Brahmacharya Meditation

So I ask you to find a place where you can be still for the next 10 to 15 minutes. A place where your body is not in discomfort, A place where your body can let go. And what does that mean? It means that the body is not reaching for the next moment. The body is not reaching for the past, the body. Surrenders to the time we are going to share together. And that begins also with calming the mind.

So once you have found a quiet place where stillness can hold you, a place where you're comfortable, where your spine is long, your heart space is open, and your hands are resting gently. Either beside you on your belly, on your knees at prayer, you decide. And once you have reached that space, I invite you to close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath in.

Feel the temperature difference in the air that enters your body compared to the heat in your body, this air expanding, your lungs, expanding your chest, expanding your belly. And as you release, as you exhale, I'm inviting you to begin to notice your expectations, the expectations you put on yourself, and then take a slow, deep breath in again.

Feel the difference in the temperature of the air you've brought in and the temperature in your body, and how this breath expands your lungs, your chest, and your belly. And as you exhale, start to. Take your awareness to tension of anything that keeps you from this moment. Bring your awareness to anything that is keeping you from this moment and continue to use the breath and tell that thing or those things that keep you from this moment have calmed.

And integrated into your body and into your breath. You are here. You are always here. There is nowhere else for you to be. You have arrived and will continue to arrive in this very moment. Take your awareness to your jaw and relax your jaw, your lips and your tongue, and the muscles in your nose. Take your awareness to the backs of your eyelids and wrist, your gaze on what you see. Notice where the light gets in. Take your gaze there and rest your brain on what you see.

Wrist, your brain on the light. And then invite your body to join in as you are resting your gaze on the light. Keep the breath long. Keep the breath nutritious. By that I mean conscious. This breath has been with you since your first moment of existence. Your breath is the quiet witness to your joys and your suffering, your love, and your longing. This breath is not yours to control, nor is it separate from you. It moves through you as a gift.

One, you need not earn one that asks for nothing in return. Notice that you have a life force moving through you as a gift. One you do not need to earn, and one that asks for nothing in return with each inhale. Recognize that you are breathing in something eternal. This breath has been around long before you took your first, and the breath of the universe will exist long after you take your last breath.

Bring into your consciousness that you are breathing something eternal, and with every exhale, surrender yourself to the rhythm of the eternal. The divine is not something outside of you waiting to be found. It is already here, already woven into your being thread through the experiences of every moment of your life. It is not earned through perfection nor diminished by your suffering.

It is the thread beneath all things, the silent presence that has always been bring your awareness to your heart space, both internally and externally, the beating of your heart. And the rise of your chest. Imagine a warm, radiant, light glowing within it. This is not a light you must create, rather it has always been there. It is the essence of your being. The truth beneath your fears, the knowing beyond your doubts.

The accumulation of everything you've ever become, an accumulation of everything you've ever dreamt you've ever learned, you've ever seen, you've ever lost. This light is your awakened self, your Buddha nature. It is the part of you that is untouched by the fleeting troubles of the world. It is still, it is fast, it's enough, yet we often turn away from the light.

Sometimes in grand obvious ways, but mostly in the small moments when we choose excess over sufficiency, distraction over presence, indulgence over contentment. When we grasp at more, instead of honoring what already is. We turn away from our natural, unique divinity. The Buddha taught that suffering arises when we chase after pleasure, as if it will save us when we clinging to what is impermanent, as if it will last.

But the light within you is not found in excess, nor is it lost when you struggle. It may feel obscured like the sun hidden behind clouds, unchanged in its radiance, waiting for you to turn back toward it and just take a big inhale with me. And a nice long exhale. Please do yourself the honor of reflecting on the ways you turn away from your own sacred light, not in judgment. That's not helpful.

But in order to create a more profound, deeper awareness, do you steal time from yourself, filling your days with distraction, never allowing yourself stillness? Do you still joy telling yourself you must earn rest. That happiness is for another time, another version of you. Do you silence your own truth, stepping on your own voice, dimming your light to fit the world's expectations. Continue long, deep breaths as you notice these moments. Can you name them?

Can you let them rise and fall like waves without grasping, without resistance, without judgment? Because these things you have reached for, were in effort to protect you from your pain. That does not make one a bad person, but it leaves our divinity in the dark. Now gently bring your awareness back to your heart space, back to the light within you. And notice it hasn't gone anywhere. It has not dimmed because of your forgetting. It is here waiting. Always waiting for you to return. Tick in.

Inhale and say, I remember who I am. Exhale, say I return to my sacred self. To walk the middle path is to recognize when we have moved too far in any direction, when we clinging too tightly or when we let go too recklessly. Balance is not restriction. It is not denying yourself joy, nor is it indulging and pleasure without awareness. It is knowing that true freedom comes not from taking more, but from understanding, you are already whole. You are already full. You are already complete.

When we overindulge whether in food and desire and material comfort, in distraction, we are not simply seeking pleasure. We are seeking an escape. We are numbing, avoiding covering over something we do not want to feel, but no amount of excess will ever be enough to silence our pain. Instead, we can return to the light within. Notice the light within. Instead, we can practice presence. You're doing it right now, and instead we can continue to practice the enoughness of our own experiences.

Everything you have experienced has been enough because you are here right now. No matter how far we stray, no matter how many times we may forget, the divine within us does not leave. It does not punish or withhold itself. It's always waiting. It's always been waiting. This is the path of awakening, not perfection, not to never falter, but to notice when we have turned away and to gently return to the light, to the divine. That has always been waiting. Let this settle into your body.

Your breath, one big inhale with me. I am enough. One big exhale with me. I return to my sacred self. When you're ready, take one hand to your heart and one hand to your tummy. I. The divine is right beneath your hands. When you forget, take your hand to your tummy and your hand to your heart. Breathe in. I'm enough. Breathe out. I return to my divinity. When you're ready, gently open your eyes, but take all the time that you need. Lay there for the next 20 minutes, an hour.

We can never spend enough time with the divine within us. Carry this with you off your mat, into your work, into your life, into your family, and out into the wild. The divine is not something you must search for. It is already here it is, you.