So just feel yourself here,
Bringing your mind and body together in the same place.
And just breathe naturally,
You don't have to manipulate your breath in any way,
Just become aware of your breathing.
And let us drop the anchor into our depths.
Whatever that means to you,
Drop the anchor to the place within you that is not affected,
Not affected by these waves of the world,
By these changing opinions,
Judgments,
Thoughts.
This deep place is deeper than thought.
You know,
If you like,
You can try to imagine a time,
A moment in your life when you really felt confident,
When you felt trusting in yourself,
When you felt deeply connected to yourself.
Whatever that means to you.
Maybe a moment when you really felt free in nature,
Or happy in nature,
Or with an animal,
Or listening to a piece of music,
Or in silence,
Or just sitting with someone that you love.
A moment when you really felt connected to your own depth.
And if you can't think of any particular image or memory,
Don't worry.
This isn't meant to be a stressful exercise.
We're just calling upon that energy and that quality of confidence and self-trust.
What part of you trusted yourself enough to come here today?
What inner knowing,
For whatever reason,
Brought you here?
Can you trust that?
When we dwell on the surface of ourself,
We get knocked over by the wind,
We get knocked over by the waves.
But when we go inside and we allow those thought forms to become quiet,
That's what yoga is.
Yoga is the quieting of the movements of our mind.
Yoga is the cessation of the movement of the mind.
When we go down below those thoughts,
There's a quietness there.
When a tree is blowing in the wind,
It's the deep roots under the ground that stop it from falling over.
It allows the branches to be flexible and to move and flow in the wind because the roots are deep.
So in that place of that deep rootedness within yourself,
Just call to mind all of the beauty within you.
Maybe you think,
Oh,
I can't find that,
I can't see it.
But no,
It's there.
That goodness within you.
That you have conviction,
That you know that you trust the purity of your heart,
The goodness of your heart.
No matter what may happen in life,
That original goodness,
That basic goodness within us is there.
I'm going to read you a poem from Rumi that is really,
Really beautiful.
That I think sums up what we can do,
What we need to do to connect to that root within us.
The root of the root of our own soul.
Maybe some of you have heard this before.
I've read it before.
And I want you to listen to this if you feel like it as a meditation.
And the way that we can become free from that opinion prison is by returning to that root of the root of our soul.
That knows our goodness,
That trusts in who we are and that is not affected by the movements of thoughts.
Either ours or other people's.
It's called We Can See the Truth in Your Eyes.
For ages you have come and gone,
Courting delusion.
For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy.
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
Although you appear in earthly form,
Your essence is pure consciousness.
You are the fearless guardian of divine light.
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
When you lose all sense of self,
The bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.
Lose yourself completely.
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
You descended from Adam by the pure word of God,
But you turned your sight to the empty show of this world.
Alas,
How can you be satisfied with so little?
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you?
Open your eyes and come.
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
You were born from the rays of God's majesty when the stars were in their perfect place.
How long will you suffer from the blows of a non-existent hand?
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
You are a ruby encased in granite.
How long will you deceive us with this outer show?
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
After one moment with that glorious friend,
You became loving,
Radiant,
And ecstatic.
Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.
Come,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
Shamsi Tabrizi,
The king of the tavern,
Has handed you an eternal cup,
And God in all his glory is pouring the wine.
So come,
Drink,
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
You are a ruby encased in granite.
So come,
Return to the root of the root of your soul.
When we return to that ruby within us,
Nothing on the outside can affect that knowing or that connection.
So breathe into that place within you,
That root of the root of your soul.
That place that just says,
I am.
I am that I am.
I am not this.
I am not that.
I am not this thought,
This opinion,
This judgment.
I simply am.
I am beyond all polarities,
Beyond all dualities.
That is really who we are.
And in that place of I am-ness,
That is a place of true confidence in ourself.
I am not this thing or that thing,
But I am that,
With a capital T.
I am that place which is beyond all opinions.
I am that place which is beyond all judgments,
All worries about what other people think,
All projections,
All perceptions.
I am that beyond that.
I am the sky unaffected by the clouds.
The sky doesn't mind the clouds moving through.
It knows that its true nature is not a cloud.
It is the sky.
When we identify with ourself,
With a capital S,
We know that all of these things that are moving in the world can't touch that.
It can't touch or defile that goodness within,
That light within.
I am that.
I am that sky.
I am that depth,
That root of the root of my soul.
So hum.
So hum.
I am that.
Just to connect with this beautiful mantra,
By breathing and attuning our being to the sound,
Doing a short ajapa practice together,
Where we align our breathing with this mantra.
So when you breathe in,
You can feel the sound,
Soul.
And on the exhalation,
Hum.
Breathing in,
Soul.
Exhale,
Hum.
In your own rhythm,
Soul.
Hum.
Feel soul on the inhale.
Feel hum on the exhale.
I am that.
I am that,
Which is beyond likes and dislikes,
Beyond good and bad,
Beyond high and low.
I am that.
I am that is not affected by any opinion,
Whether our own or others.
So may we come back again and again to the root of the root of our soul.
To that abode,
That refuge of trust and confidence in ourself.
That place that is unperturbed by any of the changing weather.
And let us all be self-assured,
Assured and confident within our own true self.
By quieting down the noise and returning to this heart of ours.
