Rooted In The Storm: Finding Your Center

Is the power.

Of Pranayama.

The ancient art.

Of manipulating breathing.

To be able to relax the body.

Slow down the brain.

And open up the heart.

And today with an open heart,

We will dive into this practice of Rooted in the Storm.

Finding your center.

In the midst of chaos.

I want to start with the famous verse of the Bhagavad Gita which says in the silence of a quiet mind.

Candle.

In a windless place.

The self.

Will reveal the self.

To the self.

Let's say that one more time.

Like a candle.

In a windless place.

The silence of a quiet mind,

Like a candle in the windless place,

The self will reveal the self to the self.

Here's the irony my friends the entire world is rushing somewhere Doing,

Doing,

Doing.

Going,

Going,

Going.

And the journey.

That goes into your depth.

That you will ever take.

Requires you to create that place.

That's windless.

So what is this place that they were talking about?

In the fabled sermon of Bhagavad Gita.

That candle,

That flame,

The flickers of consciousness in the windless place of the mind.

You find?

That that stillness is created.

Within.

It's not by shutting off the orifices.

Shutting off the sense organs.

But it is a moment.

A step within.

And before you know it… you let That.

Stillness land.

So the most radical thing you can do in a world that will not sit still is to sit.

Still yourself.

Let's begin this journey within.

If you haven't already done so,

Ever so gently downshift your gaze,

Close your eyes.

Just like you would.

Close the door of a temple.

Having found it after years of searching.

And take a moment to settle in.

There's nothing outside to fix right now.

There's nothing to solve in the mind.

It's not a puzzle.

In fact,

You don't need to do anything or become anything or go anywhere.

Just for this next few minutes.

You simply will not perform.

Instead.

Assist arrive.

Survive into the awareness of our bodies.

No judgment.

Nothing to change here.

Just noticing.

Noticing what?

That you exist.

Against all the impossible mathematics of the cosmos.

You are here,

Given this body,

In this moment.

And this breath.

What a miracle.

The extraordinary thing is that outside of you,

The world is spinning.

Lots of notifications waiting.

People wanting things from you.

Deadline circling.

Old worries are pacing back and forth like restless guests who refuse to leave.

And yet.

.

.

You are here.

Still.

Present.

It's like a great ancient oak tree.

Somewhere in your being.

Its roots go deep.

Deep,

Deep into something that noise of the world cannot touch.

The mystics of every ancient tradition knew about this place.

The Sufis called it the heart behind the heart.

The Zen masters called it your original face.

The Vedantic sages called it Sakshi Drishta.

Witness.

The one who watches.

But is never shaken.

Dear one,

You have this place inside of you.

In fact,

You've always had it.

The storm did not create it,

And therefore.

.

.

A storm cannot.

Destroy it.

Or even disturb it.

So I want you now to imagine very gently that you are standing in the midst of a vast open field.

And in this field the winds are blowing.

Blowing hard.

These winds carry everything.

They carry the voices of the people who have doubted you.

They carry your own fears about the future.

They carry the weight of things left undone.

And the words left unsaid.

To carry the relentless hum of the world that measures your worth?

By your productivity.

Now feel those winds.

Don't pretend that they don't exist.

Spiritual maturity is not the denial of the storm.

But it's the refusal to become.

The storm.

Let that land for a second.

Now.

Look down,

Metaphorically.

Look down at your feet in this field.

And see that beneath you,

Beneath the soil,

Your roots are extending downward.

Silently.

Powerfully.

There's no need for anyone to applaud them.

Your roots are reaching into the earth of your own being.

Into the stillness that was here before you were born.

And will be here long after the last headline fades.

Every time you chose love when the easy thing was bitterness.

A root grew deeper.

Every time you sat with your own pain instead of numbing it.

A root.

Deeper.

Every time you forgave,

Not because they deserved it,

But because your freedom depended on it.

A root grew deeper.

You are far more anchored than you know.

And now,

Notice something beautiful.

The storm has not stopped.

But you.

.

.

You are not swaying the way you were before.

You are standing in the middle of it all.

In the sacred calm.

The sacred calm that's at the center of your being.

And that chaos.

Cannot.

Hatchet.

This is not avoidance.

This is presence.

There's a difference.

The tree does not fight the wind.

It does not argue with the seasons.

It does not post about the unfairness of the weather.

It simply stands.

Rooted.

Patient.

Alive.

Bending when it must.

Letting go of the leaves that no longer serve it.

And trusting.

Trusting.

That's the spring will return.

Can you trust like that?

Can you trust that deeply?

Because here is what I have learned on my own journey.

The storm is not your enemy.

The storm is your teacher.

The storm comes to show you where your roots need to grow.

It comes to reveal the branches of your life that are dead weight.

It comes to ask you the question that comfort never will.

Who are you?

When everything is shaking.

And the answer,

My dear one,

Is this.

You are the one.

Remains.

You are not your anxiety.

You are the awareness that notices the anxiety.

You are not your busyness.

You are the silence underneath the noise.

You are not the storm.

You are the sky.

Through which every storm passes.

Stay here for a moment.

Stay here in that knowing.

Not as a concept.

But as an experience.

Feel the unshakable ground of your own being.

Thank you.

Feel how spacious it is here.

Feel how,

In this place,

There is nothing to defend.

Nothing to prove.

And nothing to chase.

You are simply here.

And here is enough.

Now I'm going to speak three affirmations.

Let each one drop into the deepest part of you like a stone.

In still water.

It's not like I want you to try to believe them with your mind.

Try to recognize it with your heart.

Recognize which means what it already knows.

Here we go.

I'm not the chaos around me.

I am the stillness within me.

The center holes.

Even when the world does not.

Number two.

I do not need the storm to stop in order to find my peace.

My peace does not depend on my circumstances.

It depends on my remembrance.

Of who I truly am.

3.

I am rooted in something ancient.

Something fast.

Something unbreakable.

The winds of this world may bend me.

But they will never uproot me.

I was built for this.

Let that land.

You were built.

Or this.

As we're coming towards the end of this practice,

I want to leave you with a question.

Don't try to rush to answer it.

Just let it live inside you today.

If the peace you are searching for has been inside you all along.

What exactly?

Have you been running to word?

Said again,

If the peace you were searching for has been inside you all along,

What exactly have you been running toward?

Sit with that.

However,

So gently,

I want you to please bring your palms together in prayer position.

Anjani Mudra at your heart center.

Gently tucking the chin towards the heart space.

In a posture of gratitude.

For what we have received.

I want you to please rub your palms against each other.

The palms are an energy vortex and as you rub them,

You activate the chi or the prana,

The light energy.

And when you feel a nice warm ball of warmth welded between your palms,

I want you to go ahead and cup your eyes,

One with each palm,

And bless yourself.

I am truly blessed.

I'm lucky.

I'm very fortunate.

I attract wonderful people into my life.

Attract great ideas.

I attract wisdom.

Attract incredible opportunities.

I attract wealth.

I am guided by love.

I give everywhere I go,

Even if it's only a smile.

My abundance overflows to those around me.

I love my life.

I am the M in magic.

I'm unstoppable.

I welcome wealth into my life at the intersection of light and matter.

I welcome wealth into my life.

As a manifestation of truth,

Goodness and beauty.

I welcome wealth.

As life-giving life and life-sustaining life.

Now please bring your palms together in prayer position again.

Seal this practice with a chant of Aum.

Together.

Deep breath in.

Aum.

Mmmmm.

Thank you.

For joining me in this practice today.

Namaste.

Ever so gently