Hara And Heart Centered Silent Illumination Meditation

This is a guided experiential meditation beginning with the hara (the belly of practice), through the heart, and opening to—touching into—the Absolute: the source of all universes and realities. Let yourself be guided. Surrender control and just be.

Transcript

Seat yourself in your meditation posture.

Start with some very deep belly breaths.

Really expand your belly fully.

And then exhaling as fully as possible.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Feel your seat.

Feel your contact with the floor.

Sense the support of the building you're in holding you.

And if you can sense it Mother Earth beneath holding and supporting each of us in this very moment.

Let your awareness rest in the Hara.

It's about two inches below the belly button and about two inches in from the surface.

There's nothing to do but just let awareness rest right there.

As you just be here and breathe.

As you make contact with the Hara,

Let yourself land right here.

In this moment.

See if you can breathe from the Hara.

Feeling your belly and exhaling all the air possible.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Using your inhale from the Hara,

Invite awareness to move into the heart area.

And in the heart area we're wanting to make contact with the quality of our true nature innate goodness.

This is a goodness that's always in existence.

It isn't created.

It doesn't go away.

We don't fabricate it.

It's here always,

We're just paying attention.

Letting the muddy water of this stream settle to where we can make contact with innate goodness.

Innate goodness is something you don't need to earn,

Nor have you ever done anything that would exclude you from contact with innate goodness.

It's often experienced as a warm summer breeze,

A deep okayness,

Kind of buoyancy and lightness,

Just a pure goodness you may witness in a baby,

Human or animal.

For some people it's nature itself they recognize innate goodness.

And for others it can be an idealized figure of Jesus or the Buddha Dalai Lama that sort of figure.

Just let awareness rest in the heart area and be open to contacting your innate goodness.

Letting the muddy water of this stream settle to where we can make contact with innate goodness.

Innate goodness is something you don't need to earn,

Nor have you ever done anything that would exclude you from contact with innate goodness.

Notice if you're feeling that buoyancy,

That lightness in the heart area,

That okayness with which we can identify innate goodness.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the totality of your inner state.

Notice if you're experiencing a unified body-mind or a separate mind,

Probably in your head and body in the physicality from the neck down.

If it's a unity of body-mind,

Just be with the unity.

Feel that flow of unified body-mind.

If you're feeling a separation,

Let awareness rest in both the head,

The mind,

And the body without doing anything further,

Just being with body-mind.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the totality of your inner state.

Notice if you're feeling a separation,

Let awareness rest in both the head and the body without doing anything further,

Just being with the unity.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the totality of your inner state.

Notice if you're feeling a separation,

Let awareness rest in both the head and the body without doing anything further,

Just being with the unity.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the totality of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the totality of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Your awareness has wandered,

Bring it back to contacting body-mind.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

While maintaining awareness of your inner state or perception,

Begin to let awareness make contact with outside,

What's outside your body.

So you're holding your interiority as inside and whatever's outside your body,

Whatever feels to be outside your body is outside.

Notice if these are an undivided oneness or are they two.

Either way,

Just stay with your experience and perception.

Continue breathing,

Holding inside,

Outside.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

As you hold inside,

Outside,

Relax any sense of a separation or boundary between inside and outside.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

We can make contact with the deep peace that's a quality of the absolute.

It's a peace that's settled,

At ease,

Deeply content.

It doesn't need to do anything.

It just is.

Let that peace make contact with your consciousness and awareness.

Feeling it soothing,

Relaxing,

Deeply settling presence.

Everything that peace touches becomes peace.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Relax and surrender into the vast peace that's right here,

Right now.

You don't need to do anything,

There's no technique,

Just be peace.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

If your awareness has wandered,

Gently return it to contact with the peace that passes all understanding.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

You may also be perceiving a deep stillness,

A profound silence that's here too.

If so,

Just let that be here with the deep quality of peace.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

Letting your awareness open from the heart area to the entirety of your inner state.

If awareness has wandered from contact with peace,

Kindly return it without any judgement or criticism.

In these last minutes before I ring the bell,

See if you can stay close to the peace and pristine stillness present.

Thank you for watching.

You you you you you you you you

Reviews

Brilliant thank you for your expert guidance :)

Good guidance. Minimalist. Lots of silent spaces. Suitable for advanced practitioners. Peaceful, effortless non-doing quality. Thanks 🙏

I love this meditation, and want to let you know that the recording has now gone silent maybe 4 minutes into the meditation.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Great long version of what Stephen refers to as "Unmanifest". In the monthly online sangha. Also seems to incorporate the insight of "interdependent origination". (All of life is connected). Thank you 🙏