And welcome to the session.
Invite you to take a seat.
Will lie down.
And get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish.
Just begin by slowing down the breath.
Breathing in through the nose.
Low into the belly.
And slept.
Taking a moment to relax.
Set a small intention for yourself.
For this session.
For the next few minutes.
I will be.
All in.
On this practice.
Applying my full effort.
Focus.
And attention.
Practicing a skill on the meditation mat.
To receive the benefits of the meditation mat.
Taking another slow deep breath just allowing your breathing to return to its normal rate.
And visualizing in your mind's eye.
Of flame.
Visualizing a flame in whatever way that it manifests for you.
Candle.
Fire.
Or something else.
Really picturing a flame inside your mind.
This visualization will be our anchor of mindful focus.
If you notice your mind wandering.
If you notice yourself lost in thought emotion.
Or sensation.
Gently feed those things into this flame.
Like an offering.
Your mind wanders away from the flame.
Feed whatever it wanders to into the flame.
And return your focus back upon it.
This technique is called the flame and the void and is derived from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
It's a simple technique,
But one that.
.
.
Offers.
Really profound results quite quickly.
Quote from the book goes as such.
Remember the flame lad.
And the void.
It was an odd thing Tam had taught him.
Concentrate on a single flame.
And feed all your passions into it.
Fear,
Hate and anger.
Until you become one.
Until your mind became empty.
Become one with the void,
" Tam said,
And you can do anything.
So the practice is simple.
We visualize a flame.
Making that flame our object of mindful focus.
And we feed every thought.
Emotion,
Sensation.
Into that flame.
And will keep doing that until there is nothing left to feed.
And then we release the flame.
And simply sit as the void.
As the emptiness.
As the Self.
As the moment.
If those distractions re-arise.
We begin again.
Reigniting and refocusing upon the flame.
Focusing those thoughts,
Emotions and sensations back in.
Until we can once again release the flame and simply bake next time.
That arises in your mind.
That is not the flame.
Feed it into the flame with love.
With compassion.
As an offering.
In the pause after your next out breath.
And as you breathe in.
Begin a scan.
Scanning the body.
Scanning the mind.
For any potential distractions.
And breathe them in.
And at the pause at the top of the breath.
Into the out-breath.
Breathe them into this flame.
Igniting the flame.
Feeding the flame.
With the in-breath We generally look for potential distractions.
And on the out breath we gently feed them to the flame.
In the same way that when you blow on a fire.
Your breath.
Reignites it.
The oxygen that it needs.
Or visit life.
As we breathe in.
We search.
As we breathe out,
We release to the flame.
Feed everything into the flame.
Not just the bad and the neutral.
But also the good.
The things you crave.
Positive feelings.
A version.
Is a trap.
But so too is craving and desire.
Whatever arises.
Whatever you notice that is beyond the flame Release it.
Allow it for the next few minutes to simply fall away.
For the next 10 minutes.
That sit in silence together.
With the flame.
Feeding whatever arises into it.
Thoughts.
Sensations,
Emotions,
Memory.
The bad.
The neutral.
The cravings,
The aversions.
And where nothing remains.
Release the flame.
And simply be.
And if you notice a craving.
Or a desire.
Or a longing.
For that state of emptiness.
For a moment when the flame can be released.
That too is a distraction.
That too can be fed into the flame.
Let's begin.
You so if you'd like to maintain the meditation.
You are more than welcome to do so.
Before everyone else just gently returning.
Back to their bodies.
To the session.
To the day.
Today we explored the practice of the flame and the void.
A variation of mindfulness that is.
Immediately accessible.
And quiet.
Profound.
Rather than the traditional anchor of the breath.
We choose to visualize a flame.
Reading into it,
Our emotions,
Thoughts,
Sensations.
Fading into whatever arises.
In this way it gives us something to do when we notice our mind is distracted.
Rather than just letting it go.
Which can be a little bit challenging.
Instead offer it to the flame.
Again and again and again.
This practice also gives us something to do.
Or a way to know.
How to sort of enter the mindfulness state.
Mindfulness is the awareness that arises.
From purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.
We practice this by returning our focus to a meditation object.
Like the breath.
Or the flame.
In this meditation.
When there is nothing left.
When we are in the moment.
We simply release the flame.
And exist in the void.
The moment.
The emptiness.
The self.
Whatever space or place you call it.
Mindfulness.
We simply pay.
And when we notice those distractions arising again.
We just begin again.
Reigniting the flame.
And offering whatever arises to it.
With love.
With compassion.
The good,
The bad.
The neutral,
The unknown.
And again.
Thank you for joining me in this session.
And I'll see you in the next one.
