welcome and thank you for joining me for a meditation on Ashtaya. Ashtaya is the third yama in yoga philosophy and it means to not steal. Bring it to mind now before we even get started. That you are here for you. So be here. Throughout this meditation, if your mind starts to wander, remember, I'm not going to steal from myself. This time is for me. This time is for my mind. This time is for my body. This time is for me to connect the two.
So that when I am out in the world, I am not stealing from anyone or anything. This is the aim. So find a comfortable position where you can be for about 15 to 20 minutes. Whether that's seated in a comfortable position or laying down. Maybe it's standing. You are the knower of this body, not me. My words are to guide you, and your wisdom is to find a space where you can absorb what you need to absorb.
Once you have found this position, just take some easy breaths, maybe some long exhales, surrendering that this is your time. This is your time, for you. And the oneness of the universe. Because every time you take time for you, you take time for the universe. Because you are connected to everything in it. If you can, close your eyes. And begin to lengthen the breath. Slow the breath. Take your awareness to your jaw. And relax your jaw.
We hold so much tension in our face and in our jaw, and we don't need to, and we steal, we steal our comfort when we are positioning ourself to hide our truest and most organic reactions, experiences in the world. So relax all the muscles in your face. There's no. performance needed here. We're not going to steal this experience from you by asking you to conform to how it should or should not be. This is one of the ways that the world steals from us.
From the beginning of our lives, we are told who we are supposed to be, And the journey of finding ourselves is often stolen from us because of the expectations around us. As your breath is continuing to lengthen, let it be an entryway into awareness. The expansion of your belly, the expansion of your chest, let that be the expansion of your awareness.
Feel the weight of your body on top of the mat, the mat on the ground, the ground in the building that you are in, the building on the earth, and below the earth's surface, the platelets, that if they shook, the whole world might feel it. And then at the very center of this beautiful living creature we walk on is the core of earth. And just above all of that is this very small thing called the universe. Everything is connected. When we steal from ourselves, we steal from the universe.
Eshteia, non stealing, is not simply the absence of theft, it is a call to integrity, it is a call to the oneness, the wholeness, to remembering that nothing can ever truly belong to us because everything is already ours.
Consider for a moment, what does it mean to steal? We often think of theft in the form of material possessions. But what about the theft that goes unnoticed? For instance, the ways in which we steal from ourselves. We steal our time. Not just in distraction, but in avoidance. We resist the present moment, living instead in past regrets or future anxieties. This is how we steal our time.
We bargain with it, believing we will begin living fully later, after the work is done, after we are healed, after we have proven ourselves worthy. We steal our joy. We hold it at arm's length, fearing it will not last. Fearing we will be seen as foolish. Fearing that we do not deserve it. We dismiss delight as indulgence. Forgetting that joy is not excess, but essence. We steal our pain, we repress it, push it down, turn away from it, but pain that is not felt does not disappear.
It deepens, it calcifies, it waits to be ignited because it wants to get out of the body. And the longer it waits, The longer we suffer, we steal our love. We guard our hearts, believing that withholding love will protect us from loss. But love unexpressed is love stolen. The love we refuse to give ourselves through kindness, through rest, through acceptance. Is love denied to the universe itself? And what happens then to the wholeness of the world?
To the oneness of the world when we steal from ourselves? We fracture the oneness. The self is not separate from the whole. When we take from ourselves, we take from all beings. The universe, vast and infinite, is woven together by threads of existence, each action rippling outward. Ashteya is not just about theft, it is about forgetting, forgetting that we are already part of something whole. Forgetting that we belong in this universe.
Forgetting that we do not need to take because we are already held by all that is. Take a deep breath. Feel your breath move through you. This breath is not yours to own. It was given to you freely, and in exhaling you return it. It is shared by the trees, by the oceans, by every being that has ever lived and will ever live. This is non stealing. This is the remembrance of oneness. Notice what's going on in the mind. And if the mind is bouncing, just notice.
And if your eyes are closed, take your awareness to what you see on the backs of your eyelids. And if your eyes are open, rest your gaze on one thing. It's time to return what you have taken. Return your time to yourself by being fully here. Return your joy by allowing yourself to feel it without hesitation. Return your pain by acknowledging it, letting it exist without shame. Return your love by offering it first to yourself, and then letting it overflow into the world.
There is no separation between you and the oneness. To live in Aya is to recognize that when we honor ourselves, we honor all things.
When we give ourself fully to life, life gives itself fully to us.
Take one more big in hell with me. And one big exhale with me. I release the theft of self. I return to the oneness. I remember who I am. I'll end with a quote from Osho, and it goes like this. Quote, Nothing belongs to you. Even the breath you take is borrowed. End quote. Begin to find some movement in your body as you deepen the breath and open your eyes and feel your borrowed breath moving through your body.
And remember, we must never steal from our well being so we can spray paint the world with it. It has been my honor to guide you in your meditation. Much respect. Namaste.