,
Breathing into your abdomen.
Lift the breath to the chest,
Up to the collarbone.
Hold.
Open your mouth.
Release.
So good.
You walk through the doorway of stillness.
Notice that your body is truly still.
Resisting any urge to shift,
To twitch,
To scratch,
To wiggle,
To move in any way.
Take a moment and feel yourself giving the weight of your body to the earth.
Notice how your feet are,
Your legs,
The shape that they are in if they're crossed.
Or maybe you're sitting in a chair and the knees are bent and your feet are on the floor.
Maybe you're lying down and your legs are outstretched.
Notice your hips,
Your pelvis.
Do they feel soft and open?
Notice the spine,
Though you're not slouched but rather regally lengthened long.
Notice the abdomen expanding and contracting on each inhale and exhale.
Notice the rib cage expanding and contracting with each inhale and each exhale.
Notice how your chest feels.
Is it tight?
Is it loose,
Open,
Soft?
Glowing?
Notice the shoulders,
Your arms,
How your hands are resting.
Notice your neck,
Your jaw,
Your mouth,
Teeth and tongue.
Notice the skin of the face and the muscles of your face,
So soft.
The eyes are closed,
Washing your eyes in a soothing darkness.
Even your ears have relaxed from listening to all the myriad of sounds and you're just now tuned in to your own breath and my voice.
You are walking now through the doorway of stillness.
And as you feel your body completely still and the weight of the body has been let go of,
You naturally move through the door of silence.
As you walk through this doorway,
The mind naturally has already begun to quiet down.
Your focus is more and more now in the now.
As the mind quiets a little more and a little more.
As you allow yourself to not be pulled into the drama of the mind,
But rather to allow it to be like a TV that's on fast forward channel surf.
It's going so fast.
All the channels,
All the people,
All the stories,
Let it all go.
Let it all go.
Put the remote down.
Turn off the TV.
Turn off the mind.
Be in the silence,
Like a giant cloud floating in the sky.
And when the body is still and the mind is quiet,
The third door opens and you naturally walk through.
Because when you are still and when you are quiet,
The heart naturally opens.
It's all the perfect conditions for a flower to bloom.
Your heart opens.
And as the heart opens,
You begin to be in a pool of love that is so immersive,
So expensive.
So pure,
It could bring you to tears.
Did you know you were deserving of this much love?
Yeah,
It's amazing.
From the moment you were born in this life,
This abundant love has been with you.
And all the stories and all the people,
The events,
The traumas,
The chaos covers it all up.
It peeks through.
It has its moment to shine.
We doubt it.
We doubt its existence.
And we try to give our love,
But sometimes it feels false because we doubt that we ourselves are so lovable.
But yes,
Oh,
Bathe,
Bathe in this beautiful light.
This love is infinite,
Boundless love,
Purest love.
Smile,
My friend,
You are so loved in this moment.
It's a moment here to really sink into this space of stillness,
Silence and heart opening.
I'm right here with you,
Sharing this moment with you because it is so beautiful to witness.
Let's take a big three part breath now.
Breathing into the abdomen,
Lift the breath to the chest,
All the way up to the collarbone,
Let out a big beautiful sound.
Hold your focus in this moment of stillness,
Silence,
Open heartedness.
Let's take a deep breath.
The simple truth is this,
That at any moment in your life when you are faced with aggression,
Conflict,
Stresses,
Overwhelm,
Anxiety,
Stop,
Still the body,
Let the door of the mind swing open into silence.
Then feel your heart open,
It will transform your life because you will create an aura of love around you that is impenetrable.
You are choosing to not engage in any of those experiences,
Interactions.
You are choosing instead to walk a path in your life of pure love.
It will transform your relationship to others and their relationship with you.
It will change how you face and deal with the stresses of your life.
It will transform how you approach your workday.
Simple actions,
Which really are non-actions,
Right?
Let yourself be still and notice how the mind will automatically begin to respond and become quieter,
More focused in the now.
And lastly,
Notice and allow the heart to swing its door wide open.
And there,
You truly come home to yourself.
Use this meditation to build up the strength and the habit of using these three doors to transform your life.
Let's take a deep three part breath.
Let the belly,
Chest,
Collarbone,
Open the mouth,
Exhale,
Let go.
Join me if you like in three Oms.
Om.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti om.
Thank you so much.
Be well.
