Cultivate A Heart Of Love

This guided meditation will help you cultivate an open heart that is connected with the whole universe. It begins with a relaxing breathing exercise before beginning the practice of "The Union of Three Hearts," which comes from Sheng Zhen meditation.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this open-hearted meditation.

This sitting practice will help us cultivate a heart of love,

Spirit of sincerity and openness.

Find yourself in a comfortable sitting position.

This can be in a chair or on the floor.

Let's just start with coming into ourselves,

Coming into our practice.

Meditation is a practice,

Something that you keep coming back to again and again.

Come back to your body,

Come back to your cushion or your chair or the floor,

Wherever you're sitting,

And settle into your body.

First we'll start with the body and then we'll forget about the body.

But first we have to start where we're at,

Taking a deep breath,

And as you exhale,

Let go.

Try to let go of any difficult feelings in your body or in your mind or in your heart.

As you breathe in,

Feel like you're breathing in energy into every cell of your body,

Not just your lung.

And as you exhale,

Feel all the cells of your body relaxing and letting go.

So inhaling energy and then exhaling any tension.

As you inhale,

Feel your body getting lighter.

And as you exhale,

Feel your body getting clearer.

As you inhale,

Relax more,

Relax the space between the cells of your body.

And as you exhale,

Settle into that relaxation.

Let your breathing be slow and light,

Energizing and relaxing breath,

Also a cleansing,

A purifying,

Clarifying breath.

You can even feel like your skin pores are opening and you can breathe in from everywhere,

Not just through your mouth.

Let's see if you can breathe in through your whole body,

Opening up your body,

Opening up your heart.

As you inhale and your chest expands,

You can also feel like your heart is expanding.

As you exhale,

Relax more,

But stay expanded.

As you inhale,

Feel your heart become energized,

Opened.

And as you exhale,

Allow your heart to feel relaxed,

Clear.

You can also feel like you are inhaling into any tense parts of your body.

So maybe inhaling into your shoulders or your spine,

And as you exhale,

Letting go of that tension.

So just preparing for this open-hearted meditation,

Preparing the body by relaxing and expanding,

Feeling yourself grounded,

Stable on your chair or your cushion or the floor.

Feel your body's tall and upright and open.

Try to become one with the air around you.

Just one more minute of this preparation,

Relaxing,

Expanding,

Energizing,

Purifying the body.

There's no need to sit really still if that's uncomfortable.

Just feel free to move your body to relax more or shift or adjust your position.

Become friends with your body.

Let your body naturally return to a feeling of stillness.

And now bringing your hands up in front of your mouth with your palms together,

Making a little space and blowing between your palms,

Further letting go of any negative feeling.

And then let your left hand float up in front of your forehead while your right hand goes down in front of your lower abdomen.

As your left hand goes up,

Connecting to the sky,

To the universe,

And let your left hand go down in front of your body,

Resting on top of your right hand as you connect and ground down onto the earth.

Let your thumbs touch,

Forming a little circle.

Your heart open more,

Connecting with the world,

With nature.

Let your tongue touch your upper palate,

Just resting gently,

Anywhere that's comfortable,

To help the feeling that everything is connected.

Connected with the earth,

Connected with nature,

Connected with the universe,

Connected with your own body.

Bringing your awareness now to your lower abdomen,

To a point an inch or two below your navel,

In the very center,

Inside.

This point is called the dantian,

And it's a storehouse of energy in our body.

So put your awareness in your dantian,

Feel that center inside of you relax and open.

As your dantian relaxes,

Feeling all the chi in your body,

The energy in your body,

Collecting in your dantian,

Settling,

Continuing to let your breath be slow and light,

Also continuing to allow your body to relax and expand.

Let your mind naturally calm and quiet,

And just keep your awareness in your dantian.

Try to feel the flow of energy.

Our dantian is our connection with the earth,

With life.

The more aware you can become of your dantian,

You get to feel more grounded in yourself,

More centered.

Just keeping your awareness in your dantian,

Chi in your body naturally settles.

So chi from all around you,

Energy,

From nature,

From the world,

From the universe,

Goes into your dantian,

Charging and nourishing,

Strengthening your dantian.

The dantian is like a vast ocean,

Unlimited energy.

You can try every day to have a connection to your dantian.

