Aum Shanti.
Welcome.
This practice will be about 40 minutes and it will concern helping us work with duality by having simultaneous awareness of the root and the crown.
So we'll do some preparatory practices to begin and then I'll walk us through the instructions and as with most of these meditations we will sit quietly for about 20 minutes after we've done the preparatory practices.
So we're going to begin with an internal Aum to create a more suffocating mind and then we'll do some breathing practice.
So we'll spend a few minutes with our Aum.
So in your comfortable seat,
Spine long,
Shoulders relaxed.
Begin in your mind repeating the sound Aum.
Aum.
Aum.
Have any pace or length of the Aum you would like.
See if you can find a rhythm that works with for you and we'll sit for about five minutes repeating the sound Aum to ourselves.
Good and then let's let that mantra go.
Let that Aum go.
Sometimes it repeats on its own and that's fine.
Next we'll take some complete three-part breaths and we're going to pause after the exhalation.
We'll do this for a few minutes.
So we're going to inhale,
Feel the belly expand and a nice long slow exhalation.
So let's all do that together.
Inhale,
Abdomen,
Ribs,
Chest expand and exhale.
Chest,
Ribs,
Abdomen contract.
Nice long slow breaths like that with the exhalation a little bit longer than the inhalation.
So we're going to take a few minutes and we'll sit with that for a few minutes.
And once you find your rhythm pause a little after the exhale.
So at the end of your exhale create a little pause and then nice inhales.
Maybe the pause is just one or two seconds.
Followed by just a gentle pause and we'll sit with that for a few minutes.
Good and then let that breath simply go.
Feel yourself relaxed sitting on the floor.
Next we'll watch our breath come down the front of our spine and find that orb of awareness just below our pelvic floor.
So inhaling through the nose watch the breath come down the front of your spine and imagine you're breathing into an area just below your pelvic floor.
Maybe it's a circular orb like shape and then exhaling out the nose.
So it doesn't have to be a really lengthened breath just simply inhale all the way down.
Mind sits in that orb for just a second and then exhale all the way up the spine and out the nose.
And whatever pace is comfortable for you is fine.
We're going to sit with that practice for a few minutes to find that root.
Inhale to the root exhale out the nose.
Good and we can let that practice go for a moment.
And now we'll simply inhale down the front of the spine and as we exhale follow the breath all the way up the front of the spine through the upper palate through the third eye area and out the crown of your head and imagine that breath going right above your head and pause after the exhale there and then simply inhale down the front of the spine.
So on each exhalation watch the breath move up your spine out the crown of your head and then find with your mind's eye an area just above your head that your mind will easily sit with.
So one more time inhaling all the way down and then exhaling up the spine out the top of the head and simply pausing with that awareness for a moment and we'll sit with that for a few minutes.
And now we'll allow the mind to connect the root and the crown so as you breathe in just like you did before all the way down the spine to the root and as you exhale follow the breath up all the way out the top of the head as you've been doing to the crown.
So that's our practice breathing down breathing down into the root and exhaling real gently following the breath out the top of the head to the crown.
And you can sit going back and forth like that until you'd like to try doing both at the same time.
So let's all do that together just for a moment.
Let the breath go and simply allow the awareness to sit at the root and the crown simultaneously.
And if you can stay with that awareness simply stay as long as that's possible for you and if you find that challenging then simply go back to breathing down to the root and then exhaling all the way to the crown of the head.
Do that for some time and then try it again root and crown simultaneously.
And that's our practice for the day.
We're going to sit like this for a little while and then I'll cue you when it's time to come out simultaneously root and crown or simply going back and forth.
Oh now please return to your spine breath inhaling down to the pelvic floor exhaling out your nose or through the top of your head.
Let's take a few breaths like this together inhaling down exhaling up inhaling down and exhaling up a couple more breaths on your own timing allowing the spine breath to bring you back into your body and let's bring our palms together in front of our hearts bowing to the oneness that connects us all and our own heart namaste
