Water Element

So you don't need to do anything for this meditation.

You're just going to relax and be exactly where you are as you are.

You are already the piece you're looking for,

Everything you're looking for.

It's already right here.

You're literally made of it.

So all we're doing is looking around together and feeling all the qualities that are here that you might have missed.

So let's just be aware of what's looking.

Be aware of the background subjectivity or consciousness that's hearing my voice.

Notice how quiet it is.

It's that which sees thought.

The witness that will always be there has always been there.

It's also completely infused inside your body.

So as you become aware of awareness,

See if there's anywhere that it isn't.

Look for a moment.

Is it in your body?

Is it in the room?

So what's looking is actually what makes up everything.

Everything is conscious.

Everything is this one consciousness.

There's nothing that's outside of it.

There's nothing that isn't alive and isn't conscious.

That includes your whole body.

That includes the whole room.

See if you can reach an endpoint of your awareness.

You have to think about it,

But from direct awareness,

From subjective awareness,

From just what's looking,

Is there anywhere where what's looking isn't?

Can awareness swim around?

Can it go up into the sky and down into the earth and inside your heart?

Look and see that the answer is yes.

So let's just feel the body.

Just start to feel the body.

So that is,

Bring what's looking and what's feeling into the body a little bit more.

Right now,

Let's just start with the breath,

Feeling the breath.

And feel the whole breath.

Feel through the skin of your chest,

Through the rib cage.

Feel the lungs expand.

Feel the stretch of the ribs.

Feel underneath the sternum and deep into the heart.

Feel that there's this natural rhythm of the breath.

You don't have to do it.

You don't have to breathe correctly.

You can just witness and feel the body moving.

And you're really in touch with yourself now.

You're feeling yourself.

Feel the chest.

Feel the whole of the chest.

Feel the spine and the back of the heart.

Really exhale if you feel to.

Feel under the collarbone.

Feel the tops of the shoulders.

Feel into the shoulder sockets and down inside the upper arms.

Feel the elbows and the crease of the elbows and the skin of the forearms and the bones that connect up to the wrist bones and the hand bones,

The vibration inside the palms,

The feeling at the ends of your fingertips.

Let pure consciousness,

You,

Infuse into your body.

You're a little more inside yourself.

You're a little more showing up inside your own body,

Inside your own fingertips.

Feel the belly.

Feel the whole belly.

Let it be soft and open.

Feel under the ribs.

Feel the back of the mid-back.

Surrender your belly.

Surrender your chest.

Let it be fully felt.

Let it be fully witnessed.

Your own attention,

You,

The awareness,

Really come all the way inside your body.

Feel the pelvis.

Feel where the pelvis meets where you're sitting or laying down.

Feel your sit bones and your hip bones just melt.

You don't have to hold your hips.

You don't have to hold your pelvis.

You don't have to hold your pubic bone.

You can let whatever sensation is in your pelvis be felt.

As we go along here,

If there's pain or there's sexual energy or whatever you feel,

It's just what's there.

It doesn't need to have a story on it or even a name.

It gets to just be.

Let your body be fully felt.

The bodies we have generally been deeply neglected.

So let this conscious awareness feeling into your body be like being held by a loved one,

Being held so,

So tenderly.

Let your legs soften.

Let the legs be heavy.

Let your thighs soften and your knees soften and your lower legs down into the ankles and the arches of the feet and in between the toes.

Let everything be caressed by this awareness,

Just feeling yourself,

Feeling the body.

Let the body melt into being seen,

Being felt.

The body starts to feel very safe when it's finally witnessed,

When it's finally touched by you,

The immortal oneness,

The immortal witness.

This body that's felt separate no longer feels separate when you show up for her,

For him,

For them.

Let's feel into the neck.

Feel the front of the neck and the back of the neck.

Feel into the spine.

Feel the throat.

Feel how the neck connects with the shoulders and the front of the chest.

Feel how the spine and the neck connects to the spine between the shoulder blades.

The body is a whole and it's connected to other wholes.

It's not separate.

It's not separate parts and the body is not separate from you or anything.

So let the neck be very supple and soft.

Hand it over.

Let it just be.

Let it just be.

Let's feel the back of the neck coming up into the brainstem.

We're just caressing the body with awareness.

Let the body just soften and soften and open.

You don't do it and you just let it happen.

My words will just open the back of your head.

Let it open.

You don't do it.

It happens on its own.

Feel the sides of the head,

The temples,

How the sides of the skull connect to the top of the skull and the front of the skull coming into the forehead and feel how the skull connects with the brain.

Those are not separate.

You have to come up with an image in your head to separate them,

But from your direct subjective experience right now,

Feel from the skull into the brain and maybe from the brain back out through the skull again,

Noticing there's no separation here.

It's one energy field.

It's only one awareness.

There's only one body and your body is part and parcel of the one body.

So go ahead and feel that.

Feel how from inside the brain it's connected to the skull,

It's connected to the air in the room.

Feel behind the eyes,

Feel the eyes be soft.

Feel into the eye sockets and the eyeballs themselves and how those eyes connect all the way to the brainstem in the back of the head.

You're feeling around.

You're just letting yourself be felt.

Feel the cheeks,

Feel the nose,

Feel the cheekbones,

Feel the upper part of the roof of the mouth,

The upper palate.

