Hello and welcome to the guided meditation,
Taking Back and Dissolving Projections.
This meditation accompanies the audio course Healing Our Shadow in the Mindfulness in Depth series.
It can be used on its own,
But I recommend that you listen to that course for more background if you haven't already.
This recording is a brief version of the meditation,
Which includes short periods of silence between the contemplations.
If you have more time,
Feel free to pause at any of those points of silence that feel especially important for your practice today.
The purpose of this meditation is to engage in shadow work by interacting with the targets of our psychological projection consciously in our imagination.
By working with them in this way,
We discover that our experience of these other people in our lives is not a purely objective one,
But is tinged with our shadow.
This is why these people tend to have an emotional hold on us,
Whether positively in the form of attraction or idolization,
Or negatively with feelings like dislike or demonization.
This practice draws inspiration from Carl Jung's active imagination technique,
Lama Tsultrim's feeding your demons,
And Ken Wilber's 3-2-1-0 shadow work practice.
To begin,
Please find a comfortable meditation posture.
I'll guide a brief body scan to help you center your awareness in your body.
Begin by finding the sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves your body,
And then allow that awareness to radiate outwards until it permeates your entire body from head to toe.
And now move that awareness to the crown of your head,
Tuning into the feeling at the very top of your head.
And focusing your awareness there,
Then allowing it to gently melt down into the center of your head.
And now,
As you're moving your awareness,
I want you to focus on the crown of your head.
And then allowing it to gently melt down,
Slowly moving your awareness through your face,
Relaxing all of the muscles,
Relaxing your expression,
Relaxing your expression.
As your awareness moves down through your neck,
Your shoulders,
Into your arms and torso,
Feeling your heart chakra in the middle of your chest,
Opening up.
As the awareness moves into your belly and hips,
Feeling your weight sink completely into the chair or cushion,
And then allowing your awareness to scan through your legs all the way down to your feet.
And then zooming your awareness out,
Once again,
Encapsulate your entire body,
Head to toe,
Bones to skin.
You may pause here if you'd like to spend more time in your body before moving on.
To prepare to interact with the object of your projection,
You'll now spend some time developing the three C's in your awareness.
Confrontation,
Curiosity,
And compassion.
Confrontation gives you a sense of strength and determination when approaching the projection.
Curiosity gives you a sense of openness and inquisitiveness that allows you to learn from the projection and treat this interaction as a process of discovery.
Last,
Compassion gives you warmth and understanding toward the person that you have a projection on,
Suspending any judgment or preconceived notion that you may have.
I'll leave you with a minute in silence to cultivate these three awarenesses.
Thank you.
Now we'll begin the main practice,
Which is to bring the person who you project on into your imagination as if you're face-to-face with them.
This presumes that you've done some shadow work as described in the course and identified some of your projections,
Whether positive or negative.
If you're working with a projection on a group of people,
Imagine a single representative emerges to interact with you.
Tune into the emotional feeling that the person elicits by moving your awareness into your body.
Remember that the person in your imagination is not the actual person.
They are appearing right now as a mirror for the complex in your shadow that is projected onto them.
They are here to help you learn more about yourself.
I'll give you a minute in silence here to sit with the object of your projection.
Remember that if sitting with this image that arises feels unsafe in any way,
You can let go of the imagination and return your awareness to your breath to regulate.
Now that you're face-to-face with your complex,
You can engage in the essential part of this practice,
Which is to enter into relationship with this projected form of your complex.
If you're not sure where to begin,
You can ask simple questions like,
Why are you here?
Or What do you have to teach me?
Remember to maintain a curious yet compassionate presence and listen to what the other figure has to say.
Do your best to let go of any thoughts that you're just talking to yourself.
The point is to get in touch with a part of yourself that you don't often acknowledge consciously.
This person is holding some gold that is essential to your wholeness.
You may want to journal the conversation as it unfolds,
Or you can capture it afterwards.
I'll give you two minutes of silence here,
But since this interaction can go on for some time,
Feel free to pause if you need more time.
You may also end the practice here if you feel like you've gotten what you need.
You you you you In the next stage of the practice,
Imagine that you're able to switch places with the person in your imagination.
Imagine that you become them and are now looking back at your usual self.
Now,
Speak to your former self from their perspective.
You can answer the questions that were asked or carry on the conversation from their point of view.
For example,
You may start by saying,
I'm here because.
.
.
Or,
I'm here to teach you.
.
.
Try this for the next two minutes of silence and see what emerges.
Again,
You may want to journal what's said in the imaginal interaction.
You you you you The final step is to dissolve away our imaginal forms and projections.
While the imagined interaction may have been intense or stirred a lot of feelings,
Now you remember their ultimate nature,
Which according to Buddhist philosophy,
Is emptiness,
A lack of inherent existence.
To engage in this practice,
You let go of all your imagined forms and interactions and allow them to dissolve away,
Just like last night's dream slipping away as you wake.
As you let go of everything,
Feel as though you're moving deeper towards your root awareness.
I'll leave you to practice this non-dual awareness for a minute.
You you That brings us to the conclusion of the meditation.
To gradually emerge from the practice,
Please take a minute to return your awareness to your body.
This time,
Beginning with the extremities of your hands and feet,
Wiggling them to indicate that you will be coming out of meditation.
And then gradually allowing your awareness to move through your arms and legs towards the center of your body,
Until your attention is gathered in the center of your chest at your heart.
From here,
You can gradually reconnect with the feeling of the breath as it enters and leaves your body.
Now,
Please gently arise from your meditation,
Open your eyes,
And take a deep breath.
If you didn't journal during the interaction,
Now is a good time to capture what you remember.
Thank you.
