This meditation today,
We will be invoking a feeling of love or some might call it the divine and we can put any word or label on it that we want but we're trying to invoke the feeling of something that's growing inside of us or something that maybe we know is present and something that is a sense of maybe warmth or radiation or something just beyond us.
We're going to start with a mudra and the mudra,
We're going to take our right hand and turn the palm up.
The left hand is going to come on top with the thumb pointing up and this is a mudra that's designed to help us in our meditative state and also to develop a sense of commitment to this practice.
So we're going to place the hands in on the lap.
If at any point this mudra is not comfortable for you then you can just take any hand position that you like.
And it should start to bring the breath deeper down into this place.
You can have your eyes closed or open and I invite you to just sense the breath as it's coming in and out through your nose.
Feeling the steadiness of your breath,
The length of your spine,
Feeling the surface beneath you,
You could be lying in this position if you'd like as well.
And just as we begin,
Take a moment to say to yourself,
I commit to this practice and I resolve to show up every day for myself and a commitment to developing a greater sense of clarity,
Divine connection,
And openness.
Just letting that breath be natural,
Smooth,
And regular.
Feeling the steadiness with this hand position and the resolve to commit to this practice.
Now just release that hand mudra,
Place your palms face up on your lap or to your sides and then the palm face up position,
We are in a receptive mode.
So as you breathe in through your nose,
Feeling the breath nourishing and traveling to the heart.
And as my teacher once said many,
Many,
Many,
Many years ago,
The heart is the hub of all holy places.
Go there and roam in it.
So as we take our awareness into that heart space,
What do you notice?
Heart beating maybe?
The breath moving here.
And now I'd like to invite you to maybe a memory or a feeling of when you felt connected to something greater.
Maybe it was a place in nature.
Maybe it was gazing into the eyes of a beloved.
Maybe it was time in prayer or gazing upon a figure,
Mother Teresa,
The Buddha,
Jesus,
Whatever might have given you a sense of connection to your heart,
To something that moved beyond you into a greater expansive awareness.
Connect to that place in your body.
Where does that feeling land?
Is it in the heart?
Do you feel it in your abdomen?
Do you feel it in your palms?
So as you connect to this,
And maybe you haven't experienced something greater,
Maybe you've never had that sort of almost epiphany,
So you can just connect to the word love.
You could connect to the word divine.
Maybe there's another word that's arising for you.
And sit with that and listen.
Be present with whatever is arising.
If it is a word,
So we can interchange the word love,
Divine,
Christ,
Buddha,
Whatever it may be in your particular lineage or your particular upbringing or whatever it is that really deeply connects to you.
Where is that landing in your body?
Where do you sense it?
And is it warm?
Is it tingling?
So now remove this person,
This place,
This image from your mind's eye and stay present and resident in the place in your body where you feel this connection,
Where you feel this sensation,
Where you feel maybe this warmth or tingling,
Whatever it might be that you're experiencing.
Maybe it's actually a color.
Maybe there's a light.
And feel that sensation begin to radiate beyond its original point.
The palms open and the heart lifted and the breath regular.
So you're feeling this radiating feeling moving throughout your body,
Moving into the limbs,
Into the fingers,
And to the toes.
Continue to stay with it.
Moving into it,
Receiving it,
Becoming one with it.
You are not separate from this sensation.
You are the sensation.
You are this light.
You are this divine being.
You are this warmth.
There is no separation.
Continue breathing naturally.
Just a few more moments here in this space.
And notice if the sensation now is moving beyond you.
Is it formless?
Or is there a shape?
And has it shifted?
Has the sensation changed?
Does it now become a light or has it now become a warmth,
A tingling?
What is it that you notice?
Do you feel light or do you feel heavy?
And just begin to return to your breath,
Returning to the surface beneath you,
Returning to the sounds in the room,
The sound of my voice.
And I invite you to bring your hands together,
Placing them in front of the heart in a place of reverence.
Yoga we call this the Anjali mudra and as we close our practice together today we take a moment to bow the head to this space and we honor it with great love and respect and in the yoga tradition we say namaste as a way to recognize that divine presence with great love and respect that is within all of us namaste
