Explorative Exercise: Discover The Elements Within You

This is an active imagination exercise that takes you on a journey of exploration, to reveal your connection to the Tibetan Buddhist elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire & Space) and how they live within your life. . The exercise is relaxing, fun & creative and can give you enlightening insight from a deeply intuitive place within you.

Transcript

This really special exercise was given to me from my Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Rob Priest.

It's not a meditation,

It's more of an explorative active imagination exercise.

It's quite fun and can give you a lot of insight into yourself.

For this exercise it can be helpful to create conditions for a quiet and contained environment to allow the process to go more deeply.

This may include dimming the lights and laying on your bed or a comfortable rug on the floor.

The intention is to allow the mind to settle into what could be described as a semi dreamlike place where the imagination can be free to unfold.

During this exercise I refer to what in Tibetan are called dakinis.

These are female guides that are seen as the embodiment of the quality of the elements.

Don't worry too much about what they look like or about having a perfect visualization.

It's more about your felt sense within your body.

So once lying or sitting comfortably,

Settle upon the breath.

To help quiet your mind,

Put your awareness on feelings and sensations of the breath within your body.

The feelings and sensations of the ribs,

Lungs and abdomen rising and falling with each in-breath and each out-breath.

Rest your awareness now on your out-breath as a resting and settling breath and really follow each out-breath down into relaxation within your body.

Now take part of your awareness to the ground of your being.

To the feelings and sensations of the ground or cushion pushing up from below you,

Supporting you,

Holding you and really allow your whole body to relax deeply down into that sense of ground.

Then imagine in your heart chakra arises a small white drop of light and light radiates out from that drop filling your body.

Your body begins to melt into light and dissolves back into the drop in your heart.

The drop becomes smaller and smaller until it dissolves into the space of emptiness like a clear sky.

Allow yourself to rest in this space now.

Within that space of emptiness,

Suddenly you reappear.

You find yourself standing in the center of an enclosed or walled garden.

It is square and has four exits in the four cardinal directions.

Your body is in the nature of radiant light.

You are facing east.

Spend a little while becoming familiar with the nature of your garden.

This is a sacred garden.

What grows there?

What condition is the garden in?

What is the surrounding wall like?

How does it feel?

How does it feel to be there?

Each of the exits in the four directions will take you out into one of the five elements.

So make your way towards the eastern exit.

This exit leads you out into the water element.

Notice what the exit or gateway is like and stop there for a short while.

When you're ready,

Step through the exit out into the water element.

As you do so,

A blue dakini,

A female god of the water element,

Comes to meet you.

She takes you out into the water element.

What is it like being in this element?

As you begin to travel,

Notice the qualities of the water element.

Its movement,

Its forms and colors.

The dakini may have things to show you or to teach you as you pass through this element.

How does it feel to be here?

Does it feel comfortable or difficult?

Familiar or unfamiliar?

How does it live in your life?

Is there something you need to learn from this element?

Allow yourself a few minutes to gently take yourself through the process.

The dakini guides you to a place that is sacred to the water element.

When you arrive,

What is this place like?

You'll also have something to give you that reflects the nature of this element.

Something you may need in your life or need to learn from.

What is it?

After some time,

The dakini begins to guide you gradually back to the garden.

Eventually,

You come to the exit.

When you arrive there,

Thank the dakini for guiding you and with the object she gave you,

Return to the garden.

Once back there,

Rest for a while in the center of the garden.

Then take yourself to the northern exit.

This exit leads you out into the air element.

Notice what the exit or gateway is like and stop there for a short while.

When you're ready,

Step through the exit out into the air element.

As you do so,

A green dakini,

A female guide of the air element,

Comes to meet you.

She takes you out into the air element.

What is it like being here?

As you begin to travel,

Notice the qualities of the air element,

Its movement,

Its forms and colors.

The dakini may have things to show you or to teach you as you pass through this element.

How does it feel to be here?

Does it feel comfortable or difficult?

Familiar or unfamiliar?

How does it live in your life?

Is there something you need to learn from this element?

Allow yourself a few minutes now to be with your experience.

The dakini guides you to a place that is sacred to the air element.

When you arrive,

What is this place like?

She also has something to give you that reflects the nature of this element,

Something you may need in your life or need to learn from.

What is it?

The dakini begins to guide you gradually back to the garden.

Eventually you come to the exit.

When you arrive there,

Thank the dakini for guiding you and with the object she gave you,

Return to the garden.

