Find a comfortable seat as you allow the energy to settle.
Pay light attention to the breath.
Imagine that you're somewhere perfectly safe.
Maybe a hammock on a beach.
Maybe a field or meadow.
Imagine you're lying on your back and looking up at the night sky.
And up in the dark,
Midnight blue,
Are twinkling thousands and thousands of stars.
Pick one of the stars to focus on.
And imagine there's a direct line of communication between you and this star.
That as the light of the star is reaching you from those millions of miles away,
A message from your heart is also sent up to the star.
So,
As you inhale from your relaxed place on the beach or in the meadow,
Inhaling,
Receive the gentle light of your star directly into your heart.
And exhale,
Allow the message from your heart to be drawn up to your personal star.
And you don't have to know what the message is.
Just know that your heart is communicating something precious and important.
Inhaling,
Draw in the starlight.
Exhaling,
Release your heart's message.
Haruki Murakami said,
The stars are like the trees in the forest,
Alive and breathing.
So maybe,
As you're breathing,
You can feel that the star is breathing you also.
Stars are stories of remaking.
They look like they're fixed,
And maybe even inert.
But they're magicians,
Bringing together pieces of universe,
Drawing them in,
Fusing,
Generating enormous amounts of energy,
Drawing clusters together and emitting light.
So,
As you experience yourself as a star,
Maybe,
Inhale and imagine the gravitational pull at the heart,
And exhale the creative power.
To make anything new in the universe,
It takes a star.
Constantly remaking,
Pulling in raw materials and turning them into something new.
Every atom of carbon in your body was created in the heart of a dying star.
Feel where the palms of your hands are resting.
Every atom of carbon in your palm was made in the heart of a star.
You are made from some of the rarest conditions in the universe.
You are life force that drew in raw elements and then created you.
Perhaps you can imagine your heart as a star,
Created to carry the beating center of the universe.
Sometimes exploding in love,
And sometimes collapsing in grief.
To do one is to make space for the other.
Just as to inhale is to create the conditions for the exhale,
To love,
We're opening ourselves to grief.
And in our grief,
We expand the ability to love.
So,
When things feel really difficult,
Painful,
Maybe we can look up,
Find our star.
And remember,
It takes the courage of a dying star to make something new.
And we don't know what that is.
We can't know yet.
Just as the star doesn't know what will happen when the chaos comes,
She just has to let the alchemy occur.
All we know is that,
For every fragment of suffering,
Something new is made.
There is courage in not knowing what's happening,
Not knowing what we're making,
Just knowing,
On the inhale,
There is suffering,
On the exhale,
It is making something new.
On the inhale,
Being.
On the exhale,
Becoming.
So,
Let's take the next few breaths to experience that cycle.
Inhale,
Being.
Exhale,
Becoming.
Gently coming back,
Feeling the physical sensations of being here,
In this body made from stars.
As we bring this meditation to a close,
Remember that you can always come back to this practice of inhaling to receive light,
And exhaling to shine.
You might never know the ways you are shining,
Just by doing your work,
By doing the practice of breathing through your suffering,
And making something new.
Thank you for your practice.
Namaste.
