This month our Moving into Meditation class is studying the Yoga Ethic of Saucha.  Saucha is one of the Niyamas, the observances we practice to live in harmony with all of life.  These guiding principles comprise the yogic model of living a conscious life. This day of the winter solstice we invited light into our hearts in contemplation, reflection, meditation, mantra and movement.  We kindled a luminosity of being inspired by the Yoga ethic Saucha – clarity, light, purity, simplicity. The spark of luminous goodness. A Winter Solstice Prayer asks:

May we find hope in the lights we have kindled . . .
hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice
that spans the world.
In the heart of every person on this Earth
burns the spark of luminous goodness;
in no heart is there total darkness.

Guided Relaxation

Welcome. . . . and relax. . . . sensing each passing moment . . . the state of mind, your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Go beyond the edges of your skin . . . . sensing this space, here, together with fellow travelers . . . enjoying the glowing light and warmth of shared presence . . . here right now . . .

Now expanding awareness outward beyond the surrounding environment, the room, the city, the state, the country and other countries beyond . . . Continue traveling awareness further into space sensing what is dark on this day after Solstice after many days of long night . . . “the dark shadow of space leans over us . . . “

Then going further still conceiving the planet Earth, and then Earth in a solar system, third planet from the sun. Picture the sun in the center of our solar system, radiating light. And beyond that, our solar system, which is in the tail end of a spiral galaxy called the Milky Way, at the center of which is inconceivable, brilliant, radiant light. Let your awareness expand with the radiance of light. Sense the distance between where you are right now and the expansive light of your imagining . . . .

Take a moment to return to where you actually are. Moving from a sense of the vastness of the galaxy back to the solar system, to planet Earth, to the country you are in right now, to the city, to the building and room you are in. . . .

Bring your attention back to your body. After imagining the light beyond . . . notice the sense of light you might experience inside.
Feel the energy pulsating, the vibratory quality of aliveness in your body. Notice your feelings and thoughts. Consciously reenter the state of mindful present awareness.

Now bring your awareness to the tip of your nose and feel your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Progressively deepen your inhalation and lengthen your exhalation. As you inhale, feel the chest expand and the belly rise. As you exhale, feel the belly move back toward your spine.

Our wholeness includes the contrast of the darkness . . . the space of darkness . . . the edges of darkness from which the light grows brighter . . .

Mantra and Movement

Sounding together will help us build our breath and directly touch our pure being . . . The chant we use, Om Jyotir Aham, means “I am the light of pure consciousness.”

Inhaling deeply and on an exhale simply chant OM . . .repeat . . . and again inhaling & exhaling chanting OM JYOTIR . . .repeat . . . . and finally inhaling & exhaling OM JYOTIR AHAM . . . repeat. I am the light of pure consciousness.

A short poem from Dogen Zenji, a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

All my life, false and real, right and wrong are entangled.
Playing with the moon, ridiculing the wind, listening to the birds.
Many years wasted
Seeing the mountain covered with snow.
This year I suddenly realize,
Snow makes the mountain.
Gassho.