Once back there,

Rest for a while in the center of the garden.

Then take yourself to the western exit.

This exit leads you out into the fire element.

Notice what the exit or gateway is like and stop there for a short while.

When you're ready,

Step through the exit out into the fire element.

As you do so,

A red dakini,

A female god of the fire element,

Comes to meet you.

She takes you out into the fire element.

What is it like being here?

As you begin to travel,

Notice the qualities of the fire element,

Its movement,

Its forms and colors.

The dakini may have things to show you or teach you as you pass through this element.

And how does it feel to be here?

Does it feel comfortable or difficult,

Familiar or unfamiliar?

How does it live in your life?

Is there something you need to learn from this element?

Allow yourself a few minutes to be with your experience.

The dakini guides you to a place that is sacred to the fire element.

When you arrive,

What is this place like?

She also has something to give you that reflects the nature of this element,

Something you may need in your life or need to learn from.

What is it?

The dakini begins to gradually guide you back to the garden.

Eventually you come to the exit.

When you arrive there,

Thank the dakini for guiding you and with the object she gave you,

Return to the garden.

Once back there,

Rest for a while in the center of the garden.

Then take yourself to the southern exit.

This exit leads you out into the earth element.

Notice what the exit or gateway is like.

Stop there for a short while.

When you're ready,

Step through the exit out into the earth element.

As you do so,

A golden yellow dakini,

A female guide of the earth element,

Comes to meet you.

She takes you out into the earth element.

What is it like being here?

As you begin to travel,

Notice the qualities of the earth element,

Its movements,

Its forms and colors.

The dakini may have things to show you or teach you as you pass through this element.

How does it feel to be here?

Does it feel comfortable or difficult?

Familiar or unfamiliar?

How does it live in your life?

Is there something you need to learn from this element?

Allow yourself a few minutes to be with your experience.

The dakini guides you to a place that is sacred to the earth element.

When you arrive,

What is this place like?

She also has something to give you that reflects the nature of this element,

Something that you may need in your life or need to learn from.

What is it?

The dakini begins to gradually guide you back to the garden.

Eventually you come to the exit.

When you arrive there,

Thank the dakini for guiding you and with the object she gave you,

Return to the garden.

Once back there,

Finally rest for a while in the center of the garden.

When you're ready,

Descending from space above you,

A white dakini,

A female god of the space element,

Comes to meet you.

She takes you up into the space element.

What is it like being in this element?

As you begin to travel,

Notice the qualities of the space element,

Its movement,

Its forms and colors.

The dakini may have things to show you or teach you as you pass through this element.

How does it feel to be here?

Is it comfortable or difficult?

Familiar or unfamiliar?

How does it live in your life?

Is there something you need to learn from this element?

Allow yourself a few minutes to be there in your experience.

The dakini guides you to a place that is sacred to the space element.

When you arrive,

What is this place like?

She also has something to give you that reflects the nature of this element,

Something you may need in your life or need to learn from.

What is it?

After some time,

The dakini begins to guide you gradually back to the garden.

Eventually you settle back into the center of the garden with the object she gave you.

When you arrive and she begins to leave,

Thank the dakini for guiding you.

Rest for a while in the center of the garden.

As you rest,

Spend some time recalling the experience of the elements that you've just been through.

Consider which of these elements felt the most familiar or the most comfortable and which may have felt the least familiar and perhaps most uncomfortable.

What does this suggest to you about your relationship to these elements?

Finally,

The garden melts into light and dissolves into your heart.

You gradually return to your body and to the room.

Once you have completed this exercise,

It is very helpful to make some drawings or notes of your experience so that you can then reflect more upon them.

It can be significant to consider what you were given by the dakini.

It may also be interesting to consider what the garden was like,

Its condition and the nature of the surrounding boundary or wall.

All these things may have significance for you in your life.

The nature of the garden itself can give very different feelings.

At times it may be lush and colorful and at other times may feel arid and depleted.

All of these variations convey something of meaning to us and should not be disregarded.

From a Jungian point of view,

You have allowed your unconscious to speak to you.

What it may tell you will be interesting and often very related to your life and your unfolding journey.

This exercise is part of a course that I have on InsightTimer called The Elements and Chakras Within You,

Brought to Life with Sound.

If you're interested in how the elements live within you,

Within your psychological world,

As well as your outer world,

You're welcome to do my course where one by one I explore each element deeply,

Helping you to connect to them and gain insight into how they live within you.