Let's go into an awareness that we're here.
Notice your body,
Your breath.
Notice how you're seated,
If you're lying down,
If you're comfortable,
If you're warm enough.
Notice your whole experience in your body,
Breath.
Notice the energy too.
Are you feeling kind of settled,
Regulated,
Grounded?
Sometimes we have a lot of chaos going on in our life or in our mind,
And other times we just sink right into it.
It helps us to develop patience when we're doing practices on an ongoing basis.
Let yourself become aware of your whole body,
Head to toes.
And as we start,
Notice if there's anything you could do to make your body more comfortable.
This practice is partly a visualization practice.
Some people have a picture in their mind and other people have more of a felt sense.
Whatever it is that we're doing as we go into the cave of the heart.
Allow yourself to rest there and allow your brain and your mind to come to stillness.
Whole body awareness,
Head to toes.
Notice how you feel now.
Make any last minute adjustments.
And notice your breath.
Let your breath be diaphragmatic,
Even,
Smooth.
You might let your belly soften a little bit more as you breathe out.
Let your breath move smoothly from exhale to inhale,
Inhale to exhale.
And as you're doing that,
Become aware of the condition in your mind.
Is your mind kind of steady and stable?
Is it sleepy or sluggish?
Are you anxious in your mind?
And begin to be aware now of the whole space your body is occupying,
And in particular,
The space of your chest area.
Notice that area that's protected by the ribcage,
Protects the heart and lungs.
And it's also the center of a lot of our emotions,
The emotional heart center,
As well as the heart chakra,
Anahata chakra.
As you're breathing,
Let your awareness flow from the heart center,
Inhale up to the eyebrow center.
Exhale from the eyebrow center through the throat center to the heart center.
Let your awareness flow through that central channel where the chakras are aligned in behind the forehead,
In the throat center,
In the center of the chest,
In the heart chakra.
And you're easing into the practice.
Let yourself become aware of your body,
Your breath,
The space your body is occupying,
That field of energy.
And now allowing your awareness to flow with your breath.
Exhale on that channel from your eyebrow center,
Exhale through to the throat center,
And then through to the heart center.
Smooth,
Even flow of awareness and breath.
And if during the meditation that you find that you've gotten distracted,
Sometimes we just bring ourselves right back,
But if you need to,
You could come back through these steps.
Open your eyes,
Maybe look around,
Get yourself oriented again.
Into awareness of your body,
Of the breath,
And then of this flow of awareness.
Exhale from the eyebrow center through the throat center to the heart center.
Inhale from the heart center to the eyebrow center.
The next time you land in your heart center,
Allow yourself to stay there.
Even though we're bringing in a visual,
We're not bringing it into the brain area.
We're bringing it into the heart chakra.
As you are aware of the heart chakra,
Let go of awareness of the breath,
Of the body.
And imagine that you're walking into this beautiful,
Open,
Spacious cave of the heart.
At the center of this cave,
There is a brilliant white light.
See yourself walking in,
Sitting in meditation,
In that same field of energy,
The field of light emanating from the center of the cave of your heart.
Let yourself be aware that this is happening in the heart chakra.
Let the visualization be in your heart chakra.
You're in this beautiful,
Bright,
Open,
Spacious,
Airy cave of the heart,
Sitting in meditation,
Absorbed in the radiance of that brilliant white light at the center.
For the next several minutes,
There's nothing else to do.
Nothing else to focus on.
Allow your mind to rest and focus on the deep layers of stillness,
Sitting in meditation,
That brilliant white light.
There are many layers in the mind.
Focus on the stillness.
Let the whole of your body be filled with that light at the center,
Radiating out to fill the whole cave of the heart,
Whole of your mind body.
Even if your mind got absorbed in thought,
That's okay.
In the very same mind field,
We can allow ourselves to let the activity move to the background and focus on the layers of stillness.
Visualizing your body in meditation in the cave of the heart.
Beautiful,
Radiant light from the center.
Continue to let yourself be absorbed in the stillness in the mind.
Bring yourself back again and again,
Resting in the heart chakra,
In the cave of the heart.
If your mind is engaged in thought,
Bring yourself into that deeper layer.
When it's time to come out of the meditation,
See yourself standing in front of that brilliant white light at the center of the cave in your heart chakra.
Without turning your back on the light,
Take a few steps back and then start to allow that awareness to flow again.
From the heart chakra through the throat chakra to the eyebrow chakra.
Exhale from the eyebrow center to the heart center,
Inhaling back to the eyebrow center.
Begin to be aware of the breath in the nostrils from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back.
Open your eyes,
Move your body a little bit.
And anytime we choose during the rest of the day,
We can touch back into the stillness that's always there.
You can come back into the cave of the heart or just into that stillness in the mind.
