Intention And Alignment

In this meditation, we set up take on a practice of self-inquiry, sometimes known as "The Soul Questions." Then, after letting those go of these questions, we turn towards a core practice using a mantra to align thought, word, and heart.

Transcript

Hello, This is Billy, Here to guide you through this meditation. So to begin, Find your way to a comfortable meditation posture, Either seated, Kneeling, Or lying, And give yourself a few moments to settle in here. You can stretch and fidget, Rock back and forth, And find your sweet spot. Any way to make yourself maybe 5 or 10% more comfortable, Knowing you're always free to move and shift should discomfort arise. Once you feel relatively settled, You can choose to close your eyes, Or simply cast your gaze down a few feet out in front of you, Letting the eyes be soft and unfocused. And then take a nice, Slow, Deep breath in through the nose, And out through the mouth. Another nice, Slow, Deep breath all the way in, And then simply letting that breath go. And for a few rounds of breath here, Taking 4 or 2, 6 breathing, All that is, Is a breath in through the nose for a count of 4, Holding the breath for a count of 2, And exhaling the breath away for a count of 6. Just noticing how that feels in your experience as you breathe in this way. Just by lengthening the exhale relative to the inhale, As we do in 4, 2, 6 breathing, We begin to take ourselves out of the body's stress response, The sympathetic nervous system, And trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, The body's natural relaxation response. And this is certainly not something you need to keep within the confines of formal meditation. This can come with you any time, Anywhere, Any place. You're looking to slow things down and find a little more ease. On your next out breath, Let go of your control over the breathing, And here, Simply allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm all on its own, Letting it be like you're receiving the breath rather than actively breathing the breath. And as that natural rhythm of breath flows, A moment just to check in with a few areas we tend to carry tension in the body, Seeing if we can smooth out the forehead and relax the muscles around the eyes, Unclench the jaw if there's any tightness there, Let the shoulders fall away from the ears, And the hands to land soft and natural in a way that you don't even need to think about them. Seeing if this natural rhythm of breath can help erode any tension that might be in the abdomen right now, And just for a moment, Seeing where you might be able to physically let go and soften just a little bit more. Just allow yourself a moment to notice how good it feels that in this moment, There's nowhere else to go, There's nothing else to do. There's not even anyone to be right now. We'll introduce a self-inquiry practice to lay the base for our meditation today. These are sometimes known as the soul questions, And these are not questions you need to try to answer cognitively or intellectually. You don't need to tie up the thinking mind. It's more like dropping a stone into a pond at rest and just noticing what ripples up. Simply asking these questions without any expectation of an answer. So to start, Silently to yourself, Just asking, Who am I? Who am I? Just asking the question, Stepping back, And noticing. Who am I? Letting that go and asking yourself, What do I really want? What do I really want? Or if you prefer, You might ask yourself, What is my heart's deepest desire? What do I really want or what is my heart's deepest desire? Letting that go and just dropping in, What am I grateful for? What am I grateful for? Who am I grateful for? What am I grateful for? Who am I grateful for? And finally, Letting that go and asking yourself, How can I help? How can I help? How can I help or how can I be of service? Then drawing a nice, Slow, Deep breath in through the nose. As you exhale that breath away, Letting go of all of those questions, Anything that may or may not have arisen, And just letting the universe sort out all the little details. Now we'll turn our attention to a mantra. The mantra we'll use today is OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. Finally, As you work with this mantra, Bring your attention to the mind with OM, Your attention to your throat with AH, And your attention to the heart with HUM. OM at the mind, AH at the throat, HUM at the heart, Settling into a gentle repetition of the mantra and a gentle movement through these parts of the body that feels comfortable for you. OM is a universal vibration, One that's said to bring peace and tranquility to thought. AH, The vibration of the throat, Said to bring peace and tranquility to word. HUM, The vibration of the heart space, Said to bring peace and tranquility to this emotional center of the body. So by repeating OM AH HUM, We're bringing harmony to thought, Word, And heart, Knowing our lives flow better when these aspects of ourselves are in alignment. Of course, Thought and distraction will arise. This is what happens to all meditators every time they sit, And your only job is when you recognize you're no longer repeating OM AH HUM, Is to let go of whatever's pulled you away without judgment or frustration, And come back to that movement of the mantra. So we'll continue practicing in this way for just a few more minutes, And when you hear the sound of my voice again, You can sit gently with your eyes still closed. On your next out breath, Letting go of any focus on the mantra, Any effort or technique, And allowing your mind to be totally free and at ease. If it wants to think, Let it think. If it wants to be still, Let it be still. Then as if it could happen all on its own, Allow your breath to draw slightly deeper, To open your attention to the sense doors, Movement re-emerging whenever you're ready. In your own time, Blinking your eyes back open and re-entering the stream of your day.