So I'll invite you to be in a relatively upright position if you can,
Sensing your back aligned so that the vertebrae essentially stack on top of each other.
You might sense sitting with a sense of dignity or taking a position that embodies a sense of dignity.
When you think of the word dignity,
Just kind of sense what that position would look like.
Once you are embodying dignity,
Then also embodying a sense of kindness.
Just sensing the word kindness,
The feel of kindness,
So that you're embodying both dignity and kindness at the same time.
To begin this practice of working with the central core,
I'm going to invite you to imagine a ball of energy resting at the base of your torso,
Just a little bit below the perineum.
That ball of energy might be a ball of light or a ball of warmth or a ball of tingling or some visual experience of a ball,
However it shows up for you.
And our first practice is to simply invite that ball of energy to move through the central channel,
Through the core.
Again,
It's an inch or two in front of the spine or about five centimeters in front of the spine,
All the way up through your torso,
Through your neck,
Through the center of your head,
And out the top of your head.
And once it gets a little ways outside the top of your head,
At whatever pace you want to go,
And just having that ball of energy move back down through the channel until it reaches just a little bit below the base of your torso,
And then back up.
Letting this ball of energy move back and forth a number of times as you get a sense of where this channel is located.
There may be sensation along the way,
There may be imagery along the way.
It's also possible that you might find some places where the ball of energy either encounters resistance or you lose consciousness of it for a while.
And if that happens anywhere you might just slow down for a little bit.
Just let your consciousness stay present as the ball more slowly moves through areas of resistance or blankness.
Through areas of resistance or blankness.
So when the ball of energy reaches the base of the torso again,
And take a few moments to pause there.
Now we're going to begin to bring our attention to three points,
Three important points,
Three important points along the central core,
And then we'll connect them to get a better sense of the core.
So the first point is the belly center,
And the belly center is located a couple of inches,
Three to five centimeters below the navel,
Below the belly button.
And then again a couple of inches,
About three to five centimeters in front of the spine.
So it's deep within your body,
It's the center of mass of your body,
The seat of power and strength in the body.
So I invite you to move this energy ball up to the belly center.
Now when you bring attention to the belly center there may be some sensation,
Maybe pressure or tingling or warmth or light or buzzing.
There may not be any sensation at all,
Which is totally fine.
But if there is sensation you can use it to help you find two in the location of the belly center.
The closer your attention is to the location of the belly center,
The stronger the sensations will feel or be experienced.
And as you tune into the belly center,
Letting this ball of energy just rest here at the belly center,
And you might imagine that this ball of energy can breathe,
That it expands and contracts with each breath,
That there's a kind of aliveness here.
You might notice as you maintain your attention here at the belly center,
If there's any discernible shift in the state of your nervous system or in the quality of your mind.
Now this energy ball of the belly center can become a second ball,
And that second ball rises up to the heart center.
So the heart center is located right at the center of the chest,
Again a couple of inches in front of the spine or a couple of centimeters in front of the spine,
Deep within your body.
And again there may be sensation when you find the heart center,
And if there is you can use it to help you fine-tune the location.
And with the awareness of the belly center in the background,
Bring your attention to the heart center and inviting the energy at the heart center to breathe,
Expanding and contracting with each breath,
Sensing an aliveness here.
Once again as you continue to maintain attention at the heart center,
Notice the effect on the system again,
What happens in the body,
What happens to your emotional experience or your nervous system or the mind.
So and now you might begin to have an awareness of both the belly center and the heart center at the same time,
Inviting them to breathe together.
That may take the form of letting your attention be a little more diffuse so you can be aware of them both at the same time,
Or it might take the form of moving your attention between the belly center and the heart center.
And now letting the ball of energy at the heart again become two balls,
So there are now three balls of energy,
And the third ball of energy moves up to the head center located right at the center of your brain,
Midway between your ears,
Midway between the center,
The point right between your eyebrows,
And the bump at the back of the head.
Once again as you bring your attention to the head center there may be sensation,
And if there is you can use it to fine-tune the location.
Once you have an awareness of the head center,
Then again letting this ball of energy breathe.
And then beginning to become aware of all three centers,
The belly center,
The heart center,
The head center,
At the same time inviting them to breathe together.
Again it might be that you let your awareness grow a little more diffuse so that you can sense them all at the same time,
Or it might be that you move your attention from one center to another back and forth.
You might check to see if the three centers are in alignment,
In essentially a straight line with each other along the central core.
If for any reason they're not,
You can use a little bit of mental energy to guide one or more of these centers into alignment.
And once these centers are aligned,
Then imagining or sensing a connection between them,
A connection that runs between the belly center and the head center,
Right through the heart center.
That connection might be a felt experience,
Maybe warmth or tingling or pressure.
That connection might be a visual experience,
It might be light or some visual representation of a connection like a column or a tube or a wire.
Or it might be the idea that somehow these centers are connected.
When you have a sense of the connection between these three centers,
Extending that connection out the top of your head and down through the base of your torso.
And then you might be able to see if you're feeling a sense of the connection between the three centers,
If you're feeling a sense of the connection between the three centers,
And the base of your torso.
And now the connection itself,
The core itself,
Becomes your primary attention.
You can let the awareness of the centers fade to the background.
And sensing the aliveness of this central core,
It is a core of energy.
Perhaps you might sense it breathing.
You might move your attention along the core as a way to help establish it in your consciousness.
As you keep bringing attention to the experience of this core,
However you perceive it,
It gradually becomes more and more established in your consciousness.
Now as the central core or the core self becomes more established,
You might find that the ego self can begin to relax.
The ego self is the part of us that tries to manipulate the outside world so that we'll be okay.
We might locate the ego self more at the surface of the body,
Almost like a spacesuit.
One way to envision this is,
As an analogy,
Is a coat tree.
So at the center of a coat tree is a strong sturdy pole.
That's like the central core.
And at the edges of the coat tree are the coats themselves.
That's like the ego self.
And when there's a sense that the core is strong,
Sturdy,
Stable,
The coats,
The ego self can begin to relax.
It doesn't have to work so hard or try to make so many things happen.
There can be a sense of letting go.
So now there are many qualities that this central core has.
I'm going to name some of them and you can just explore for a few minutes whether these qualities are present for you.
If they are,
You might sense into them.
If they're less developed,
You might be curious about them.
But coming with this core is a sense of stability and groundedness and self-care.
Coming with this sense of core is a sense of enjoyment,
Just an easy enjoyment of life.
Coming with this core is a sense of confidence,
A sense of will that comes from a more fundamental place than ego will.
At this core comes a sense of open-heartedness,
The capacity to love and have compassion,
Joy.
There's a sense of authentic expression with this core and a sense of intuitive guidance.
It will take just a couple of minutes.
I want to invite you to explore the core in whatever way you are called to explore it,
In whatever way you perceive it at this time.
So so so In a few moments I'll be ringing the bell to end the meditation.
The invitation is that when you start to bring your attention outward again,
Whether to look around or to listen to me or whatever else you're doing,
That you keep in the background some awareness of this core.
We're going to be coming back to it a little later in the session today.
So
