Listening For Sankalpa

Welcome to a meditation practice on Sankalpa.

My name is Kelly Villarreal.

To begin,

We'll start by getting comfortable and creating a container for your meditation practice.

We'll be here for a little while,

So you might start by removing as many distractions as you can.

Make sure you're in a place that you won't be interrupted.

You might close any windows,

Close any doors,

And make sure that you have everything you need to be as comfortable as you possibly can for the next little while.

Once you've done that,

Start by ideally reclining.

If you can,

You might lay down.

Lay down in a way that your body is supported,

Or sit.

If you're choosing to sit,

You might orient in such a way that your body still feels supported,

Maybe bringing some height to rest underneath your hips or allowing your back to rest against a wall.

When you've settled your body into a position that's comfortable,

You can soften your eyes or close them.

Take a long breath in through your nose and a soft,

Clearing sigh,

Settling breath out through your mouth.

Give yourself a moment,

An opportunity to land,

To settle down,

And to start to bring your awareness inside.

The practice of connecting with sankalpa is sometimes used synonymously with creating or calling forth an intention.

And,

In fact,

The two things are very different.

So,

In connecting with sankalpa,

The Sanskrit root of san speaks to a quality of truth.

And kalpa,

A vow to bring that truth forth into the world.

Not something created from will or desire,

But from truth and from wisdom.

So you can begin your practice by simply sending some threads of awareness out into your external environment.

You take a moment and just inventory where you are in time and space.

You'd be aware of any sounds in the space around you,

One,

And then another.

Possibly noticing if there's a tendency to create a narrative or a mental picture related to the sounds you hear.

As you listen,

See if you could orient to a space where you're more receptive to sound.

Simply allowing it to come to you and then go.

You can notice any quality of light that's filtering to you from behind closed eyelids.

You can sense the floor underneath you or your back in contact with a seat or a wall.

Noticing the anchor points that ground your body.

Notice the things that are touching you.

Give you a sense of physical feedback about where your body is in space.

And first orienting really to our place in this big external world.

The world of what is made manifest of form.

And even with eyes closed in the container that you've created.

All of the threads of things that still vie for your attention.

That want to draw you in and out of yourself.

From this most external layer,

Just sensing the body.

And start to draw attention a little closer to yourself.

And notice what's alive inside of you.

And you might begin by just mentally scanning through the body.

Top to bottom or bottom to top.

Sensing through layers of muscle.

The presence of your body's joints.

And the little pieces of feedback that arise from inside of your body.

Like sensation.

Sometimes of space or openness.

Little aches and pains that are associated with being alive in the world.

You might notice too,

The bits of feedback like digestion.

Or even sensing the presence of energy or emotion inside your body.

Just take a moment and notice what's present in the space inside of you.

And the inner landscape of you.

From these most obvious physical layers of self.

The layers of awareness that relate to what is outside of us.

And a first layer of what's inside of us.

And notice your body breathing.

Not in a way of taking conscious control of the breath or changing anything about it.

But could you simply observe the rhythm of the body breathing you.

Breath flowing in.

And flowing back out.

Notice if you could sense an animating quality or an aliveness to the breath.

The way that your breath interacts with and animates the physical layer of your body.

And the way the two are separate but related.

They interact.

You could start to turn your attention to the layer of thought.

And simply notice the mind thinking.

Notice what's present in the quality of your thoughts today.

And that even as thoughts present themselves and want to draw you in.

Or down a particular pathway.

That you could simply return to the anchoring spaces of the body.

And to your breath.

You come back now to noticing the body breathing.

Noticing.

Watching.

Without changing.

You might let your awareness rest at the center of your heart.

And see if you can notice there.

The physical action of breath animating the body.

You can feel the chest rise to accommodate your breath in.

Feel the body soften as breath goes back out.

As you draw your next breath in.

You could imagine your energy or awareness moving up from the base of your spine.

All the way up and out the top of the head.

And as you exhale,

Trace your awareness back down the line of the spine.

From the top of the head to the base of the tailbone.

And do that a few more rounds with a breath in.

Imagine awareness,

Energy moving up the body from tailbone to crown.

And with a breath out,

Energy and awareness settling back down.

Top of the head to base of the spine.

And watch about three more rounds of breath come and go like that.