Feel the hinge of your jaw and your chin,

Your teeth and your tongue all the way to the back of the tongue.

Let the head be fully felt and you're inside your own head and you're inside your own neck and you're inside your own chest and arms,

Under the ribcage,

Into the belly,

Into the pelvis and down through the legs again.

I want you to feel how there's a flow inside your body.

You're not making anything flow,

But see if you can feel it.

See if you can feel that there's an energy flow.

It's subtle.

Maybe you can feel your hands or you can feel a subtle rippling of energy through your arms.

What does the feeling inside the chest,

What does it feel like?

What's the energy flow there?

Notice how the breath flows.

See if you can feel your blood pulsing in your veins.

Feel your whole body and notice there's no stagnancy.

There's actually not a part that doesn't feel alive.

Maybe there's an area that feels a little cloudier or denser.

There's probably several of those.

Let's dive into that spot.

Maybe it's in the back of your chest.

Maybe it's in your solar plexus or deep in your belly or the back of your head or inside your face feels tight.

Let's bring feeling into that,

Feel into that area.

Go right in and see,

Is it actually stagnant or is it also flowing?

It was just a little bit of a slower flow because we haven't given it much attention.

If you put your awareness in those cloudy spots or painful spots,

Go as close as you can,

Feel right up against,

Feel right next to,

Get to know it,

Get to know that spot and see if it too starts to flow.

It isn't stagnant.

There's no part of you that isn't alive,

That isn't asking for attention.

All those stagnant spots are asking for the flow to return.

They're actually calling out for attention and as soon as you give it to it,

To the neck,

To the chest,

Wherever there's a little bit of stagnancy,

The flow returns.

So feel your whole body flowing with energy.

Bones flow too,

They're allowed to flow,

It's no problem.

So feeling your whole body internally flowing,

Feeling the blood flow,

Feeling the energetic flow from top to bottom,

From bottom to top,

From front to back,

Swirling.

Now I want you to feel through your skin.

So from deep in the inside,

Feel the blood flow through the skin and again,

See if that flow stops at the skin.

Notice that there's a flow of energy like water on the outside of the skin,

Through the skin and down into your blood,

Down into the bones even.

Where is the flow stop?

It doesn't.

Let your awareness,

What's looking,

What's feeling,

Let it expand from deep,

Deep,

Deep,

Deep inside the body,

All the way through the skin and now out,

Out,

Out,

Several feet,

20 feet,

30 feet,

50 feet,

Keep going.

See if there's a place where the flow stops.

It might get more subtle,

But it doesn't stop.

And this vast,

Vast waters that you are submerged in,

Feel how you are already completely submerged in the waters of life.

Feel that you are deep in the ocean and also made of the ocean.

And just like swimming in the ocean,

You can absolutely let the ocean have you.

You don't have to hold yourself up.

You don't even have to swim.

You're made of the ocean.

The ocean doesn't have to swim in itself.

All you're doing is enjoying the feeling of the waters flowing through you.

They'll wash you clean.

They're always,

Always washing us clean,

But we try to do something and we miss it.

We don't let ourselves get flushed.

So let the energy,

Let the feeling of flow move through your body in and out.

Feel how energy moves in and out.

Feel how the pulse is inside the body.

It's also outside the body.

Water is fresh as well.

It's very fresh because it is never stagnant.

There's a river of water,

An ocean of water.

It's constantly cleansing everything inside of it.

So let the whole body dissolve like salt crystals into these waters.

Let everything that isn't in flow dissolve into flow.

You're already there.

You're already an ocean of energy,

An endless ocean connected to everything.

Everything is ocean,

Everything,

Everything.

All we're doing when we're meditating is just letting ourselves be that more and more,

Surrendering and dissolving,

Surrendering and dissolving,

And we're just taken up by the waters,

Taken up by God,

Really.

You were never in charge anyway.

The waters of life were.

The waters of God were.

If you like,

You can feel how cool the water is,

Cool and refreshing,

Like swimming on a hot day.

Or if you prefer,

Notice how warm the water is.

It's warm and soothing,

And it's cool and refreshing.

As St.

Francis said,

What's looking is what you're looking for.

Everything you're looking for,

It's right here.

You are made of the ocean of God.

You are these waters.

Letting them flow through you.

Letting them do their thing.

Letting life have you.

The waters of life already have you.

They're already submerged.

You're already submerged in them.

It just feels so much better to stop resisting,

To let the currents take you,

The currents swirling through your body.

The currents swirling in the room.

And this doesn't mean you will go with the flow with everything.

No.

The more you're connected to your body,

You'll go with the flow of them,

Which might mean to immediately leave a room with someone.

You'll be much more likely to hear it,

Much more able to feel the flow of your being,

And life will never,

Ever,

Ever not take care of you.

It will always be taking care of you,

But you can more clearly feel that flow the more you let this flow have you.

And let any remaining tension or blockages or deep pain in the body,

Watch.

If you give it attention now,

Let it be taken on the current.

Let it just be flushed through your system.

Just being aware of it,

Just bringing awareness there is a flush.

It flushes that stagnant energy when you pay attention,

When you give attention to that spot that's been a little stagnant relative to this rushing river.

Good.

Life will always be flowing through you,

As you.

These waters will always be here for you to swim and enjoy.

The currents of life will eventually have you anyway,

So just let them have you now.