Welcome to a meditation on a clear heart.
This is a breath focus meditation and you can use it at the end of the day to rest towards a sleep that is unhindered or you might use it any time during the day where you'd like to create a clearing in the space of your mind and your state of being.
You can sit up tall or lie down in a comfortable and what feels neutral position so there is very little effort.
If you're sitting up,
The spine is stacked on the pelvis,
The head resting above and a kind of buoyant quality around the shoulders.
You might give yourself a little movement to settle in and if you're lying down,
If you're supported,
The head might rest on a thin support or pillow and you could have a bolster under the knees if that feels good.
Take a few moments to let the body be felt,
The breathing body gently expanding and contracting.
You might even like to take a few rounds of deeper breath,
Feeling as if towards the edges of your skin and as you exhale maybe out the mouth,
Allowing the day that's passed or the sleep you've awoken from to move through you.
Then to sense your breath moving a little more rhythmically,
You might notice the contrast between the inhale and the exhale.
Perhaps one today feels a little more effortless than the other.
Simply watching the breath arrive and depart,
Mingling with all the other sounds and sensations that arise here.
There is no need to fix or change any of it.
Simply witness your body breathing.
Relax from the crown of the head down to the neck and the back of the shoulder blades.
Relax the front of your chest,
The sides of your ribs,
The hips and pelvis,
All the way down through the legs.
Relax with each exhale,
A little deeper towards the earth and gravity.
Then sense your face,
Relax the eyebrows and the cheekbones,
The jaws.
You might see the breath travelling here through both nostrils like two clear streams,
In and out.
Begin to sense the breath filling the lungs,
So there's a kind of hug around your heart.
And as you inhale,
See the sense of clear,
Vibrant light wrapping around the heart.
And as you exhale,
You might see or sense that light drawing in to your heart.
Perhaps you sense the same light as gently moving up and down your spine with each pulse of breath,
Inhaling to gather around the heart.
And as you exhale,
It absorbs itself into the heart,
So that with each breath,
There is an added sense of clarity,
Of spaciousness,
And perhaps of ease.
Take another inhale to feel around the heart,
See clear light.
And as you exhale,
It soaks in.
And with your next inhale,
Begin to sense almost like ink dispersing into water,
Any doubt or maybe stories carried from your day that feel like they are heavy or burdensome.
Feel that lift like that ink dispersing into water up and out from your heart.
And as you exhale,
See it disperse into grey smoke as if through the crown of your head.
Inhaling lifting the heaviness,
The doubt.
As you exhale,
See it disperse,
Releasing.
And there's no need to judge or keep count of how much that you see in this darkness or this smoke.
Just continue each breath,
Inhaling to lift out of the heart any darkness,
Exhaling to allow it to disperse.
Just begin to alternate the two kinds of filling and releasing.
As you inhale,
See that clear light of joy and abundance and ease fill around your heart.
As you exhale,
Let that soak into the space of your heart.
And as you inhale next,
Lifting out any traces of darkness.
And as you exhale,
See that release effortlessly.
Inhale clarity and space,
Exhale it settles into the heart.
Now lifting out shadow and darkness,
And exhale like ink and water or smoke dispersing out.
For another minute or so,
Continue like this.
You might even begin to sense the breath,
Most breathing itself,
So there is no effort from the mind.
Almost like you're watching the breath being taken,
Being received,
As well as released.
And your breath becoming so soft,
So light,
It is barely sensed.
It's gentle ebb and flow,
Like a whisper.
And finally,
Sitting for a few more moments where you are aware of the breath,
You are aware of the whole body breathing.
You are aware of this clear and vibrant being,
This quality of joy that is underneath any of the waves we experience,
Moment to moment.
Underneath you are full,
Needing nothing and no one else.
And trust that you can come back to this space,
At least lean back into it whenever you choose.
The heart clear,
Steady and vibrant,
Alive with your breath.
Stay here as long as you need,
And when you're ready to come out of the practice,
Perhaps a couple of deeper breaths.
You might like to join the palms together on or at the heart center,
And let yourself carry this presence into your day or into your rest.
