The Sufi Path: The Heart As Master Meditation

In a time where we have optimised ourselves, where we have made life efficient and progressive, we have somehow, along the way, lost a deeper connection to our intuition, to source, and to our hearts. In this talk and meditation, we will guide ourselves back to our true spiritual eye, the heart of our matter.

Following inspiration of the dervish path, the Sufi way.....the master is the heart.

Transcript

So welcome,

Welcome to your space,

Welcome to your body,

To your breath.

May you find yourself sitting upright or lying down in a way that allows you to be alert but soft.

And feel free to shut the eyes down and come into awareness of your breath moving in and out of the nostrils.

Allow the muscles in the forehead to relax and to soften.

Allow the muscles surrounding the jaw to relax and soften.

Relaxing in the shoulders,

The space across the chest,

Allow the belly to soften,

The hips heavy and grounded,

Supported by the solidity of the earth beneath you.

Allowing the breath to move in and out of the nostrils,

Taking yourself into that soft liminal space,

The in-between of awakeness and rest and lucidity.

Allow the stillness and the silence to surround you.

And so in the darkness behind the closed eyelids,

Allow yourself to feel safe in emptiness as we rest into the heart of our being,

That warm place without definition,

That warm place that invites in all,

That invites in the tension in our body,

The contraction,

But also the opening,

The ease.

And as we ride the waves of breath like the Sufi,

We enter that inner dimension of mysticism,

That inner dimension of direct experience with the void,

With the divine.

And we move there at the pace of presence.

So riding the waves of breath,

Really feeling the inhalation as it moves through the nostrils,

Feeling the exhalation as it moves out,

Piercing your presence with each cycle of breath.

And the more and more aware that we become of the breath moving in and out of form,

The more that we purify and cleanse the heart.

And allowing ourselves to slow down,

Breathing into the possibility that the slower we go,

The faster we get there to the center of the heart.

All Sufis enter this direct experience of God or source or the one through the loving engagement,

The emptying of the heart.

And we can see the heart simply as and love simply as deep conscious awareness.

So feel the chest rising and falling,

The belly softening,

The body accepting and allowing.

And in that liminal space,

That imaginal space behind closed eyelids,

Maybe visualizing the body sitting or floating somewhere in a landscape that puts your mind,

Your body,

Your soul at ease.

Where do you allow yourself to just be?

And Sufis see love,

Mahabha,

As the central force that draws the soul back to its source.

So in this mahabha,

As the breath moves in and out of the nostrils,

As we dissolve into this dark place behind closed eyelids,

Again,

Finding yourself in a trusting landscape that allows you to simply be.

To draw all of yourselves,

All of your parts back to that central place that is timeless,

That is deathless.

And knowing that this central place of love,

It's also an empty place,

No agendas or expectations.

It's that in-between space from the inhalation and the exhalation where we just hang in the departure and the arrival.

So in that landscape behind closed eyelids,

And maybe for you it's not visual,

It's felt,

Letting your body be held,

Rocked,

Swayed,

Dissolving into,

Like a pulsation of life itself,

Form dropping away and simply feeling the heart beating outward and inward,

Pulsing with life.

So our intellect can guide us to these places,

To these visualizations,

These directions.

But only the heart,

That deep state of awareness,

Only the heart can truly know the beloved source,

God.

So allowing your body to soften more and more,

Allowing your breath to pierce more and more any distractions or illusions that pull you outside of this moment,

The now.

Allowing form to dissolve into formlessness,

Into sensation,

Or into safe landscape,

Into a place that allows you to meet your center,

A journey deep into the core of your being,

Into the heart,

Into that mahabha,

The central force that draws you closer and closer to source.

And in this place that you sit,

In deep awareness,

This landscape that draws you back to your core,

There is a remembrance.

And the Sufis speak of this remembrance as a purification,

A polishing of the heart,

A polishing away from ego and desires and forgetfulness.

When we sit in that landscape or float or dissolve into deep presence,

Our wanting mind dissolves,

And we simply become presence itself,

Dissolving into the field of awareness.

So this constant remembrance of God keeps the heart awake and aligned.

