Now the teachings as they're passed down through the lineage say that our cultivation is not separate from daily life.
There's no separation in the Tao.
When we begin to understand this,
Then our idea of cultivation,
Of practice,
Takes on a different meaning.
It's not something that we do for an hour this day and then leave it behind for the rest of the day.
We begin to experience our cultivation as a mesh,
A web,
That holds each moment of our day.
Each turning of the hand is part of that cultivation.
Each step we take on the earth is part of that cultivation.
So the idea of cleansing the heart mirror brings us into the old Taoist idea of returning.
The idea that we have the prenatal self within us,
The part that was whole and complete before our parents were born.
But this prenatal self,
Which is connected to all of the information and support of the universe,
Begins to become clouded by our conditioning.
So we begin to form layers of thought forms,
Conditions,
Stagnation,
Armor,
That begin to dim the light of this prenatal body,
Of our true self.
So how do we begin to cleanse this cloudy mirror?
How do we begin to return to that clear,
Sincere heart,
Which is the foundation for true transformation and grounded healing and growth in our life?
As Lao Tzu says in the Tao Te Ching,
The journey of a thousand miles starts beneath your feet.
So how does this journey begin?
It begins with one breath,
With one connected movement.
It begins by calling our scattered pieces back into a wholeness within us.
We begin to plant the foundation of our life and the emptiness beyond our thoughts in this present moment.
Remembering this as our true home,
The field of shu,
The field of pure potential before a thought arises.
And as we move through each day,
Remembering that the slow way is the fast way.
It's never something we can hurry or rush,
Just like you can't rush the garden as it grows.
You can only support it.
So when we step into this path of cultivation,
We're making an agreement to begin to observe our inner self,
To observe the inner dialogue that we hold with ourself,
To observe the judgments we hold about others.
And in the beginning,
We just observe.
We notice the thoughts.
We notice the more negative,
Destructive thoughts.
We notice the creative,
Loving thoughts.
We notice the thoughts that just seem like trash thoughts.
They're just kind of floating out there.
They don't really have much meaning,
But they're just pulling our spirit into some mental journey.
And as we're looking within and observing in a state we call a guan,
Neguan,
Inner observation,
We're holding all of these thoughts in a loving field,
Allowing all of it,
Accepting who we are in this moment because this is the ground beneath our feet.
When you notice a thought arise,
It is not necessarily for your greatest good,
A thought of judgment against another,
Judgment towards yourself,
Repeating something your parents told you when you were a child,
Limiting your creativity,
Limiting your life.
You can just place a little red flag on that thought and let it go.
Just notice it and let it go.
And when that thought form returns again,
It'll have a little red flag on it.
You'll say,
Ah,
There's that thought again.
I see you.
And as you turn your spiritual lights to this inner observation,
These deep grooves of thought forms begin to unravel and all we have to do is notice them each time they come through.
Observe,
Put that little red flag on it and let it go.
Next time it comes up,
Ah,
You'll be conscious of it.
There it is again.
There's that pattern.
There's that thought form.
There's that judgment.
Don't be hard on yourself.
We all have these patterns.
Each time it comes around,
It'll start to loosen its roots in your consciousness as you observe from the place of shoot,
From the place of emptiness and the light that flows from the shoe will begin to unravel these knots within you.
Then bring this practice into your movement,
Into your martial arts,
Into your qigong,
Into your taiji,
Into your yoga,
Into your walk with the dog.
So as you're moving,
You're in the neguan,
The inner observation.
And you begin to reestablish what's called the emperor on the throne.
The emperor is the spirit.
It's the awakened field of the heart.
The Shen.
We say when the emperor is on the throne,
All the kingdom is at peace.
Rain falls to nourish the fields and new life grows.
When the emperor leaves the throne,
The ministers jump on board.
The ministers are all of our 10,
000 thoughts and they all think that they can run this kingdom.
So they jump on the throne and try to run our life by thinking about everything so much,
Trying to figure it out.
When the ministers take the throne,
Then the kingdom is split into 10,
000 pieces and nothing is harmonizing together.
So this is a practice of restoring the emperor to the throne,
Restoring the empress to the throne.
Bringing your clear,
Whole spirit back into the central foundation of your awareness.
When the empress is on the throne,
Then all of the ministers become useful vessels,
Helping to keep harmony within the kingdom.
And our thoughts become useful tools to manifest the Tao in our life.
So part of the practice is to notice when your empress steps off the throne and the ministers jump on board and take over the kingdom.
Ah,
You notice when that happens.
Things don't seem quite right at this moment.
My mind is very scattered.
My thoughts are not in harmony with who I know myself to be.
The ministers must be on the throne.
When you notice that,
That is the moment to make your adjustments.
To adjust your body,
Relax your shoulders.
Lift the spirit.
Imagine the hair at the top of your head gently lifting up,
A little tuck in your chin.
Feel your alignment between heaven and earth through the central column.
And adjust your breathing.
Adjust your breath to be slow,
Smooth,
Deep and even.
Such breath rooted in your lower belly,
In your dantian,
Your home within the body.
Adjust your spirit.
You imagine the sunlight surrounding your body.
Your eyes relaxed looking within.
As you inhale,
The sunlight enters all the pores of your skin,
Merging with the chi.
As you breathe out,
The sunlight gathers into your lower belly,
Or dantian.
So here the ten thousand thoughts become one thought.
And that one thought is the practice of breathing the sunlight through the pores of your skin,
Gathering into the lower belly.
And in this one breath,
Adjusting the body,
Adjusting the breath,
Adjusting the spirit,
You return the empress to the throne.
The ministers return to their place.
And your roots connect into the shu,
The deep nourishing field of potential.
All it takes is adjusting the body,
Adjusting the breath,
Adjusting the spirit,
The three regulations to restore harmony in the inner kingdom.
But the trick is to notice when things are out of balance.
That's part of the practice,
The daily practice of looking within,
Listening within,
Observing your own thoughts,
Observing your heart.
Where are you in this moment?
Are you here with your body,
Your breath,
And your spirit?
Or are you fractured in ten thousand different directions,
Not sure where home is?
To notice is the key,
To observe is the key.
And once you observe,
You engage the practice,
Body,
Breath,
Spirit.
And over time,
Your consciousness will begin to transform and deepen.
And these thoughts and dialogues of self-doubt,
Self-destructive patterns will begin to lose their grip,
Because you'll begin to notice them with those little flags,
And you'll engage your practice to return to balance.
You're not fighting against these patterns,
You're just observing.
Each time you notice,
There'll be a little less,
A little less,
And more of that prenatal body will come through,
Will shine through.
In this way,
You're cleansing the mirror of your heart.
So when you see somebody walking down the street and your mind goes to a judgment about that person,
You'll notice.
You can shift that to a blessing towards that person,
To walk in the way of blessings so that even your thoughts,
Your deepest thoughts are sending love and support to your own life and to all those around you.
This way you can become like a white blood cell in the world moving through with a healing field around you,
A field of support,
Of holding those who need support from underneath,
Holding the soft pillows around those who are throwing themselves through their lives so that they can also find their way into their body,
Breath,
And spirit.
And as we cultivate this within us,
It naturally extends to our family.
We cultivate it in the family,
It extends to our community.
Cultivate in our community,
It extends to our country.
Cultivate it in the country,
It extends through the world.
We cultivate this within our world and it resonates out into the universe.
The journey of a thousand miles starts beneath your feet in this moment.
So ask yourself,
Where am I?
Am I in balance as the spirit,
As the empress on the throne?
And come home,
Come home with your breath,
Come home with your body and enjoy this whole day,
Unconditioned.
What magic awaits you this day?
