Merging with the Beloved

Cultivating motivation, grounding and centering as a foundation for opening the heart. Fill the compassionate heart. Visualize and merge with The Beloved.

Transcript

So we begin our practice by looking at our motivation.

Why are we here?

What is it we truly want?

Examining the Four Mind-Turning Truths,

Firstly,

That you will die,

But you don't know when that will be.

Death is certain,

The hour of death is uncertain.

We certainly know that in our minds,

But if we let that truth drop down into the center of who we are,

How does that affect the way we take the next breath,

Relate to the next emotion or sensation or thought?

You will die,

But you don't know when.

The second truth is that life is precious.

Each moment is precious.

This moment,

This present moment,

Is the only one in which we can awaken.

So given that the hour of death is uncertain and that life is precious,

How does that affect our aliveness,

Our willingness to plunge into the present to see what blocks our aliveness?

The third Mind-Turning Truth is that what we do think or say has a real effect.

A moment of doubt,

Of fear,

Of anger,

Has one effect,

A moment of compassion,

Of generosity,

Of mercy has another effect.

And finally,

There is suffering in this world.

A better translation of the Pali word is unsatisfactoriness.

The physical plane can never fully satisfy us for long.

Taking these four truths together,

Gathering them together,

Letting them penetrate to the very center of your being.

Let that motivate our practice and begin,

Please,

By invoking that which you trust,

That which is larger than that which the mind can understand,

That which is trustworthy,

The Buddha,

Dharma,

And Sangha,

The One Mind,

The Mother,

The Christ,

The Buddha.

Whatever name you give that form or quality of formlessness,

Spirit of Truth,

Invoke it from your heart so that when we encounter difficult experiences in our practice,

We can trust the fact that that which we have invoked is supporting our practice.

In fact,

We are not practicing alone,

We are practicing together so that we can proceed with courage,

With confidence.

And as the heart trusts,

As the heart calls out and trusts more and more,

The mind begins to let go its incessant grasping,

Allowing thoughts,

Sensations,

Emotions to arise,

But without the strong need to follow them.

In mind,

Trusting heart.

And let this trust then also permeate your body,

The body relaxing,

Opening,

Letting go,

Letting down,

Letting this relaxation deepen through the first developmental stage that a baby goes through after being born,

Which is learning to be grounded.

Imagine that the base of your torso relaxes and opens so you can breathe in,

Down through the base of your torso into the earth.

And as you breathe out,

You receive this grounding support of energy,

Energetically,

Emotionally,

With gratitude,

The mother supporting,

Nurturing.

The body invoking with each cell,

The earth,

The mother,

That which supports the element of solidness,

All the striving,

The pulling up,

Letting that be,

Letting that down.

So trusting body,

Trusting heart,

Trusting mind.

And then realizing this isn't just an energetic experience,

The grounding,

But it affects our emotional body,

Affects our mind,

The trust continues to deepen.

The lower part of our body feels more and more firm,

Stable,

Mountain-like,

Foundation from which to practice,

From which to let go.

And coming to the next stage then of being centered,

The belly centered down below your navel,

A few inches below your navel,

A few inches inside of your body,

So that as you breathe out,

Beginning of each exhalation,

As the breath is let go,

The part of the breath that is letting go rather than doing,

You let go down into the center of gravity of who you are,

Surrendering down below the mind that understands into the dark deep.

Letting the in-breath be natural and easy,

And then with each out-breath,

Being very aware of the out-breath down in this energetic center below your navel.

And in the surrender,

There may be difficult emotions or thoughts or bodily sensations that arise as we fall down below the level of the thinking mind.

The mind arises,

The tendency is to want to not be with whatever resistance there is to the surrender.

Wherever you find judgment or doubt,

Clinging,

Notice that and then with the next out-breath,

Surrender down into the belly.

Without any feeling that you need to quiet the mind or suppress the mind or quiet the emotions,

Allowing experience to arise naturally.

