Hello,
And welcome to the meditation I call Opening to Awareness,
Light,
And Peace.
In this meditation,
We will follow a sequence that first grounds you in the clarity of open awareness,
Then accesses the pranic energy or life force in the spine,
Then builds the concentration through the breath,
And finally drops you into deeper levels of stillness and into the unity of self and awareness,
Which is the dropping away of the separate identified self through surrender into deeper levels of consciousness.
This state merging the separate self with awareness is also called samadhi in the yogic traditions.
Before we begin,
Make sure that you're in a comfortable and quiet place for meditation.
Rest your hands,
Palms cupped lightly in your lap,
With one hand resting lightly on top of the other and the tips of your thumbs touching lightly.
Lightly close your eyes and bring to mind your intention for your practice.
Imagine that you are sitting beside great meditation masters and teachers and call upon them for guidance and support.
Feel that you are truly sitting among them and that together you are being held in a loving and supportive community,
All working to raise the consciousness of humanity for the benefit of all beings.
Now focus down into the soles of your feet,
Feeling the sensations of your feet with the ground,
And allow your feet and toes to soften and relax as if they are melting into the earth.
Feel into the sensations of your sit bones resting in the chair or cushion and feel the subtle aliveness of your body.
Allow your hands and fingers,
Your shoulders,
Your chest all to soften and relax,
Releasing any tension.
Allow the muscles in your face to relax,
Your eyes,
Your cheeks and your jaw.
And allow the tip of the tongue to rest lightly on the roof of your mouth and soften and relax your tongue.
Tuck your chin just slightly so that you are gently lengthening the back of your neck.
And imagine that there is a string attached to the top of your head,
Pulling your spine gently upright so you feel vertical spaciousness in your spine.
Now turn your attention inward.
Should any thought or feeling or image appear,
Simply let it be.
See thoughts and feelings as clouds passing by,
But you are not passing by.
There is nothing you need to hold on to.
There's nothing to change.
There is nothing to control about what is happening in this moment.
You're not waiting.
You're not expecting or striving.
So you feel an effortless presence of your own being,
Simply allowing everything to be as it is.
This is so simple and so natural.
This never came and it cannot go.
You are the stillness at the heart of all movement.
The unchanging inside all changefulness.
Allow yourself to really feel the peace that passes all understanding.
It's a knowing,
A deep inner knowing that you are fundamentally whole,
Perfect,
And good.
That the nature of your being is love,
That it could never be any different.
No matter what passes on the external,
That the ground of your being is stable,
Is fundamentally whole.
Let this peace infuse every cell in your body with a deep inner knowing that all is well.
Forever and ever,
All is well.
And in that goodness and wholeness,
We'll begin working with the pranic or life force energy in the body.
So we'll begin by squeezing the muscles at the base of the spine in the perineum and draw the energy up through the spine to the top of the head on the in-breath.
Pause at the top of the head at the Ajna chakra between the eyes for just a few seconds and then allow the energy to fall or tumble or surrender down along the spine back to the base to the perineum,
Which is a single cycle of this central channel breathing.
So let's do this together again.
Squeeze,
Breathe up through the spine,
Pause,
Hold at the Ajna chakra,
And then on the exhale,
Release the breath down the back of the spine.
And you may do this with your mouth open or closed,
Whatever feels most comfortable for you.
Let's do this again.
And we're going to breathe this breath together 14 times.
So let's begin now.
Keep this breathing going at your own pace in your own time.
Tingling you are Fuck You,
Focus What's really important is to just feel the breath in the spine.
Whatever sensations you are feeling is perfect.
You might feel energy at the top of your head.
Feel the energy tingling and pulsing like an electric current.
Feel the energy tingling and pulsing like an electric current.
And now you can relax the central channel breathing and simply become fully present with sensations in the body.
And we will begin three-point breathing.
So follow the breath all the way in on the inhale,
Noticing the pause and all the way out on the exhale.
Hold your attention on the breath,
Carefully following it and tending to it as if nothing was more important in the entire world.
If your mind wanders away from the breath,
It's not a problem,
Just bring your attention gently back to the breath.
Some people find it helpful to add an internal chant to this three-point breath.
So you might say,
So on the inhale and hum on the exhale.
Do what is most comfortable and helpful for you.
Simply an invitation for you to try.
Your attention should be like an unbroken stream of oil being poured from a container on the meditation object.
Penetrate deeper.
Surrender deeper.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Listen to the silence underneath all sound.
Remember that the meditation doesn't end when we get up from the chair or cushion.
Life itself is a meditation.
How we do anything is how we do everything.
Make this your practice.
Can you stay grounded in awareness?
Can you keep one eye or two eyes on the inside so that you're not pulled around by the outer experience but you're anchored in the stability that you've touched into here in meditation?
And can you master the art of learning to live grounded in this stability?
It's a gift not only to yourself but to everyone that touches your life and your path.
I thank you so much for your meditation and until next time,
Namaste.
