Namaste and welcome.
Begin by finding a comfortable seat.
This can be cross-legged on the earth or in a chair.
Ensure that your spine is straight.
Line up the head with the shoulders and with the torso.
You can also take this meditation from a supine position lying down.
Find any position,
Steady posture that you can sustain for at least 15 minutes.
Relax the shoulders down if you're seated.
Chin parallel to the earth,
The neck is long.
Your feet are resting firmly onto the earth.
Take some time to feel the earth beneath you and the sky above you.
Feel yourself connecting the two.
Bring your attention to the breath,
Your natural breath.
For the next few moments,
Simply follow the rising and falling of your abdomen and chest as you take a breath in and a breath out.
Rising and falling.
Allow yourself to tune into the natural rhythm of the breath.
Notice the effect this is having on the mind.
Close your eyes if you haven't already.
Visualize yourself lying on a beach.
It is a warm summer night and a gentle breeze caresses your face.
Your body begins to soften and sink into the sand,
The earth beneath you.
It is warm,
You're comfortable and you feel safe.
As you begin to surrender and yield to the pull of gravity beneath you,
You feel your body beginning to relax.
Feel the earth molding itself around the body contours of your physical body.
You feel the back of your heels digging a little deeper into the earth,
Calves.
Feel that little hollow space at the back of the knees.
Feel the back of the thighs releasing into the earth.
Feel the buttocks softening.
Notice that little hollow space just above your low back,
Your sacrum.
Feel the shoulder blades gently pressing into the earth like wings.
Awareness to that empty space at the back of the heart between the shoulder blades.
Feel your shoulders naturally softening towards the earth and widening your chest and heart space towards the sky.
Awareness to that hollow space at the back of the neck.
Feel the back of the head surrendering into the earth beneath you.
Feel your whole body calm,
Relaxed and comfortable.
With your eyes closed you turn your gaze to a moonlit sky.
You sense a sacred feminine presence in the shimmering moonlight.
A presence filled with pulsing energy.
As she comes closer you begin to see the details of this presence.
Solemn and serene she stands perfectly still.
Her hips are clad with brightly coloured tiger skin.
Her forearms are bristling with weapons.
She carries a human skull in one of her forehands.
Symbolizing the destroyed I self.
She uses the sword and a pair of scissors in two of her other hands to accomplish this task.
The lotus in her fourth hand represents the gift of self-knowledge.
Her protuberant belly that hangs over a bone bejeweled girdle.
Symbolizes the burden of self-deception.
Her tongue moves incessantly.
Her mouth is blood-stained from consuming all of our false identities.
This goddess feeds on self-deception.
She carries a sword.
The sword of discernment that cuts through our falsities in one fell swoop.
Leaving no room for inauthenticity.
As you come closer you gaze into her eyes.
And you sense within her unconditional love.
And an invitation to freedom.
As you tune into her cosmic energy.
You realize that she sees you completely.
She sees your falsities and self-deception.
She sees your constant yearning and chasing.
She sees your fears,
Your lies.
Your many masks.
She sees your endless seeking.
Whether for money,
Love,
Fame,
Pleasure or spiritual attainment.
Our seeking arises from the mistaken belief that we'll be happy when we get there.
But that time never comes.
A temporary feeling of contentment is experienced when we get what we want.
But soon enough the sense of lack begins to poke through again.
And the seeking resumes.
In everything that we chase,
We seek the end of seeking.
But that time never comes either.
This sense of lack is Tara's shadow of self-deception.
The mistaken belief that we are inherently lacking.
And that to be complete we need fill in the blanks.
This sense of lack is also rooted in fear.
Fear of dying.
Fear of failing.
Fear of living.
As you look back into Tara's eyes,
You are overwhelmed with emotion.
As a silvery white light begins to stream onto your whole being.
Illuminating each and every fear.
Shining the light of truth on each and every lie.
As the light of Tara illuminates your greatest fears.
Take some time to acknowledge them,
Honour them and let them be.
When we allow our greatest fears to arise and simply be.
They crumble and disintegrate into unreserved love.
This is the end of seeking.
Tara's light of truth is the end of seeking.
Continue to rest here.
Allow yourself to reattune to the rhythm of your breath.
Settle back into the safety of your own breath.
Arising.
Rising.
And falling.
Begin to bring some gentle movement to your toes and your fingers.
Bringing the awareness back into the physical body.
Deepen the breath.
Let the inhalations be a little fuller.
And the exhalations a little more complete.
Exhaling all the air out of the lungs.
Bring the hands in a prayer in front of the heart in Anjali Mudra.
Bow the head to the heart.
Namaste.