So letting all ideas,

All visuals of a body of form and definition,

Letting that dissolve,

And becoming the sensation of awareness itself,

Becoming the pulse of life itself,

Merging with the field around you,

The landscape around you,

And dissolving into each breath cycle,

Becoming the breath itself.

And at the deepest level,

At the deepest level,

Not only knowing that all is one but feeling your connection,

Your tether to the invisible,

To the mystery.

Feeling in this landscape as borders dissolve,

That creation and creator become blurred.

Letting your individuation,

Your being as you've known it,

As you've identified and built upon,

Allowing it to be dismantled,

Having the courage to dissolve into space,

Into breath.

The Sufi seeks to dissolve the illusion of separateness.

The Sufi,

In its path to merging with the heart,

Desires to rest in the divine unity.

And so just noticing,

Observing how you feel,

How you sense,

As you dissolve,

As the borders blur,

As the landscape dismantles,

And as all things out and in,

Inner and outer,

Begin to merge,

As the silence or emptiness around you becomes the silence and emptiness that you yourself are a part of,

As the hearing ear becomes the sound,

As the tasteful mouth becomes the taste,

As the sensing and tuning body becomes the sense and the frequency.

The Sufi's path is one of transformation,

Feeding ourselves to the fire,

Allowing ourselves to be changed,

Softening,

Softening,

Softening,

Allowing the waves of breath to move you to and from,

And each allowing,

Each accepting of ourselves to be carried away on the inhalation,

Dropped into that space in between,

Before the exhalation.

Each cycle can be a purification,

A deeper surrender,

A deepening awareness.

So each allowing,

Each accepting,

Into the space between.

Guides us deeper into love and remembrance.

So this dissolving becomes the master into experiencing and remembering unity,

Oneness.

So notice how the silence touches you.

Notice how the stillness stirs you or holds you.

Nowhere to go.

No one to be.

Nowhere to arrive.

Acknowledging that you can be everywhere and everything,

Just by sitting completely still and observing.

And just as slowly as we have entered the state of merging with all that is around us,

For the pleasure of having a dual experience,

Allow through the space of voidedness,

The pulsation of life,

To slowly etch definition.

Like you are coloring the outlines of yourself or coloring the landscape around you.

Slowly,

Like an artist with a clean canvas or a canvas full of wild colors or emptiness,

Begin to sketch the outlines of your landscape,

The outlines of your body.

Drawing yourself back into form.

Self and other.

Slowly,

Slowly,

Allowing the world to emerge,

Allowing yourself to emerge.

And in time,

You find yourself again sitting or lying in a landscape whose edges become more crisp and sharp and vibrant.

And allowing the Christmas,

The crispness and vibrance of your own edges.

Bring joy and pleasure to your face.

Feeling and sensing your body,

The air around you,

The space between you and other.

And noticing with delight any contractions or tensions or openness in your body.

With such sweet pleasure,

The Sufi in their hearts,

Learn to love the play,

The cosmic play.

The cosmic play of the inner and outer.

So knowing that this separation is but an illusion,

But also child's play to explore,

To explore your environment and yourself,

To feel yourself separate.

To feel your grief and your joy,

Your belonging,

Your unbelonging,

Your fullness,

Your emptiness.

And let the breaths stay deep and steady.

Breathing in,

I am aware that I am breathing in.

Breathing out,

I am aware that I am breathing out.

Breathing in,

I am breathing out.

And slowly,

As the breath climbs and brings you deeper and deeper into awareness of the present moment,

Hearing the sounds outside of you,

The textures of the temperature,

The light or the darkness that might be climbing in behind closed eyelids.

And when you're ready to depart this internal world and this landscape,

I invite you to blink the eyes open.

Not so slowly,

But bringing yourself back into the present moment,

Here and now.

Find something to look at in your room or outside,

Wherever you may be,

Orienting yourself to the moment of now.

And the words internally can be,

I am alive.

I am of the heart,

Empty and pure,

A pulsation of life itself.

I choose to live in this moment,

To be of this moment.

And slight smile on the face for the irony of all of it.

The grief that we hold,

The ecstasy that we desire,

Choosing to be all of it and none of it.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Back in the world.

Welcome.