Hello dear friends.
I want to share with you a koan that was shared with me by my mentor and that is,
What is preventing you from practicing right now?
Whenever I find myself striving to become,
Clinging to a sense of self,
Trying to prove,
I return to this question,
What is preventing me from practicing right now?
And I found that the striving to become is what is preventing me.
And the only thing to do is to be,
Is to be in true and sincere practice.
So today we're going to practice emptying ourselves of the roles that we take on,
The notions of self that we impose on ourselves to try to be a certain way and reconnect to our true nature that doesn't have to prove or fix or do or strive or become.
It already is.
I had a lucid dream last night where when I became aware that I was dreaming,
I wanted to connect to open and empty awareness.
So I asked,
What is the I that is aware?
Because when we're aware of something,
It's always a relationship with an object.
I am aware of my breathing.
I am aware of my body.
I am aware of this or that,
But what is the I?
And so in my lucid dream,
I asked,
What is the I?
And I was shown this channel of light from the heavens.
And what came to me was my true nature,
The I,
The I am,
The I,
The one,
Is a channel,
A channel for breath,
A channel for creativity,
A channel for light,
A channel for love,
To move through,
For spirit to move into and through from above to the earth.
And I thought,
Wow,
What if I could be that and feel that and know that all the time and every day?
Wouldn't that be amazing?
So I created this meditation today to help you to connect to the channel that you are,
To clear space for you to allow what wants to come through you to come through.
It's when we create attachment to who we think we are or who others think we should be,
That suffering arises.
So emptying ourselves of everything,
Including our separate self,
What we think is a separate self,
Will help us to connect to our true empty nature,
Our true channel.
If we're full of what we think we should be,
There's no room for the spirit to move through us,
For new ideas to come in,
For new artwork,
For inspiration,
For love to move.
And what happens when we're not those roles anymore?
What happens when we've defined our life by the roles that we play and all of a sudden those roles disappear?
One minute you're a teacher and the next you're not and then suffering arises.
So let's start now by settling in,
Finding a comfortable seated or lying down position and breathing.
And with every breath just relaxing into the place that you are now.
Not having to go anywhere,
Not having to do anything,
Simply existing in your true nature here in this moment.
Breathing in,
Connecting to the breath and practicing being a channel for the breath,
Letting the breath come in.
Letting the breath go out,
No need to hold.
Letting the breath come in,
Knowing that you are breathing.
And letting the breath go out.
And relax into the sensation of breathing easily and gently,
Naturally.
What your breathing apparatus is designed to do.
Breathe in and breathe out.
The heart is not a room with space to fill.
The heart is a door that opens to more and more.
Do this too.
Yes,
They fill but they empty too.
Inviting more and more,
Yet not holding on to anything.
Because when you hold on you have no more room for spirit to move.
Just breathing in and breathing out.
And now I want you to call to your heart mind any of the roles or the labels that you put on yourself or that have been forced upon you.
Put upon you.
Whether that's your job,
Your gender,
Your race,
Your status,
Your relationship to money,
What you do,
Who you are in relation to other people.
Bring any and all of those up in your mind and I want you to imagine that you can let those melt away one by one.
So your physical appearance,
Breathing in,
Recognizing your physical appearance,
And breathing out,
Letting all of that melt away.
Breathing in,
Knowing that you have a job or something that you do every day to support your living.
And on the exhale,
Letting that melt away.
And layer by layer we're going to get down to the true self,
The self that is not reliant on roles or perceptions.
The self that is always with you and nobody can take from you.
Breathing in,
Acknowledging your relationship to money or wealth or abundance.
And breathing out,
Letting that drop away,
Letting that slide off your shoulders.
And we're moving towards the basic I am-ness.
I am as a full sentence.
Bringing to mind a role that you play for others.
Breathing in,
Recognizing that you have a job or something that you do every day to support your living.
And letting that drop away,
Letting yourself become empty.
Breathing in,
And breathing out.
And let's use the mantra,
I am,
As a full sentence.
Breathing in on the inhale,
You can say to yourself,
I,
And on the exhale,
Am.
And keep repeating at your own pace.
And the next time you hear my voice,
We'll make ready to come back.
But for now,
Just keep repeating the mantra,
I.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Letting your awareness return to the present moment.
I am breathing.
I am sitting.
I am ready.
Having made space,
A channel through which divine love can flow into my day,
Into my life,
Blessing and rippling out for everyone who comes in contact with me today.
You can bring some gentle movement into your body.
And slowly,
When you're ready,
Let your eyes gently open.
Thank you for your practice.
