Spacious Heart Meditation

Hi, I am so glad you're here to practice. I'd like to share a seated meditation practice with you called the Dharana Mudra practice and this is a, the translation is the concentration seal practice and we'll move through different parts of the body and we'll play with sensing those parts of our body. We'll add some imagery and sort of layer over top of it this practice of an embodied mantra and you might be wondering what the heck does that mean and the way it works is we will work with a word, a natural word, and we'll repeat the word silently and then we'll feel it in a particular part of the body and we go really slow and really gently and there's lots of room for exploration. So to begin, find a seat or a shape where you feel at ease and for some people that's sitting, for some people it's lying on the back with the knees bent and for some people it's even lying with legs up the wall. Do what your body is asking for and you can always change your mind. So find your way into that and really sort of settle into what's supporting you. Feel the support that's already happening and relax into the length of your spine that's already happening. We'll begin at the heart to invite your awareness to settle in the center of your chest, your energetic heart. Notice sensation around this place. What does it feel like? And once you've sort of roamed around in the sensation at the center of the heart, we'll go to this imagery, this sense of earthiness, earth. Maybe loamy or fertile are ideas that accompany earthiness for you. So as you breathe into this place at the center of the heart, can you repeat one of these words like earthy, loamy, dense, garden. And as you breathe out, notice what you feel in the body. Feeling earthiness, feeling loaminess, feeling the garden. And we'll do this for a couple of breaths, just repeating and sensing and settling in to the garden of the heart. Soften the effort of being with the word and being with its sensation in the body.

Begin to trace the path from the center of the heart, the center of the chest to the center of your throat, just like you're following the interior trail from the heart to the throat. And go to your throat with all of your awareness. Invite concentration to pool at the throat. And notice what you feel, and this is the center, this seal that's associated with water. And you might have some imagery or some words for water that are meaningful or special to you, like pool, like oasis, like raindrops, like life. And with your awareness at the throat, can you breathe in and repeat one of these watery words. And as you breathe out, feel watery, pool, raindrop, life in your throat. And soften the effort of being with the word and being with the sensation. And start to trace the path from the center of the throat to the roof of your mouth, to your palate. Noticing the path, and letting your awareness concentrate at the palate. Noticing what you feel in that space. On this part of the body, this particular mudra is associated with fire. You might think of words that invoke a fiery sensibility, like passion, warmth, spark, fire. And repeat the word on an in-breath. And feel the sensation that that word, that mudra, reveals in the body as you breathe out. And we'll soften the effort of being with the word and being with the sensation. And we'll start along this, this journey, this trail in the interior of the body, from the palate to the space between the eyebrows. Noticing the path, noticing the distance. And going to this part of your body, this place between the brows, with all of your awareness. And noticing what you feel. And this mudra between the eyes is associated with air. And so you might be with the word air, or other words like it, like wind, breath, sky. Repeating the word as you take a breath in. And sensing the word, embodying the word as you breathe out.

And softening the effort of being with the word. And being with the sensation. And tracing the path from the space between the eyebrows to the very top of your head. And noticing sensation at the very top of the head. And this mudra is associated with ether or space. So you might find yourself gravitating toward a word like space or spaciousness, vastness, potential, maybe mystery. And repeating this word, this mudra, on your breaths in. And feeling the essence of the word in your body as you breathe out. And begin to relax the effort of being with the word. And being with its essence.

Just soften into the shape that your body has taken. And you might take a few revitalizing breaths. Letting your awareness rise up to the skin level. That place of interface between your inner and outer experience. And let that contact invite you back to the outer world. Maybe opening the eyes slowly. And letting sight return just how it does. I'm so glad we did this together. Thank you.