Welcome to our meditation time.
I invite you to honor the fact that you have shown up to your practice today and just allow yourself to be.
Whatever just being looks like for you,
Do that.
Maybe that means you lie down and you stretch out.
Maybe that means you pause wherever you are and let the activity become still.
Maybe that means that you sit up tall and you cross your legs and you lengthen your spine.
There really is not one right way.
Choose the way that works for you.
Allow yourself to find comfort,
To find ease,
And to find just a bit of respite from the busyness of life.
As we begin,
Let's take a few breaths in together,
Just really allowing ourselves to enter each present moment.
So from deep in your belly,
Slow breath in,
And ever so gently,
Let it go.
From deep in your belly,
Breathing in,
Ever so gently,
Release it out.
One more breath together.
In.
One more breath together.
Out.
Today our practice is focused on the wisdom offered to us in Yoga Sutra 1.
32.
One translation of this sutra says,
The practice of concentration on a single object is the best way to prevent the obstacles.
The practice of concentration on a single object is the best way to prevent the obstacles.
2,
500 years ago,
The obstacles Patanjali was talking about are the same obstacles getting in our way of our peace and our stillness today.
These are not the perceived obstacles around us in the world.
Rather,
These are the obstacles within us.
When we don't take control of where we're focused,
Where we're concentrating,
Where our energy is going,
We actually create obstacles for ourselves.
We don't set out to create these obstacles in our lives.
But in this Yoga Sutra,
Patanjali is teaching us that we must be intentional.
We must notice where and to what we give our energy so that we don't allow new obstacles to form within.
But how?
Patanjali teaches that when we learn to concentrate on one single object,
We learn how not to create the obstacles for ourselves.
And while these teachings come from India,
We see so many other spiritual traditions telling us the very same thing,
Encouraging us to stop contributing to our own suffering,
Advising us to stop doing things that bring us pain,
Encouraging us to make choices about where our energy goes and choices about where we focus.
Patanjali went on to say in many more sutras to follow,
Let me tell you some ways to lessen the power of these obstacles.
Let me show you how to remove them,
And even better,
How to prevent them in the first place.
But through all of these sutras,
The one thing that he returns to again and again and again is the practice.
He says if you want to remove the obstacles,
If you want to stop allowing in more,
Commit to the practice.
Commit to the showing up.
And what a beautiful thing we all get to experience right here in this moment.
Showing up.
Together.
Collectively.
Each of us in our own space.
Concentrating on a single object.
Lessening the obstacles within us.
And while we do know that this practice is the vehicle,
How do we know where to concentrate?
Perhaps we concentrate on reciting a verse or a scripture.
Maybe we concentrate on a picture of a dear teacher in our lives.
Perhaps we concentrate on the flicker of a candle flame or on the bead of your rosary or your mala.
Each of these are incredible,
Beautiful tools that we have available to us in this practice.
But the most accessible tool,
The one that we take everywhere that we go,
Is the breath.
It's always there.
It's always with us.
We can follow the breath in.
We can follow the breath out.
One of the great teachers,
Ram Dass,
Teaches that if you try to do that,
Follow the breath,
And your mind wanders,
You have two choices.
Follow where the mind goes and the meditation is over.
Or notice the mind wandering and come right back to the breath.
It really is about our choices.
It's within us to make them again and again and again.
So let's practice today.
No candle flame.
No beads in our hand.
No photograph to concentrate on.
Just this breath.
This beautiful,
Life-giving force within.
Let's concentrate there.
And if it feels right for you,
I invite you to put one hand on your belly and the other on your heart,
So that as you're watching the breath with your mind's eye,
You're feeling it on a physical level moving through your body.
Let the placement of your hands serve as an anchor,
This tangible connection to the present moment.
Breathing in.
Noticing the hands are gently lifting up.
Breathing out.
Notice the sensation of release.
Breathing in.
Noticing you are breathing in.
Breathing out.
Noticing you're breathing out.
Breathing in.
Noticing you're breathing in.
Breathing out.
Noticing you're breathing out.
I notice the breath coming in.
I notice the breath going out.
Continue to notice.
And continue to bring yourself back if your mind tries to move from this place of concentration.
You choose.
You choose to come back.
And let the object of your concentration be that next breath coming in.
And so just continue to breathe where you are.
Continue to be in a way that feels right for you.
Continue to give your energy to this object of concentration.
This next breath coming in.
Notice the next breath coming in.
Notice that breath going out.
Patanjali assures us that the practice of concentration on a single object is the best way to prevent the obstacles.
The practice of concentration on a single object is the best way to prevent the obstacles.
In this moment,
I choose to concentrate on my breath.
And as we close our practice today,
I encourage you to continue to use your other tools of concentration as they are available.
Your mala.
Your rosary.
That special photograph.
That candle flame.
Whatever offers you an anchor for your concentration.
And then remembering,
As you move away from those things physically,
You're taking the breath with you.
Allow it to be the object of your concentration everywhere that you go.
Encountering an obstacle,
The breath is there.
Noticing that obstacle attempting to distract us.
The breath is there.
The breath is always there.
Namaste.