Little by little with this practice,

You can feel your dantian more and more.

Feel more grounded and rooted in your own life.

Going to your own inner strength.

And then see if you can feel that point inside your lower abdomen to begin to expand.

Let the chi,

Or the energy in your dantian,

Open and expand and fill your entire lower abdomen.

Maybe you feel your dantian or your abdomen getting warmer.

It's also okay to not really feel much of anything,

But as you continue to practice little by little some feeling will develop to feel the flow of energy,

To feel grounded,

To feel resourced.

Now as the chi in your dantian expands and opens,

Bring your awareness from your dantian up through the center of your body,

Imagining a channel that starts at your dantian and goes up through the center of your body,

Through your heart center,

All the way up through your neck and your throat,

And stopping at a point in the center of your head,

Right beneath your crown,

Between your temples,

And behind your third eye,

The very center of your head.

Like our dantian is our connection with the earth,

This point,

The nihuan is our connection with the universe.

Relaxing your awareness there for a moment,

Relaxing that point that nihuan can give some thanks to the universe,

And then bring your awareness back down.

Your chi naturally follows down through the center of your body,

All the way back to your dantian.

Hold the chi there for a moment and then repeat.

Allow your chi to expand up through that central channel,

All the way up through the center of your body,

Following your mind,

Following your consciousness,

To the point in the very center of your head.

Hold the chi there for a moment,

Feel that point relax and expand,

And then back down,

Back down that central channel,

Try to feel your chi returning to your dantian.

And then continuing that cycling for the next minute or so,

Chi from your dantian,

Floating effortlessly up through the central channel,

Going all the way up to your nihuan,

Holding there for a moment,

Opening up and relaxing,

Expanding a little,

Giving some thanks to the universe,

And then down,

Back down that central channel,

Back to your dantian.

As you continue this cycling of chi between your dantian and your nihuan,

To help to build a stronger connection,

Cultivate and nourish that connection between the earth and the universe in your own body.

You can even say the connection between heaven and earth.

Our dantian is our connection to this earth energy,

To this life force,

And our nihuan is our connection to universal love,

Big love.

So keep allowing your chi to go from your dantian to your nihuan for a few more moments.

And then the next time that your chi reaches your nihuan,

Hold it there.

Keep your attention in your nihuan and allow your chi to expand out even more,

Connecting and merging with the universe.

Also connecting and merging with love,

Unconditional love,

Big universal love.

You can think of heaven as the essence of that love.

So also connecting the heaven,

The whole universe,

And relax into that connection.

Allow it to expand.

Getting about your body,

Getting about your normal life,

Letting go of the room you're in,

Just focusing on the light and the love in your nihuan.

Expand.

As the chi in your nihuan expands,

Merging with the universe and merging with that love,

Begin to feel like a big body of love,

Timeless love.

Love with no boundaries,

With no conditions.

You can feel the love in your nihuan.

You can feel the love in your nihuan.

You can feel the love in your nihuan.

So last one minute,

Try to allow that expansion to keep happening,

Merging more with your universe with love.

Feel the light from your nihuan expand.

Become one with that love.

You can feel the love in your nihuan.

Last 10 seconds.

Letting go a little more.

And then very slowly and very naturally,

Very gently,

Allow the chi to return back to your nihuan.

And then following your consciousness,

Going back down that central channel,

Down to your lower abdomen,

So that your chi now returns to your dantian.

Just bring your awareness to your dantian that chi naturally follow.

Take a moment for all the chi,

Return to your dantian.

Going back to your body,

Back to the room you're in.

Taking a deep breath.

You can open your eyes,

Bringing your hands to your knees,

Feeling your body again.

And then let's finish with the jongtian movement with a feeling of gratitude.

Bring your palms up in front of your mouth,

Making a space and blow,

Giving thanks to your body.

Last hand goes up in front of your forehead,

Giving thanks to the universe.

Down,

Giving thanks to the earth,

Let your thumbs touch.

Giving thanks to nature and the whole world.

And then taking that feeling of being merged with the universe and merged with love,

Out into your life today,

Out into the world.

Bringing more unconditional love into the world.

Thank you for joining me in this open-hearted meditation practice.

Reviews

Wonderful, very opening. Thank you. Love and blessings 💜 x