Welcome to The Daily Insight.
My name is Vijaymala Bhattach and today's meditation is going to be focused on cultivating a sense of flowing and loving.
One of my spiritual teachers died about a week ago and I'd like to dedicate this meditation to her.
Her name was Ratnashiri,
She was 96 and she was a remarkable woman.
I was thinking about her qualities,
What is it that really stood out in her and I think she had a real sense of of the impermanent,
Changing,
Fluid nature of everything,
Both within us and in the world around us.
And she was also a very loving person.
So these will be the qualities that we focus on today together.
So to begin with let's settle down into our position,
Our meditation posture,
Whether we're sitting,
Whether we're standing or whether we're lying.
Taking a few deeper breaths,
Sending on each out breath,
Really allow the weight to settle down into gravity.
Feeling down into the points of contact,
Surrendering the weight of the body up to gravity.
And let's begin to drop our awareness very deep in the body and to rest right inside all the movements and sensations of breathing.
Seeing if we can allow the belly to be soft,
Expanding on the in-breath,
Subsiding on the out-breath.
And seeing if we can allow breathing to express itself in the back of the body,
As well as the front of the body.
Feeling movements in the lower back and the upper back as we breathe.
And what about your thoughts?
Your thoughts that may feel so solid,
Stuck even,
Dense.
Let's turn our attention to our thoughts.
What are you thinking right now?
Maybe you're thinking about the meditation or maybe you're thinking about something entirely unrelated.
If that's the case be careful not to give yourself a hard time,
It's completely normal for the mind to wander.
But let's examine the nature of thoughts.
Perhaps noticing a little bit more clearly and directly,
How our thoughts are also always changing,
Just like the breath.
So instead of our thinking states or our mental states seeming solid,
Real,
True,
Let's see if we can relate to them as mental events flowing through the mind.
A traditional image is that they're like clouds flowing across the blue sky of awareness.
And rather than focusing on the content of our thoughts so much,
We can focus on their ephemeral,
Fleeting,
Impermanent nature.
We can let them come,
We can let them go,
Just like clouds passing across the blue sky of awareness.
Or another metaphor or image is we can imagine that awareness is like a vast limitless ocean,
Still and deep,
And our thoughts are like little fish swimming through the ocean,
Swimming through the mind,
Always moving,
Never stuck,
Never static.
So what we're doing here is we're releasing the hold of our thoughts and we're resting back with more ease,
More gentleness,
More perspective.
Letting them come,
Letting them go,
Letting them come,
Letting them go.
And what about your emotional state?
Again,
Sometimes our emotional state can seem so solid.
If we feel low,
Anxious,
Worried,
These states have got a certain kind of felt density,
Solidity.
But let's examine them a little bit more closely and what you'll find is that there's always movement in these states.
They're not as stark and solid as they seem.
Breathing into the heart area,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing soft,
Breathing flowing,
And seeing if this can loosen up how we relate to our present emotional state.
Likewise,
If our emotions are positive and buoyant,
Enjoy them and see into their fluid,
Open,
Expansive nature.
And now broadening our awareness,
Being aware of the whole body,
Our emotional weather,
Our mental events,
And breathing.
And now seeing if we can bring a quality of care,
Of kindliness,
Even love,
Towards ourselves with each in and out breath.
As we breathe in,
Allowing the whole body,
The whole mind,
The whole heart to be bathed in kindliness,
And as we breathe out,
Allowing this kindliness to pour right inside all the different parts of us.
An image that I find evocative is to bring to mind a breeze on a summer's day,
And the breeze is quite naturally warmed by the heat of the sun,
The brightness of the sun,
And we can allow our breathing to likewise be warmed by a quality of care,
Of love,
Of brightness.
So each breath in and out bathes and saturates a whole being with a little bit more softness,
A little bit more care,
A little bit more ease,
Always making sure that we allow the out breath to flow all the way out of the body,
And then the in breath quite naturally to flow in again.
As we bring the meditation to a close,
Forming an intention to take this quality of softness,
Of ease,
Of care into our day,
Allowing the breathing to flow,
Our thoughts to flow,
Our emotions to flow.
So we move from being more contracted or stuck to more open and loving and flowing.
I hope you have a great day.