And yet the more one drops into the center,

The more we begin to experience from the center,

Allowing experience to unfold naturally,

Easily,

Without resistance.

The lower part of the body firm like a mountain.

Allowing these resistances,

If they're there,

To arise without impediment.

Being willing to be with them,

Be centered in relationship to them.

And then now coming up into your heart center,

The center of your chest,

Almost as if you had nostrils in the center of your chest and you could breathe directly into your heart.

So the energy that comes into the heart center is being received,

Not just as chi or shakti,

But as loving kindness,

As compassion,

Mercy.

Letting the foundation of being grounded and being centered give us the courage to let the heart become more and more vast,

More and more spacious with each breath.

Often we stop at an open heart that's a little more spacious and warm than usual.

But the true nature of the heart is total spaciousness.

How open,

How vulnerable will you allow the heartbeat in this moment?

Full belly supporting the heart.

Whatever arises,

Meeting it with mercy,

With kindness,

With compassion.

Floating in this heart space,

And with clear awareness of whatever it is that arises.

So the compassionate heart makes bearable,

Workable,

Whatever it is that arises as we surrender into our heart,

Into our belly.

And the belly creates a firm foundation so that we can trust this quality of spaciousness,

Openness.

In order to deepen this loving kindness,

This open heartedness,

Imagine in front of you that being or that quality which you trust the most,

Whatever form or formless aspect of the sacred that touches your heart most deeply,

Imagine that that is right in front of you,

That you are sitting in the presence of your beloved.

Your beloved being made out of a body of radiant,

Golden light,

This radiance pouring out,

Pouring onto you.

This being the embodiment of love,

Of wisdom,

Forgiveness of strength,

Whatever form that takes for you.

And as you feel this radiance pouring onto you,

Imagine from the forehead of this being comes a ray of clear light that comes into your body and purifies any resistance that you feel,

Any doubt,

Any blockage of energy that this light pours into you and fills each cell of your body so that any impurity that you might imagine was there is actually seen now to be as your pure nature,

As your true nature and that your body begins to also become a body of radiant light.

You can feel shimmering in your body this quality of love,

Compassion,

Of tenderness,

Openness,

Warmth,

Connectedness,

Realizing that in truth there is no distinction between your true nature and that of the beloved,

Of that being which can be trusted,

That your nature,

Your true nature,

The ground of your being can be fully trusted.

There is no impurity ultimately.

So whatever it is that is arising,

Happy thought,

Sad thought,

Pleasant bodily sensation,

Unpleasant,

Living,

Dying,

Agitated,

Calm,

All of this arising out of the ground of being which we all share even though there are different stories,

Different physical bodies,

One heart,

One consciousness.

Practice can become very simple,

Become non-practice resting in this wisdom.

Reviews

Wonderful. My audio cut out at 6 minutes left though.

Amazing, thank you 🙏

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was a break through meditation for me. More connected than I’ve found through any meditation. Namaste 🙏🏼

Oh, lovely. Ended without me being aware.

A beautiful experience. Thank you 🌼

Very helpful, interesting guidance.

Loved. Thank you.

Amazingly calming voice.

Beautiful guide inward

Great weaving together of 4 Nobel Truths, mindfulness, and Loving Kindness into one simple meditation.

Beautiful yet sad

That was wonderful - thank you 😊

I have listened to this again and again, and each time I feel clearer, and I follow it more fully. The ending is lovely; it allows me to rest with those final phrases settling into me. Thank you!

Amazing! This was a wonderful visualization and it left me in a beautiful state. Though the ending came unexpectedly, it allowed me to continue meditating as long as I wished.

This was beautiful. I will use this regularly now. Thank you.

I Will be practicing this often. Thank you so much for the wisdom

Very nurturing and relaxing meditation. Felt like I was letting go of a lot and tears came at the end. Will be coming back to this again. Thank you! 🙏💗