Hello,
Dear friends.
In moments of personal or collective anxiety or confusion,
Fear about the future,
It can be especially important to not let ourselves get thrown off,
Although that can happen temporarily and that's normal,
But to regain our stability and clarity is very important,
Especially in these moments when the stakes feel high.
Scatteredness and fear are not what we need,
So here together we're going to cultivate some clarity and calm,
Not for the purpose of bypassing or pretending that we have nothing to face,
But just the opposite,
To find the inner resources to move forward,
Not out of fear,
But out of a great sense of clarity.
We're going to start the meditation in a minute,
But I wanted to offer this experience as a fiction writer.
I notice when I write my first drafts,
I have a tendency to avoid letting the worst possible thing happen to my characters,
Because I love them and I want to spare them.
And by the time I get to the second draft,
I realize,
Oh,
You know,
For me to really know who they are and for them to know who they themselves are,
They need to walk through these fires.
They need to step through the portals that life offers them.
And so in my own life,
When those portals appear,
When the worst thing seems to have happened,
I invite this perspective of,
Hmm,
This is offering me a choice.
It's offering me a moment to actually discover who I am,
To bring up from my own depths,
My own true metal.
And so with my characters,
I notice some of them will,
In the face of that worst case scenario,
Contract and withdraw,
Perhaps get numb or angry.
Understandable.
And others will go through that phase and then decide to open and get curious,
Curious about what this particular moment in life asks of them and can bring forth from within them.
Pema Chodron,
The Tibetan Buddhist,
Beloved teacher,
Often talks about these two choices we have,
As complex as we are as human beings.
There are two basic movements of our being,
Either opening to our experience or closing down to it,
Like a fist closing or a palm opening.
And so in this meditation,
I invite you to open your palms to whatever life is offering you in this particular moment.
Offering your open palm to your own heart to fully feel what's in there.
Not to sedate ourselves or try to calm ourselves into oblivion,
But just the opposite,
To allow ourselves to become still and clear enough to actually see,
To see what's within and to see what's without.
And from that place of calm clarity,
Respond with wisdom,
A wisdom that arises spontaneously out of the clarity.
Fear is not a requirement of responding wisely,
In fact,
It's an impediment.
So let's invite into our nervous systems,
Into our whole body minds,
This calm clarity.
So we can move forward with a sense of strength and joy,
Because joy in the beauty of life is not a betrayal of life's challenges.
Begin by letting yourself be comfortable in your seat or if you're lying down,
Inviting your back to be straight in alignment,
Right to left,
Front to back.
Inviting a sense of strength and regalness and majesty into the back plane of your body,
A relaxed strength,
A strength that knows its own power.
And into the front plane of your body,
Allowing a sense of openness,
Softness,
Especially around your heart area,
At ease.
Now just take a moment to find this comfortable position for yourself.
And once you find it,
Inviting yourself to be still within it,
Inviting stillness of the body to invite stillness of the mind.
And then bringing your attention to your breath,
Wherever you notice it most vividly,
In your nostrils,
In the expansion of your chest,
Or in the rise and fall of your belly.
And for the length of one complete inhalation and exhalation,
Fully riding that breath with total presence,
Gliding up the inhalation as if riding a gentle ocean wave up to the crest and exhaling fully down to the trough of the wave.
Full,
Complete inhalation and longer,
Slower,
Complete exhalation,
Letting go,
Letting go of anything you've been carrying from this day.
And then I invite you to bring your hand to your heart.
Let your open palm rest on your heart and just notice the weather in there.
Notice what you've been carrying without judgment,
Without pushing anything away,
Without grasping onto anything,
Just noticing the movements of the heart with tenderness and great compassion.
No need to change or fix,
Just being present.
If there are storylines connected to what you're feeling in your heart,
You can just notice those too.
No need to push away,
No need to grasp,
Just noticing what's there.
And moving into the felt sense of your heart,
What do you feel?
Is there softness in there or hardness,
A certain texture or temperature,
Movement or stillness?
Just letting yourself be curious about the weather in there and noticing if it changes as you're present to it.
It might change,
It might stay the same,
It doesn't matter.
There you're just noticing with tender,
Intimate awareness,
Your own heart.
Noticing the front of your heart that responds to your day all day long,
Processing,
Absorbing.
And then moving your awareness into the back of your heart as if moving from the surface of the ocean chop down into the stillness,
The quiet that is never disturbed,
The depths of your heart.
Feeling the quiet there,
No need to force anything.
If you don't feel quiet,
You just notice what you feel.
Moving deeper into the depths of your heart,
The place where your heart connects to all of our hearts,
The sacred heart,
The underground stream of life that connects us all.
There in the depths is the wisdom of all of the beings who have come before us,
Who have faced moments like ours.
Whatever you're facing in the moment,
There has been another human being who has stood in your spot,
Who has stepped through a similar portal and inviting that wisdom,
Inviting the stability of those who have forged these paths before,
Inviting the energy,
The stability of that wisdom to penetrate up through all of your heart,
Up to the surface of your heart,
Up through your whole being,
Because we are not alone in this moment.
Inviting the deepest wisdom of human consciousness to penetrate our whole being,
To open to it,
To decide not to contract,
Not to shield,
To be open and curious.
Inviting the wisdom of the earth itself who gave life to us,
Who created us,
Grounding in our origins as beings of this planet.
You might picture a taproot extending from your feet down through the many layers of the planet to its core.
A living taproot that connects you to the source of life and the way a tree draws up nourishment,
Drawing strength and stability from the earth herself.
Rising up from the center of the earth through your feet,
Your legs,
Your torso,
That sweet nourishment entering your heart,
Filling your mind,
And extending up out through you to the sun,
Feeling the light of the sun that gives life to the earth,
Pouring into you.
Light from above,
Nourishment from below,
Your connection to life,
Your stable,
Enduring connection to the world,
Your soul connection,
The part of you that moves through lifetimes This connection is the substrate of your being.
The more you bring your awareness to it,
The more it will strengthen you,
Show you who you are in whatever challenging moments arise,
So that the responses you need arise on their own,
Out of this calm,
Out of this stability.
And out of this awareness,
We honor each other,
All connected in our sacred heart.
We honor this planet that created us,
That is us.
We honor the sun,
The cosmos,
The vast fabric of reality we have only the barest glimpse of,
But which holds us,
Which loves us.
In this moment at hand,
My friend,
My heart honors yours.
May we move forth with dignity and mutual honoring of one another and all beings,
All species on the planet.
May you,
My friend,
And all beings be safe and free and protected from inner and outer harm.
May you be at ease and contented.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you experience ease of well-being.
May you experience stability.
May you know your own deep wisdom.
Be well,
My friend.
