09 Jan MONTHLY MEDITATION – january 2018

Everything is new

We celebrate New Year’s Eve and the beginning of the New Year as a ritual and we get in touch with feelings of liberation and renewal. We let go of what we have experienced. We mourn, we remember the past and we open ourselves to a magical feeling of astonishment that welcomes the new, the magic of the unknown, that which is yet to come, that which is empty and at the same time full of new hopes, desires, resolutions and fears.

This meditation is for opening ourselves to these feelings whenever it may be necessary to consciously let go of the past moment so as to surrender to this new moment with trust.

Create a festive space with candles or incense or a faint light, you can put on some soft heart music of your choice for this meditation. Maybe you can choose different music for the different phases.

Sit comfortably with the spine upright and the coccyx slightly raised above your crossed knees, if you are in the lotus position.

Place an empty cushion in front of you at a distance of about one meter and a cushion behind you at about the same distance. So you are sitting comfortably on a cushion in the middle, and you have a cushion in front of you and another one behind you.

Sit down for a few moments to feel your breath and let your awareness drop down into your body and inhabit it, allowing yourself to feel those sensations now, your body supported, being breathed, listening to your heartbeat…. Feel your presence.

Open your eyes slowly: In front of you there is a cushion on which there is the past, the events, the people, the projects, illusions, etc…. that have happened, some of them may be hard to let go, or you are still clinging on to them, or there are emotions attached to what happened that still cloud your mind, your body, your presence, your heart.

Give yourself some time to see what it is that you need to let go of, or accept that it is no longer or was not as you expected and allow yourself to feel those sometimes painful feelings of disappointment, mourning, grief, anger, etc… that may haunt your body, your mind, your heart.

Feel the breath very consciously in your solar plexus where those feelings tend to become stagnant, notice if there is a lot of fire, or you are flooded with sadness, feel the breath happening around that area, give it space and expand it. If your body wants to move, or any other expression is coming up, allow it, follow it, express whatever remains to be expressed, that which would have wanted to be released at that time but did not receive permission or just could not. Give yourself space to cry, scream, laugh, kick, or simply be silent to feel deeply those emerging feelings that want to be witnessed with full awareness in order to flow and be released.

The time depends on each individual.

When you feel that it is the right time, bow very slowly and respectfully, honouring the past whatever it may have been, bow down before the wisdom of the universe within which everything happens and surrender to what it was, just as it was. Take the past into your heart and even if you don’t understand it or your mind thinks it should have been different, realise that it has already happened, honour it and let it go.

Visualise or feel how those events from the past move away from you getting farther and farther away and becoming blurred in your memory.

Close your eyes and feel the space left inside and outside of you. Turn your attention back to your presence alone, observe it and how you perceive it in the body, in the breathing, your comfort, your posture and your support… disappear in that space of just relaxed presence perceiving this moment just as it is.

When you feel energy emerging, turn around and turn your gaze to the cushion behind you and settle down in front of it.

Project your future on that cushion. By the future I mean that mysterious period of time that contains infinite possibilities but still has no form; a space in which your desires and longings can be accommodated, where you creative imagination participates in manifesting it.

Desire is like an engine for the formless love of All That Is to take on a certain form by the impulse of your longing, your creativity and your joy.

Let yourself feel your feelings about the immediate future, feelings that expand toward it. Notice if not knowing generates excitement, fear, joy, need for control, fatigue or a little bit of everything… give yourself permission to feel and observe which thoughts get attached to those feelings. See if there is trust in life so as to surrender to flowing with your heart.

Travel deep within yourself and admit your true longing. Let yourself feel its flame. Become aware of it and relax completely into it, feel the creation vibrating… don’t interfere, allow it to grow and take shape…..

If your body expresses itself in any way, don’t interfere, allow any expression. It may want to dance or sing or shake, shrink and expand, or it may become emotional, happy or angry; it may laugh, cry, etc…

Little by little bring back your attention fully to your body sitting here. Perceive the presence in the now; become aware of that vibrant presence; realize that there is only a presence within which the perceptions happen, the breath, the heartbeat, the support of your buttocks and your legs, the contact of your hands with your body. Become aware of your eyes and what they see when they are closed, that luminous darkness… vibrant with any feeling or emotion… or sensations. Become aware of the now, the here, the eternity contained in this moment.

Allow a deep relaxation to gently take over your whole body, let yourself fall on the ground and remain silent… until you naturally may want to emerge.

Be aware of that presence throughout the day, in the body and in your surroundings… simply be presence.

I wish you all Infinite blessings in every eternal present!

Astiko