Allow yourself to relax.
Come to your position,
Take your seat.
Arise.
Into this moment.
Your body is here.
But allow the mind and the senses.
The awareness,
The attention.
Bring it all into this very moment,
This very breath.
Allow yourself to withdraw the senses.
That practice of pratyahara.
Not dulling them.
But just bringing them inwards.
Instead of being so.
Acutely aware of that which is constantly changing the sights,
The sounds.
Smells the sensation.
Turn those antennas.
From facing outward.
To facing inwards.
Draw the awareness in.
And allow the awareness.
To merge into your breath.
Don't work with the breath.
Don't try to change the breath.
It's not pranayama.
But just allow the breath to be like a magnet.
For the awareness.
An anchor you can use.
Allow the awareness to just merge with the breath.
As it flows in and flows out.
It's our own way.
Each breath is perfect.
Nothing to change.
Nothing to do.
Just be aware.
Now allow that awareness of the breath.
To drop low in your head.
So instead of being aware of the breath in your ribcage or your chest,
Draw the awareness low in your abdomen.
About two inches below your belly button.
There's a sacred energy center,
A chakra.
Called the Swadishthan Chakra.
In Sanskrit,
Swadhishthan literally means the place of the sound.
Swear itself,
Star in its place.
So again,
We're not changing anything or doing anything.
We're just allowing that.
Awareness.
Of the breath.
At that energy center about two inches below the navel.
Allow the inhalations.
To be taken from there.
And on the exhalations dropping back down.
Into that energy center.
If you've studied Tai Chi or Qigong,
It's where they speak of as the lower dantian.
It's that same energetic center.
In the yogic tradition,
We see this energy center as a lotus flower.
So as you inhale,
Feel that lotus flower expand.
Just feel the petals of the lotus flower opening and opening.
As you inhale.
Through the power of your breath,
The power of your awareness.
Allow it to gently.
Open and expand.
Petal by petal.
Breath by breath.
And as you exhale.
Just allow yourself to let go.
With each exhalation just like that.
What are you holding on to?
What anger,
What grudge.
What story?
What expectation,
What attachment.
What identification?
Don't analyze them.
But just as you exhale,
Breathe it out and just give it back to the universe.
And allow yourself to sink deeper and deeper.
Into your Swadishthan chakra.
Into that place.
Of the sound.
If the mind wanders,
Don't fight it.
Don't yell at it.
Don't analyze where it's going.
Just lovingly,
Gently bring it back to the breath.
As the lotus flower of our swadhisthana chakra opens and opens with each inhalation.
Expanding and expanding.
And as we drop deeper and deeper.
Freer.
And prayer.
On each exhalation.
On the next inhalation.
Instead of inhaling out.
Expanding the energy center.
Allow the breath to gently rise.
Again,
It's not pranayama.
We're not dragging the breath or pushing the breath.
Or just allowing as you inhale at the Swadhishthan Chakra.
For the breath to just rise through you.
Just allow it to rise as you inhale.
Flowing through all of the other energy centers,
Flowing through our physical body.
Solar plexus,
The ribs,
Sternum.
Up through the throat.
And allow it to rise all the way to your third eyes.
The Agya chakra.
Just between the eyebrows.
That center of the power of discrimination that allows us to see truth from falsehood.
Allows us to see divinity.
Allows us to see essence.
Instead of form,
Content instead of packaging.
So when we see ourselves,
See each other,
This third eye enables us to see the divine in ourselves,
In each other.
On the exhalations drop back down into the swadhishthana chakra.
So take the breaths at your own pace.
If you cannot carry the breath gently and slowly.
All the way up to your third eye.
Don't worry.
Just allow it to rise as high as it can naturally and easily.
And then exhale and drop back into the Swadhishthana.
But regardless of whether the breath itself makes it to the third eye or not.
Allow your awareness.
As you inhale to be on that third eye.
Drawing the breath upward and upward.
Feeling the third eye begin to awaken.
Then exhaling,
Letting go.
Dropping back into the spacious expansive stillness.
Of the truth of who we are.
So rising up on the inhalation.
And dropping deep.
On the exhalations.
Rising higher and higher on each inhalation.
As the breath rises through our physical and energetic bodies.
Up to the third eye center.
Opening and awakening.
And dropping deeper and deeper.
For you.
And freer on the exhalations.
As we let go with each breath.
Of that.
Which is not.
True self.
You can add a very powerful mantra to this.
Or rather age.
A powerful,
Sacred pair of mantras.
On the inhalation as the breath rises from our Swadhisthana chakra below our belly button.
Up to our third eye center,
The Ajna chakra,
Between the eyebrows.
As it rises,
Chant to yourself,
Ho Han.
Koham.
It means who am I?
Who am I?
Home.
Co-hum,
Co-hum as the breath rises gently.
And as you exhale.
You exhale with the answer.
So calm.
So.
I am that,
The capital T,
That.
I am one.
With all of existence.
There is no place.
The universe ends and I begin.
There is no place the divine ends and I begin.
Inseparable.
From the creator and the creation.
I am.
Wow.
So inhalations as we rise higher and higher as the third eye opens and opens.
We're chanting,
Asking,
Ko hum,
Ko hum.
Oh.
And as you exhale,
Letting go of that which is not true self.
Feel the answer arise.
So.
.
.
Sound away.
For the last few moments.
Of this meditation.
Be very sure for just 2-3 minutes.
To not move the physical body at all.
Don't fidget.
Don't shift.
Try not to even shift the balance of your weight.
Stay as absolutely physically still as you can,
Only the breath.
Is moving.
And notice something very powerful.
As we begin.
We notice that we are.
Inhaling.
From the outer world to the inner world and that beautiful long inhalation upward.
With the chanting of koan.
That that sacred prana,
The breath,
Is coming from the outer world in.
Rising and rising.
And we notice that on the exhalation as we let go and drop deep.
With the mantra so high.
We notice that we are breathing from the inner to the outer.
So outer world is coming in on the inhalations.
An inner world is going out on the exhalation.
But as you hold this physical body very still.
Allow yourself for the next few moments.
To notice how that borders.
Between inner and outer.
Starts to dissolve.
That suddenly,
Softly There is no inner.
There is no out.
There's Jess.
The flow of breath.
Slowly and gently bring the palms of your hands together.
Heart center namaste and bow your head.
To that presence.
That pervasive presence of the divine.
In you.
As you.
Flowing through you.
Gently rub the palms of your hands against each other.
And press the palms of your hands into your closed eyes.
Slowly and gently.
Lower the hand.
And open the eyes.
