Galaxy Heart Meditation

Beginning with our eyes open, we will explore the perceptual net of meaning we cast over reality before settling into our bodies with rhythmic breathing. We then guide our awareness to our heart center, where we explore an inner galaxy, journeying to the heart of a black hole before returning to our physical bodies with a renewed sense of peace and universal connection.

Transcript

We begin this practice with our eyes open.

First,

Notice the room around you,

Its colors and shapes.

Notice the distribution of space and your own place within it.

You can turn your head to do this,

Look up,

Look down,

Whatever you need to do to identify the contours of this space and become more aware of your place within it in this moment.

Now,

Gradually become aware of a more subtle layer of experience,

Noticing the meanings and associations of the objects that you see around you.

For example,

As you look at the wall,

Notice the part of your mind that categorizes it as wall,

The part of your mind that takes note of its properties and associates it with a function.

Observe how you do this for every object in the room,

Automatically classifying them just below the level of your conscious awareness.

Now,

Recognize that act of categorization as a projection arising from your own mind,

Like a net that you cast over the world as you move through it.

A net of language,

A net of impressions and associations that have built up over the course of your lifetime.

This is a net that you carry within yourself and throw over every new experience and situation that you encounter,

Sorting things into familiar shapes.

Play with the idea of withdrawing those meanings for a time,

Suspending the urge to categorize and simply encountering material forms in the way they are manifesting to your senses.

Maybe you can select an object in front of you and try to withdraw the word label from it.

Take effort to notice how it organizes itself in space,

What unique characteristics it possesses that might be overlooked if you already assume that you know what it is.

Now,

We are going to experiment with the idea that the sensations we experience are projections as well.

This is a playful meditation,

So I invite you to enter this realm of play pretend with me and suspend some of the normal operating rules of awareness and common sense.

Start out by becoming aware of your entire visual field.

Realize that everything you see is generated by light particles,

Photons,

Traveling through your eyes and getting processed by your retina.

Recognize that everything you see before you is just a play of light upon your retina.

Now close your eyes,

Block those photons from coming through,

And notice the shift in your embodied experience as you move from five senses to four.

You could be anywhere,

In a ball room,

In a garden,

Suspended in empty air with nothing except the chair beneath you.

In this state of play pretend,

We are going to reverse the path that that light has traveled.

We know,

Rationally,

That the visual world you see is generated by photons coming in through your eyes to land on your retina.

As you open your eyes again,

Imagine that the world is coming out through your eyes,

That it is something you project,

Just as you project the net of meaning onto the objects you see.

Close your eyes and inhale,

Holding for a few moments at the top.

Now open your eyes as you exhale and imagine that you are projecting the world around you,

Like casting a net out over the void of empty space.

As you inhale again,

Close your eyes and withdraw the world.

Alternate this cycle of inhalation and exhalation,

Projection and withdrawal,

For a few cycles,

Projecting the world as you open your eyes and withdrawing it back into yourself as you close them.

On your next inhale,

Breathe as deeply as you can,

And this time keep your eyes closed as you hold the breath at the very top of your inhalation.

Hold your breath for a count of four,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Now exhale for four,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And hold the exhale for another count of four.

Inhale,

Hold.

Exhale,

Hold.

Inhale,

Hold.

And now,

As you exhale,

Allow your awareness to simultaneously drop down into your heart center,

Coming to rest in the center of your heart space,

However you imagine that to be.

You might visualize a drop of water or some nectar dripping from the base of your skull down the back of your neck,

And falling down into a still pool of water,

Resting in your heart space.

You may feel the ripples reverberating through that pool as your awareness drops and settles into it.

Just inhabit that space and allow the sensations to resonate through you,

Acknowledging your heart and the center of your being as their source.

Once you have come to rest in that space,

Allow the technique of your breath to dissolve completely,

And just observe the natural flow of breath through your body.

We'll stay here together for a few moments.

Now,

Keeping your awareness firmly rooted in your heart,

Imagine that there is a door there in the center of your heart space.

This door can be as plain or as grand as you wish it to be,

Of any size or shape.

It does not need to necessarily be attached to anything.

