Let's settle in for our time today.
Your eyes can be open or closed.
If you decide to close them,
You can gently do so now.
Feeling into the eyes and the muscles behind the eyes,
And you can allow them to soften.
And embody your own awake and receptive posture.
Remember the attitude of a flower inching its way towards the sun to receive its energy.
And now let's do some cycle breathing together.
Breathing in,
Up through the body,
And out,
Down through the body.
So breathing out,
Everything,
Then and there.
And breathing in,
Here and now.
And now just settle in to the natural rhythm of the breath.
So now resettle your body.
Notice if anything has tightened up,
Any particular patterns of habit energy flaring up.
And just notice them.
Say hi,
And come back.
So let's begin the message for today with a quote from Fred Rogers on love and infinity.
Here's the quote.
Love is like infinity.
You can't have more or less infinity.
You can't compare two things to see if they're equally infinite.
Infinity just is.
And that's the way I think love is too.
Love and infinity.
I see love in its purest form as like oil buried deep beneath the earth's surface.
And when we get quiet and drill down deep enough,
We hit it.
And it comes shooting to the surface.
Not just shooting,
But it's shooting.
And it comes shooting to the surface.
Not just directed at one thing,
But pouring out in all directions.
For the people in our lives,
For the people we don't know,
Even for the people we otherwise dislike or hate even.
When we tap into this feeling,
It shoots out and it touches everything.
And now I'll share an anecdote in relation to this feeling from my own life.
But first,
Let's reconnect with the breath just for a moment.
So a few deep,
Intentional inhales and exhales.
Breathing out all the way and then coming back into just here and now.
Drink all of this in on the inhale.
And here's a personal anecdote related to drilling down to that infinity love feeling.
And the story references a Zen monastery that I go and practice at sometimes.
And I feel compelled to say that I don't identify as Buddhist per se.
But I do appreciate any opportunity to go and deeply practice meditation and self-awareness.
And this is one training ground that I've found incredibly useful.
So I was visiting and practicing at this Zen monastery.
And as I was practicing there,
Sitting for hours and hours of meditation each day,
I was struggling.
I was struggling to focus on my breath.
I was struggling with the physical pain of sitting for hours.
My separate self was thinking,
You might not be able to do this any longer.
But somehow I kept going.
I kept returning despite my wishes to stop.
To move,
To get up,
And go somewhere else.
At one point in the midst of my frustration,
I heard birds outside the meditation hall.
And I was honestly annoyed by them.
They were distracting me.
In my mind I thought,
Why can't they just shut up and let me focus?
It was as if there was this circle surrounding me.
And I wanted everything to stay away from the circle and just let me be.
You might have had an experience like this,
Maybe even here with me.
And then something kind of amazing happened.
And the best way I can describe it is as if the circle flipped.
It became inverted.
The circle that was surrounding me,
Keeping me inside and the world outside,
Became open.
And in that state,
Nothing was wrong because I was not apart from anything.
Like the door of me was open.
And now the bird sounds passed right through me.
I was an open container for them.
And it felt so beautiful.
That to me is like drilling down through the earth to find an unending reservoir of love.
One of my favorite thinkers,
Alan Watts,
Described this state when he said,
Experiences move through this state of consciousness as tracklessly as reflections of flying birds on water.
So thoughts,
Sensations,
All of it just arising and passing.
And you're watching it all unfold.
You're just watching.
And yet you're part of it at the same time.
You're like one nerve ending of the whole universe.
Can you feel it?
And so let's feel into the connection between the physical body and surrounding space.
And then we'll also include our feeling of connection with others in our lives.
And now feel into your skin.
And feel into the connection between your skin and the space surrounding you.
Feel the swirling ball of energy mingling with the energy of the room.
And beyond the room,
Feel the connection between you and all of space.
And now call to mind a few faces,
Those you deeply care about in your life.
And feel into your connection with these important people.
And allow one of these people to become your object of attention for a moment.
Whoever it is,
Just allow it to be that way.
No concern about ranking or order of importance.
Just allow one person to come to the front of your mind.
And now just connect to your deepest wishes for this person.
And maybe even beyond the wishes of words,
But just the feeling that you want to send to them.
A feeling that communicates you're good.
You are good enough.
I wish you goodness.
I want you to see all of the good I see in you.
And to feel it.
And you might even embody the sensation of a hug for this person.
A deeply genuine,
Warm hug.
What does that feel like?
Now see if you can take that same feeling and that same basic message.
Send it out slightly and then direct it back toward yourself.
It may be easy to do this for others,
But harder to do this genuinely for ourselves.
So just see now if you can connect with that genuine,
Deep feeling of goodness toward yourself.
Embody the feeling of a hug for you.
Might sound corny,
Might sound contrived,
But let all of that go and provide yourself the feeling of a deep,
Warm hug.
And you could even give yourself a hug physically with your arms if you feel willing.
I love to do this.
Now drill down toward that deepest part of you,
Toward that infinity,
That well of love.
And however you feel it,
Let it rise up and shoot out of you in all directions.
Feel it bursting from you.
Feel back into that connection with all of space surrounding you.
One nerve ending of the entire universe.
You might think of each person and each thing as having a numerator.
And also having a denominator.
And each of their numerators are different.
But their denominator is the same.
And that denominator can be referred to as infinity or love.
Try to see both the numerator and the denominator in everything.
And you can take a few more intentional deep breaths,
Letting go completely on the exhale.
And if your eyes were closed,
You can gently open them now,
Taking all of this newness that comes rushing in.
And I hope you feel my love and appreciation for you as a whole human being.
Have a great day.
