Brief 9-Minute Practice: Your Unerasable Connection

In recognizing connection, we open to refuge. We are at our most powerful when we're in touch with our unerasable interdependence and natural altruism.

"Only connect," as EM Forster wrote. When we feel others are walking with us, we recover precious energetic resources; resources we might've even forgotten we lost to begin with. We gain inspiration and a desire to go further. We gain the ability to meet what we're faced with head-on.

We can even discover surplus energy to look beyond our situation and to the difficulties others face. This aspect is very important, as no "healing journey" is complete without compassionate action on behalf of the vulnerable. This practice is what's helped me most in this final, difficult chapter of illness recovery. I hope that it can be as valuable a resource for you as it has been for me.

Transcript

Join me for a moment in closing your eyes and taking a breath,

Feeling your body,

Feeling your body in space,

Feeling your body breathe.

And the theme of this meditation is that you have more support than you realize.

You are more supported and more resourced than you realize.

For one,

There are people around you right now who are supporting you in all kinds of different ways.

All the different teachers in your life,

All the different friends in your life,

All the different doctors and practitioners of varying sorts right now,

I'm a support to you.

It's coming at you.

Like you have,

It's coming at you,

Right?

Like you have access to all the wisdom traditions of the entire world throughout history at your fingertips.

And that's all a support for you as well.

Your supports and opportunities for growth,

Number and quantities you can't even fathom actually.

And you can open to that reality.

It's like a little bit like opening your awareness to the world around you and being willing to take that in.

And as you take that in,

Let's talk about the support that's coming from inside of you as well.

Right now,

There are 13 trillion cells in your body that are collaborating very poetically to make your body work and function and for you to experience the relative health the relative health and relative sanity that you do experience.

Right now,

There are organs inside of you that are collaborating with each other and they're doing things you know absolutely nothing about that you didn't ask them to do that are producing your sense of vitality,

You're keeping your heartbeat going,

They're producing your thoughts,

Your perceptions and so on,

Make you able to hear music and watch films and to read books,

So many beautiful things as a result of this collaboration,

The supportive collaboration that happens within your body.

And you can open yourself to that majestic awareness right now as well.

We could continue to the psychological parts of you,

Right,

The parts of you that perform your personality,

The parts of you that hold your trauma in the background so you don't have to deal with it all the time,

The parts of you that protect you and reach for self-medication maybe really in an effort to maintain balance,

Parts of you that hold your joy and your childlike wonder and your love of nature,

Right,

So many different parts to your personality and so many different shades and flavors in there and they all work together to keep you functioning.

And so if you wanna stop here,

This is enough,

But we're gonna take this one step further.

If you want to,

You can place one hand on your heart right now.

I want you to just think of one situation in your life,

One hangup you have right now,

And we're not gonna dwell on it and get into the big wounding of it,

But just one situation,

Just think of that situation for a moment.

And then I want you to think about all the people on this planet right now who are struggling with their own version of that problem.

There's so many people who are with you in this,

And you can even imagine they're lined up to your left and your right next to you in a very long line.

And then you can think for a moment to how many people historically have had a problem similar to yours.

You're not the first.

And all of those people that stretch back generations,

They all stand behind you.

And then you can think of all the people who are going to have this problem that aren't even born yet,

People of the future that you are in community with,

Actually,

And they're standing in front of you.

And they're standing in front of you.

And so here you are with the four directions around you and your beautiful heart right in the center of it.

And as you breathe,

I want your love,

Even if you only imagine it,

To go in all four directions at once.

I know you feel for these people.

I know you have compassion for them because you know what it's like.

So send out your love,

Your kindness,

Your gentleness in all directions.

Emanate from your body a wish for all hearts to heal.

For all beings to know freedom.

And for us to all find happiness together.

And they say,

If you want it to happen,

You got to imagine it so first.

So now can you just see all the beings celebrating,

Being uplifted,

Their burdens lightening,

To your left,

To your right,

Behind you,

In front of you.

All hearts healed,

All beings happy.

All right,

My friends,

Take a breath and come on back.

Thank you so much for spending these 20 minutes with me.

I rambled a lot.

I don't think I made sense the entire time.

But hopefully you've glimpsed the power of our deep belonging to one another,

Our deep,

Unerasable interconnectivity.

No matter what you're going through,

You are not alone.

No matter what you're going through,

It doesn't determine how far you can go,

Only where you begin.

Thank you so much and I'll see you soon.

Reviews

I miss Ralph. He always brought kindness, warmth, and vulnerability to his teaching and meditation offerings. Thank you for continuing to share his legacy.

Rest in peace, dear teacher.

Beautiful meditation that brings humanity together in remembrance of our shared struggles 🙏

So beautiful. Ralph, you left us too soon, but your spirit is everywhere. These teachings are a gift. I bow in gratitude.🙏

Incredibly important topic, and loved it from beginning to end, including at the end, where he lightheartedly wonders if his “rambling” made sense (perfectly!), and mentions that where we are at in no way determines where we can go or how far we can go, only where we start. Really appreciate this teacher!

This was a beautiful and powerful meditation, Ralph, I could really feel the connection with others who have experienced similar traumas, and it felt good to stand together with them and sending love to all. I appreciate your teachings. Namaste.

A lovely, much needed and appreciated reminder. Thank you

Ralph, Very reassuring and inspiring observations. I thank you for the perspective. Although I have long found a strong interconnectedness and support in nature and the cosmos, I’ve never so clearly perceived the common currency of my humanity. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Donna

Such a beautiful reminder of all the ways we are connected. Thank you for this heartfelt meditation!

It made sense the entire time. Thank you. I’ll return to this