Meditations...Update

The greatest gift the pandemic has given me is the space to give more space to meditation.  Ever morning, 1. 5 hours.  Now my friends the trees get to participate.  All of them.  Even the glen and the culvert in front of the property:-)

 This is an ongoing summary of the different paths I have been taking.  They change almost daily.   I get prodded in new directions, and back to old ones.  All of these paths overlap.  All of these paths are really the same path.  I suppose that is the whole point:

1.  Feel follow experience the breath.  The old standard.  When you no longer have the energy to do any of the practices that follow, this is always the default mode so to speak.  You can't get away from it, the breath is always your friend.

2.  Portals.  I really dig this one.  What you are and what you experience comes from something else that arises.  And you let it run the show, and you watch and listen.  You are a spectator of sorts on what unfolds.   In this way, we are like an endless series of channeled energies,  each coming through the portals.  Mediums to a host of spirits.  Egregores.  And the more you can feel that you are not what you think you are, or what you have been, things open up.   This links to all the practices which follow, especially the next one...

3.  Centering Prayer.  Now I know Father Keating and the Benedictines do it differently, but this is like #2 only the portal that opens up for you and runs the show is the divine.  You are a vessel for the divine.  If you want to do it like they do, read some religious passage and let that show the way.  This doesn't have to be Christian centered.  It can be shamanic, what opens up for you is your higher self, you ancestors, you name it.  There are so many portals.

4.  The heart/The tanden/the ground .  Imagine the breath is coming from the heart.  Imagine the heart open and close like a lotus flower.  Imagine the seat of your consciousness emanating from your heart or you tanden (hara).  Or breathe up from the earth.  Its a much slower deeper form of consciousness.  Lately, its almost like the object of the meditation is right behind the heart, and the world slows down from that place.  Its such a different experience than experiencing reality from your head.  

5.  Open Focus Meditation.  Ever morning on the way to work:-)

6.  Feel the Vibrations/Heart beat/Respirations/Body sensations.  Similar to 4 and 1.

7.   Mantras.  Om Mani padme hum.  whatever comes to mind and is repeated.  Sometimes a drum rhythm.  

8.   Just Listen.  Observe.   

9.  Observe the Observer.

10.  Sing a song about coming back to him and come back to the body, not with the mind, but with the song.