Let's begin with the breath,
In through the nose,
Long,
Slow,
Deliberate,
Right down to the base of your belly,
Below the navel,
Into the lowest part of the body.
Feel it fill from the bottom up.
Hold it for just a moment at the top,
Feel the fullness of it,
And release through the mouth,
Every last breath.
This is not ordinary breathing,
This is directed breathing.
You are using the breath as a tool to draw attention,
And with attention,
Energy into a specific place in the body.
Base,
The root chakra,
The place where the body holds its most primal power.
Take three more breaths exactly like that,
Each one deeper than the last,
Each one reaching further down into the base of the body.
With each inhale,
Feel something beginning to soften the energy.
It has always been there,
You are simply choosing to notice it.
A breath that fills the lower belly quickly and completely,
And exhale through the mouth,
Slow and controlled,
Drawing the belly inward as you do.
Do this ten times,
Let each exhale become a contraction,
A gentle squeeze at the base of the body,
As though you're gathering energy there,
Concentrating it,
Making it more dense and more present.
Now return to the long,
Slow breath in,
Feel what is present in the body now,
The energy that has been building there,
Genuine physical sensation that you've created with nothing more than your breath.
This is the beginning of understanding what tantric practice really is,
Not mysticism,
Not performance,
Just the body's own energy,
Made conscious,
Made deliberate.
And when you are ready,
Let the breath return to its natural rhythm,
Feel your body now,
However it is after what just happened,
Warm,
Alive,
Present in a way it wasn't before we started this meditation.
What you did tonight is an ancient practice,
Older than most of the world's religions,
The deliberate cultivation of the body's own energy and the conscious choice of where it goes.