It could be just a freestanding door,

Resting right in the very center of your heart.

Once you have visualized it,

Approach the door slowly and pause to stand before it.

As you do so,

Feel that you are approaching the very center of your being,

The center from which your consciousness,

Your personality,

Your sensations,

And all of your experiences are emanating from.

This doorway is not just at the center of your being.

It is the center of your being,

A portal to some dimension lying just beyond it.

In your imagination,

Reach out your hand and place it on the doorknob.

Feel it with the same solidity and vividness as you can feel the shirt on your back or the ground beneath your feet.

Bring your entire awareness to this doorway now and your hand upon the doorknob.

Now turn the handle and push.

As you push open the inner door of your heart,

You find yourself suddenly suspended in the vast expanse of outer space,

Looking upon a galaxy like the one we viewed together.

At first you were on the periphery of this galaxy,

Watching the spiral dance of stars around the central core.

Hidden in the heart of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole emitting a gravitational field that shapes the fabric of spacetime along which the stars are moving.

And at the center of that black hole rests the singularity,

A point of infinite density which transcends our concepts of space and time.

Notice how this galaxy looks like a cosmic mandala,

A mandala that is alive with the light and motion of the stars,

Held together by the central black hole at its heart and the invisible gravitational field emanating from it.

Alternatively,

You could imagine it as a cosmic flower blossoming from the seed of the singularity within the galactic heart.

Imagine the gravitational field flowing outward from the singularity,

Echoing through the galactic mandala like ripples in a pond,

Extending to the space beyond.

Now,

From the outer fringes of this galaxy,

We are going to move together towards the center,

Sailing past the river of stars and bringing ourselves to the edge of the event horizon of the central black hole.

Here we stand at the threshold of the ultimate mystery,

The veiled sanctuary which rests at the heart of the galaxy.

No one knows what lies beyond the event horizon of a black hole or what it looks like in the vicinity of the singularity.

This is the podium of the cosmic conductor,

The director of the gravitational symphony governing the motion of the stars.

Here is where all conceptions of space and time dissolve,

Removing us from the laws of our ordinary experience.

To move beyond this point will require we take another leap of the imagination.

Moving forward,

We cross the event horizon and as we enter the mysterious core of the black hole,

We see that from the inside looking out,

The shell of the event horizon is completely transparent.

From the central position at the heart of the galaxy,

We can see all the stars at once,

Holding them in awareness simultaneously as they move around us.

Know,

In your mind,

That one of these stars is our Sun and around the Sun is orbiting our Earth.

Know,

Too,

That somewhere on that Earth is your physical body,

Which your awareness has temporarily transcended to identify with a greater transpersonal consciousness resting here in the heart of the galaxy.

Looking out from the central point of the singularity,

Become aware of the gravitational pulse of the galaxy as your own heartbeat,

And imagine that it is your own heart sending out waves that ripple through the fabric of space-time,

Subtly shaping it.

Watch the stars dance to the rhythm of your heart,

The harmony of your being,

And feel yourself becoming completely at one with the entire galactic mandala,

Which you now recognize as emanating from you,

Your awareness residing in the singularity as it permeates all of space.

Just breathe there,

In that central heart,

Letting your breath wash over you and over the entire galaxy that you recognize as a unified system moving in perfect harmony,

A projection of your deepest essence.

And now,

Resting in the heart of the singularity,

You gradually become aware of a door there in the space with you.

This is the same door that you entered through,

The portal between outer and inner dimensions.

As you approach this door,

Feel that you are approaching the very center of the world,

The center from which all the stars,

Planets,

And moons of this galaxy are emanating from.

Reach out your hand and place it on the doorknob.

Bring your entire awareness to this doorway now,

And your hand upon the doorknob.

Now turn the handle and push.

As the door opens,

You find yourself back in the center of your heart,

Here in your physical body on Earth.

Take a few breaths in this space,

Following a natural flow and rhythm.

Release all attempts at technique,

At control,

And just observe.

Now,

On your next inhale,

Count to four and hold for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Now inhale deeply and hold at the top.

As you exhale,

Open your eyes and project the world around you into being once more.