Body Is The Prayer Meditation

A short meditation that focuses on the breath as a prayer and an offering to the greater consciousness.
This class opens with a quote from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the sacred scriptures of India. The Gita is a part of the epic Mahabharata, which dates back to the second half of the first millennium BCE. In the text, Arjuna is standing on the battlefield with his charioteer, Krishna, God of Compassion.

To Arjuna, Lord Krishna says:
“I am the ritual and the worship, the medicine and the mantra, the butter burnt in the fire, and I am the flames that consume it. I am the beginning and the end, origin and dissolution, refuge, home, true lover, womb and imperishable seed.”
- The Bhagavad Gita, Translation by Stephen Mitchell.

Transcript

Find a seat of your choice. Once you get there, Just close your eyes and we'll meet there. Once you find your seat, Just deepening your breath, Allowing yourself to arrive onto your mat, Into this practice, Into the sangha, This community. I am the ritual and the worship. I am the medicine and the mantra. I am the butter burnt in the fire and the flames that consume it. I am the beginning and the end, The origin and the dissolution. I am the ritual and the worship. The medicine and the mantra. The butter burnt in the fire and I am the flames that consume it. I am the beginning and the end, The origin and the dissolution. This is a quote from one of my favorite books, The Bhagavad Gita. Essentially, It's a conversation between who we think we are and who we really are. Some would say ourselves and the divine inside of us. Krishna is representing the divine inside of us and reminding Arjuna as well as us that we are both the ritual and the worship. The medicine and the mantra. The butter burnt in the flame and the fire that consumes it. We are the beginning and the end, The origin and the dissolution. You are the inhale and the exhale. The body that contains the breath as it comes in and you're also connected to what is around you. The offering as we move today is to allow our practice, The physical postures to be the prayer, To be the offering. So that we are not only the person doing the prayer, But we are the prayer itself. We are the offering itself. And the only piece that is now missing is what it is that we are offering to. So I'd like us to dedicate our practice to something or someone. Whatever shows up first is perfect. And then envision either this being or this this thing sitting in front of you. We're just going to sit for about, I'd say, Five minutes and just allow our breath to be the prayer, To be the offering to this dedication. And as we inhale, We draw them in or draw it in. And as we exhale from our hearts, We offer ourselves to it or them. I am the ritual and the worship. The medicine and the mantra. The butter burnt in the fire and I am the flames that consume it. I am the beginning and the end. Origin and dissolution. I am the beginning and the end. I am the beginning and the end. I am the beginning and the end. Take a deep breath in. May this practice be an offering. May this breath be an offering. May our body be the prayer.