Take a couple breaths wherever you are,
Whatever you're doing.
Give yourself a moment to settle in.
And as you settle in,
I want to invite you to give yourself permission to be really honest about how much you suffer.
It's funny when we do this,
When I do this,
I become aware of all the energy I put into not acknowledging the parts of me that suffer.
So maybe if you're like me,
This will feel surprisingly relaxing to just relax into your mess,
Your embraceable mess,
As Jeff Foster calls it.
And just be really plain and honest about the fact that you suffer deeply.
In this way we descend into the depths of the earth,
Our own darkness,
Our own hiddenness,
Our own sleepfulness.
And what's amazing is it doesn't have to be any other way.
We can just acknowledge this as part of our being,
Part of human life.
As you do this,
As you descend into the earth treasury,
The depths of the earth,
Sometimes called the hell realms,
You can simultaneously presence.
Your higher awareness,
That which redeems,
Illuminates,
Enlightens,
Forgives.
Because you don't just suffer,
So much of you is radically alive and awake and breaking your heart open again and again and offering it to the world as a sacrament,
As an offering.
There's that part of you too.
And notice how willingly this part of you that is absolutely liberated and love itself,
How willingly it descends into the depths of the earth.
Because the part of you that's awake refuses to resurrect,
It refuses to gain enlightenment so long as any other part of you is left behind,
Any unhealed wounds,
Any unresolved traumas,
Anything at all lingering in the depths.
There's a part of you that will never leave that behind in yourself,
In anybody.
Just appreciate this,
Your own awakened nature will not abandon you,
Will not abandon any part of you.
Your awakened nature will hold all of you in its loving embrace.
There's no part of you that doesn't belong.
There's no suffering in the depths that can't be redeemed and illuminated.
What a relief that we can just relax here exactly as we are and know the depths of the earth,
Know the depths of our own suffering and know that within us is also the seed and the capacity,
The potential and power to redeem it,
To invite it to be redeemed.
As we acquaint ourselves with this journey,
This trajectory into the depths and ascending back up so to speak,
We start to see it in others,
We start to make room for others suffering.
And we've made this journey before we've walked this path.
Without a thought we descend into the depths of the earth.
We sit with them in presence,
In love,
Refusing to come back to life,
Refusing to accept our enlightenment until every last hell realm is emptied.
