Hello and welcome.
My name is Lou Redmond and I thank you for exploring today's meditation with me.
I want to give some background and some context to bring this meditation to life.
I grew up Roman Catholic and there are so many things I love about the Catholic Church and a lot of the rituals.
I tend to get a lot of my teachings now from Father Richard Rohr who has a very universalist sense to him and sees a lot of the truth woven into other traditions as well.
That's where I tend to be as well.
I'm much more of a universalist even though I wouldn't say necessarily I'm a practicing Catholic in any sense.
I'm not going to church every Sunday.
However,
I am so interested in learning from all of these great traditions.
I go on Buddhist meditation retreats.
I am a yoga teacher so I've studied Hindu philosophy.
I come at spirituality from a more broader sense.
For those of you that might be familiar with Carl Jung and typology,
I am an extroverted intuitive.
I tend to be someone who is very broad in their interests because I like to pull from different areas because I find a lot of inspiration in the connecting points of a lot of our great wisdom traditions and great teachers of spirituality that don't necessarily come from a tradition.
Today's practice is going to be around Psalm 23.
The way that I'm going to break this down is I'm going to repeat the prayer.
We'll just meditate and sit and I'll just repeat the prayer the whole way through.
Then I'm going to repeat different parts of the prayer and share a little of my insight that I found coming from it and also where I see it paralleling to other forms of traditions and we'll actually work through some other types of meditations as we move through this prayer.
That's why I said this is kind of an exploration that we're going through that might be a little different if you're coming here thinking to just listen to this prayer once.
It's really going to be a guided meditation in that.
For those of you,
I don't know if this is in the name,
You might not click on this,
But the Lord is my shepherd.
That is the first line.
You can take that as the Lord is my shepherd.
If some of you are like,
No,
No,
No,
I'm not giving up myself to the Lord,
Maybe you have different thoughts on that.
Another way is my intuition is my guide,
My trust,
My truth is my guide.
I play with these different intentions on these words and so giving you that overview of how I'm approaching this and I hope you find this spirited and supportive of your practice and of your growth.
And so go ahead and close down the eyes and allow your body to start to sink in to your chair,
To your cushion.
And begin to allow a few rounds of your breath to help you just settle and root down into your space.
Letting the body's heaviness sink down and also allowing this lengthening to the sides of your waist and the sides of your neck.
And allow yourself to be with your breath,
To be in your space as I move through the first round of this prayer.
So just listening,
Feeling and just seeing what comes up,
What is here as you hear these words.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil.
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff,
They comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Take a breath in with me and let that go.
And so now I'm going to move through this in different parts,
Breaking it down a little as we go and doing some other practices that you might be already familiar with.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
And you can do a whole meditation on just this verse.
What it's asking us is the practice of letting go of the need to control,
Of surrendering,
Trusting in something greater to fill our cups.
And whether that's God,
Whether that's the Dharma,
The Tao,
To let go that we're going to arrive somewhere and realize that everything we want is right here within us.
I shall not want.
This is the non-attachment.
We don't need anything.
We don't need to cling.
And the way that we not want is to find gratitude.
So I'd like you to find gratitude right now.
For something that you have.
Your breath.
Your family.
Your life.
And see if you can feel,
Breathe in that gratitude right here.
We're connecting with that inner guide,
That inner shepherd.
That does not need,
That does not want.
Feeling the fullness of who you are right here.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness.
For his name's sake.
And you can see the field laying down in green pastures.
One way to look at this is the body of work that we're here to do,
Right,
That is ever fulfilling.
That is evergreen.
And the practice in this field is to find stillness.
Find still waters.
And in that connection,
As we find stillness,
We're restored.
He restores my soul and we naturally,
The path of the heart,
Naturally brings about new values,
Right,
Paths of righteousness.
More loving,
Generosity,
Compassionate way that we approach our life.
For his name's sake.
Doing it for a higher purpose,
Doing it because we have that connection.
So cultivating again each breath,
That presence.
And then think about something positive that you have done in your life.
Maybe a surprise gift that you gave someone.
Maybe you helped someone in need or you volunteered.
Acknowledge the fact that you are a good person.
That you are on a path of wholeness,
Of healing,
Of righteousness.
Just because your spirit,
Your soul,
Is bringing you towards it.
Can you feel and breathe in the good that is in your heart that you are?
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil.
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff,
They comfort me.
The first line,
Very important,
The shadow of death.
The Maya,
The illusion that we're living in,
Right,
That it's not actual true death.
I will fear no evil.
For you are with me.
It reminds me of the line in the Course in Miracles.
If you only knew who walked beside you at all times,
You could not know fear.
Can you feel the spirit of that?
Not necessarily having to give up being afraid,
But seeing if you can sense that you,
That something is with you.
If you only knew,
You could not know fear.
Breathe that in.
Your rod and your staff,
They comfort me.
In Eastern mysticism,
We can look at this like the chakras,
The energy of the spine,
Right,
The energy,
Getting the Kundalini energy coming up.
That connection,
That comfort,
That rod of being connected to the divine.
So maybe feeling as you breathe the energy when you breathe in,
Moving from the crown of your head down the back of your spine,
Down to the base of your spine.
And then when you breathe out,
Feel the energy moving from the base of your spine to the top crown of your head.
Just breathing and attuning your inner rod,
Attuning this connection to divine source.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
In this journey,
We are shown the work,
The enemies,
Both inner and outer,
Right,
We have to face these demons.
How big of a practice is forgiveness and loving kindness?
That's what I see here.
And it's this table that we're at of learning to forgive,
To be kind.
And so offering some kindness to yourself,
We'll just go through some loving kindness,
A meta,
Just one round here,
Just connecting with it in your heart.
May I be happy.
May I be loved.
May I be strong.
May I be at peace.
And then bringing to mind someone you have difficulty with,
Whom it's tough to show compassion,
Might even be tough to forgive.
And see if you can offer them in this moment.
May you be happy.
May you be loved.
May you be strong.
May you be at peace.
And this anointing with oil,
My cup overflows,
It's those little touches of divine grace that we are met with.
Maybe we do have a spiritual experience where God,
Our source reminds us that they're there.
Maybe we were met with a synchronicity and that reminds us,
Right?
My cup overflows,
That crying,
That release when we have that healing moment of love and connection.
Surely,
Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
And as we continue,
We plant positive seeds of intentions that sprout for incredible gifts in our life.
And we keep trusting and we keep moving forward.
And that means forward,
Right,
Forever in a larger context.
And dwelling in the house of the Lord,
Heaven,
Heaven on earth,
Nibbana,
Enlightenment.
And bringing your awareness back into your heart.
And like you'd imagine that a light is growing at the center and starts to grow through each part of your body until it completely engulfs you in light.
Imagining this right now as the house of the Lord.
You can call it your house of peace,
Of bliss,
Of love,
Whatever feeling it gives to you.
Breathe here and feel that light all around you.
And then repeating these words as you allow that light to grow bigger.
I am light.
I am love.
I am bliss.
I am peace.
And maybe you repeat one or a few of those on your own.
And just take a moment to dwell in your house of the Lord.
Resting and dwelling in the house of the Lord.
And then slowly you're starting to let that go.
Maybe you hold that light with you as you come back.
Maybe you keep it for your day.
And whenever you're ready,
Starting to come back to your body and gently open your eyes.
And I thank you for allowing me to guide you in this cross-disciplinary practice.
And I hope you found it supportive.
Sending you all so,
So much love.
And I hope to connect with you very soon.
Amen and Namaste.
