Welcome to today's meditation.
My name is Lola Wright and I am joined by Brendan Doshi.
Today's practice is an opportunity to become familiar with your ego,
Your identity.
Very often,
People will consider letting the ego die.
While I understand that,
The real practice is coming to understand the ego,
Realizing that it is an aspect of this human experience.
It is not the all of who you are.
It is a mechanism that serves to protect you,
And it has great value,
So long as we do not allow it to hijack our experience.
So for today,
Let us enter into this practice to acquaint ourselves with our ego,
Our identity,
The aspect of self that creates a perception of separation,
Of distinction,
Of specialness,
The aspect of self that perceives duality.
So with that in mind,
I invite you to begin to bring your body still,
And deepen your breath into your belly,
And close your eyes if that's comfortable for you.
Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth,
Breathing more deeply than may be typical or even comfortable for you.
As you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth,
Invite your entire body to soften and relax as best you can.
Begin to scan your body,
Notice any constriction,
Tension,
Gripping or bracing that may be happening in and on the body.
Pay particular attention to your brow,
Inviting your brow to soften and relax.
Bring your awareness to your jaw,
Rest your tongue on the bottom inside of your teeth.
Create space between your top and bottom teeth.
You might even choose to turn the corners of your mouth just slightly upward,
A nudge to your central nervous system that it may relax.
Allow your shoulders to fall and your arms to become heavy.
Notice a sunny place or space in your body where you may be experiencing pressure,
Gripping,
Bracing.
Continue to deepen your breath into your belly,
Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth if that's comfortable for you.
Would you be willing to consider that there is nothing to defend against,
The need to protect is merely the ego's attempt at caring for you.
It is doing what it knows to do best.
Your egoic construct is set up to respond to fear,
To consider threat.
It is a self-protection mechanism that often times can hijack your entire being.
So today we make peace with our ego.
We allow it to be in its right place.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth and allow yourself to fall more deeply into your essence,
The truth of who you are,
The aspect of self that is not run,
Led,
Guided by fear.
Your essence is the presence of love.
It is nearer than your breath and it is vaster than your being.
It is that which connects you to all of existence,
Realizing that you are intrinsically connected to all of life.
Your essence undergirds all of reality.
So I invite you to deepen your breath into your essence,
That aspect of self that is whole and holy,
Perfect,
Without hurt or harm,
The center of peace.
As you connect ever more to your essence,
You are able to distinguish how hard your ego will work to distract you from the depth of peace,
From the depth of wholeness,
From the depth of love that is right where you are.
So take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth and allow yourself to witness the work of your ego,
The aspect of your personality that is working so hard to defend,
To be right,
To know everything you need to know to survive,
To perform,
To produce.
Allow yourself to extend compassion to that aspect of you that goes into overdrive,
Doing the best it knows to do.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth and allow yourself to see the space between your essence and your ego.
Our ability to notice the space,
To witness the distinction between our wholeness and our ego or our identity,
That ability to witness the space in between is our access to freedom.
So today we let the ego be as it is and we realize it is just an aspect of self,
Not the all of self.
And we thank it.
Invite yourself to thank your ego for all its hard work and let it know it can relax.
