And welcome to the session.
I invite you to lay down.
Or take a seat.
And get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish and just begin by slowing down the breath.
Breathing in through the nose.
Low into the belly.
And slow.
Just taking a moment to scan the body.
And scan the mind.
And release any surface level tensions that might be present.
And taking one more slow and deep breath.
Than allowing your breath rate to return to its normal.
And internally visualizing a flame.
Picturing a flame inside your mind.
Whatever way it manifests for you and really turning your attention towards it.
In this session,
We'll be practicing a technique.
Called the flame and the void.
Been taken from the book The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
And I find it to be a simple yet powerful mindfulness practice.
I'll read you the quote.
Remember the flame,
Lead,
And the void.
An odd thing that Tam had taught him.
Concentrate on a single flame.
And feed all your passions into it.
Hate,
Anger.
Until your mind became empty.
Became one with the void.
Tam said,
And then you could do anything.
So picturing that flame inside your mind.
That will be the meditation object for this session.
The Anchor.
And if you notice,
A thought emotion.
Feeling.
Or sensation arise?
Gently.
Lovingly.
Feeding into the flame.
If at any time you find yourself lost in thought or distracted.
Reignite the flame inside your mind.
Visualizing it deeply.
And just feed everything into it.
Begin again.
You may notice subtle bodily sensations.
Tangential thoughts arising.
The moment you become aware of those thoughts or sensations.
Gently fade them into the flame.
I visualize feeding these things into the flame.
Almost as if there's a stream of energy from me to the flame.
And I offer it to that and release it into it.
Gets to the flame and it just gently dissolves.
You could visualize putting on a piece of paper.
And burning it.
Don't get too caught up with the logistics.
This gently.
Whatever arises into the flame.
This practice is a variation on mindfulness.
Awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.
The traditional anchor is the breath.
But we can choose whatever anchor we like In this case,
The flame.
The added benefit of this practice is that when we notice a distraction,
When we notice something in our awareness.
We have something to do with it.
You visualize that distraction being offered,
Fed to the flame.
And we keep doing this.
Keep feeding to the flame.
Until there's nothing left.
Until there is just a state of calm emptiness.
If during this session that happens.
Release the flame.
And simply sit and be.
In this moment.
And acceptance.
Reality.
As it is.
For what it is right now.
Emotions and sensations and other things distract you once more.
Re-ignite the flame.
And begin again.
Really visualizing the flame inside your mind.
The moment you become aware.
Of a thought,
A sensation.
Or anything else arising Gently.
Lovingly.
Feed it into the flame.
This is a non-judgmental process.
It's very easy to feed.
Negative sensations or uncomfortable feelings into the flame.
Not so much the positive ones or the pleasant ones.
Whatever arises.
Good,
Bad,
Ugly,
Unknown.
We treated the same.
Gently feeding it into the visualization of the flame inside the mind.
When there's nothing left.
And let go of the flame itself.
And simply be.
Okay.
So now let's sit together for 10 minutes.
Exploring this technique for the flame and the void.
Picturing a flame inside your mind.
Using it as the anchor of attention.
If you notice your mind wandering.
Becoming aware of an emotion.
Sensation.
Or anything else arising.
Gently.
Lovingly.
Feed it all into the flame.
And begin again.
And if at any time you find.
And emptiness.
A calm void.
Where there's nothing left to feed in.
Release the flame.
And simply be in this moment.
Let's begin.
So if you'd like to maintain the meditation you're more than welcome to do so.
With everyone else just gently returning.
Back to their bodies.
Back to the session.
Back to their day.
In this session we explored a technique called the flame and the void.
A mindfulness variation that was initially taken from the book.
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan Don't get disheartened or discouraged.
Practicing a technique from a work of fiction.
Good authors take.
And get inspired by.
Techniques,
Principles and approaches.
From traditions.
And oftentimes they are quite useful.
Lots more.
Every technique.
Every approach was also made up by someone.
The benefit of this technique from a mindfulness perspective.
Is that it shifts the anchor to an internal visualization.
But also gives you something to do.
With a base mindfulness practice on the breath.
And you become aware of something.
When you get distracted,
When you notice yourself lost in thought.
You simply just let it go and return to the breath.
Whereas in this practice it gives you something symbolic to do with it.
I've gotten distracted.
Something has arisen.
I offer it,
I feed it to the flame that I'm focusing on.
I find,
Personally.
That simple addition.
That slight tweak.
Is quite profound and deep.
Produces a state of mindful calm.
So I quite like this technique.
I encourage you to explore all of the different tools available to you in relation to mindfulness.
And meditation in general.
And find the one that works for you.
Gives you the state.
Functionality.
Helps you attain the goals that you're looking for.
Thank you for joining me in this session.
And I'll see you in the next one.