And from awareness of breath,

You'd start to let attention again.

Scan through the body.

Starting at the very top of the head.

And notice the top of the head.

And the back of the head,

If it's anchored against something.

The wall or the floor underneath you.

And sense the muscles of the face.

The muscles of expression.

Soft and settled.

Notice eyes soft.

Jaw soft.

And sense the hollow space at the base of your throat.

And let awareness be drawn across the tops of the shoulders.

And down the upper arms.

And to your elbows.

Your forearms.

All the way out to your hands.

And sense the tips of the fingers.

And then come back to notice the space around your heart,

The center of the chest.

And feel the front of the chest animated by breath.

Notice the backs of both shoulders.

And sense the middle of the belly.

Both sides of the ribcage.

Notice there too.

You can feel the interaction between breathing layer,

Breathing body.

And the physical layer.

And bring an awareness to the front of the hips.

And to the back of your hips.

Notice the front of your thighs.

The backs of the thighs.

You feel your knees.

Notice what's present in the space between your knees and your feet.

All the way out to the tips of the toes.

And from out beyond the tips of the toes and bottoms of the feet.

As you breathe in,

Begin again to draw awareness up the body from the feet.

All the way to the top of the head.

And as you breathe out,

Feel or sense the body emptying from the top down,

Head to feet.

With breath in,

Let awareness rise up the body from feet to head.

And with breath out,

Let awareness settle back down the body from head to feet.

Just let your awareness drift through layers of self.

And sensing the integration,

Physical body,

Breath body.

And underneath that,

Mind body.

And beyond these first three more superficial layers of the body,

Resides the body of wisdom.

Or what is referred to as the Vijnanamaya Kosha,

The wisdom sheath,

Wisdom layer.

You contain this deep layer of internal wisdom.

A wisdom that is innate and connected to source.

The wisdom that resides deep within.

It's connected to something spacious and bigger than you.

And it's from this deep within layer that you can begin to listen for the call,

The quiet voice of Sankalpa.

Or the deep truth of what you want or what you need or are meant really to manifest into the world of form.

And try not to let this become a thought exercise happening in mind body.

Or from the layer of will or determination.

But simply take a quiet moment.

Allow yourself to rest in the space you've created in your body.

And simply listen for what presents itself to you.

It may be that what arises is a word.

Or just a feeling.

Don't overthink it.

Just allow the space to listen for what wants to be heard.

Most often,

This will be the first thing that arises before you begin to layer on thought or logic.

Open your heart.

Be with what's there.

When you have a word or a sense or a feeling about what your Sankalpa,

That whisper of deep truth,

Might be,

Start to imagine what a day or a moment would look like in your life if this Sankalpa,

This true deep wish of the heart,

Were manifest into being.

What are you doing?

What are you wearing?

How does it feel?

Just as if it were happening right now,

Here in the present moment.

Imagine yourself living into the truth of your Sankalpa,

Brought into being.

The deepest wish of the heart.

And just keep returning to the word or to the feeling that you've identified for yourself.

And you might quietly,

Silently repeat it three times.

Beginning with,

I am.

I am peace.

I am love.

Or,

I am ease.

Whatever it is.

Like an affirmation of what is alive in you.

Repeat it to yourself.

Then,

You'd offer a moment of thanks and gratitude.

And let the truth of this,

This affirmation,

Settle into your mind and into your heart.

The truth of practices like yoga and meditation is that they are meant to bring you closer to the wisdom and the knowledge that you already have inside of you.

That which you were born with.

As each of us moves through our lives,

The innate connection to inner truth and wisdom can become dimmed by learned systems,

By logic,

Conditioning.

And what we're here to do in practice is to simply return to listening to the quiet wisdom that exists underneath the busy noise and the demands of the external world.

If you seek,

Over time,

Your sankalpa,

The deep truth,

It'll answer you like a deep pull from within.

As you prepare to return out of meditation practice,

Allow yourself to keep wondering,

To ponder.

What is it that you're truly longing for?

Name it.

Call it forth.

In return to this practice of being with,

We're creating space to hear sankalpa often.

As you move through the world and through your day,

Keep returning to what's present for you,

Like a mantra,

To remain anchored on your path.

Aum.

Shanti.

Shanti.

Shanti.

Aum.

Peace.

Peace.

Peace.