The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored how we sometimes abandon parts of ourselves as undesirable.  We can have faith in the boundlessness of our natural presence.  It’s a space that can hold all parts of ourselves. We can quiet and calm the mind and hear from those parts of ourselves that have been buried or lost.  Faith and mindfulness can helps us realize our wholeness.

We drew inspiration from draw inspiration from The Five Invitations, Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book about living a conscious, loving life knowing that one day we will die.  Frank is the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and Metta Institute.

We heard  poet Jane Hirshfield’s words about whole-hearted concentration.

We drew inspiration from meditation instructor Jack Kornfield’s book, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life.

We drew on meditation instructor Tara Brach’s book, Radical Compassion.  This book offers guidance for working with strong emotions.

We heard Janet Gallagher Nestor’s poem, Belief.

Guided Reflection

Last week we explored holding fear with loving presence.  When we experience fear, the urge to run away seems natural.  We’re afraid to face things we find difficult to accept.  This may include parts of ourselves that we’ve judged to be undesirable.  My own busyness makes it easy to to avoid difficult emotions I’d rather not feel.  This leaves me feeling fractured and uneasy.  Today I want to explore how we can acknowledge all parts of ourselves and cultivate a sense of wholeness. 

Let’s begin by enjoying relaxed awareness.  Enter the state of presence as you feel your body settling.  Notice the breath responding to stillness with its own rhythms.  Naturally breathing.  Be aware of sensations as your body expresses itself.   Be aware of thoughts and emotions as they make themselves known.  Gradually come to touch your natural presence.   Living in presence we come to know our wholeness.  This wholeness that it is compassionate, loving and real.  Feel breathing and natural presence,  the compassionate, loving and real experience of being.

We can choose to live in wholeness. Yet often living wholeness seems to come apart.  It disassembles with self doubt or judgment about our flaws or unworthiness.  Imagine yourself as a big jigsaw puzzle.  There are thousands of pieces making the whole. What pieces would you leave out?  How many pieces would you discard before you are looking at a fragmented image?  Before you are looking at someone you don’t recognize?

Meditation teacher, hospice carer Frank Ostaseski writes:

To be whole, we need to include, accept and connect all parts of ourselves.  We need acceptance of our conflicting qualities and seeming incongruity of our inner and outer worlds.  Wholeness does not mean perfection.  It means no part left out.

Wholeness does not mean perfection.  It means no part left out.  I invite you to pause for a moment.  Reflect a bit about what parts of yourself you may be leaving out. What may be yearning for your loving awareness? Perhaps it is a matter of faith in the boundless nature of natural presence.  Perhaps it is also a matter of quieting and calming the mind long enough to hear from those parts of ourselves that have been buried or lost.  Faith and mindfulness can create a space that welcomes all.  

Poet Jane Hirshfield writes

In the whole-heartedness of concentration, the world and self begin to cohere. With that state comes an enlarging: of what may be known, what may be felt, what may be done.

Perhaps if we pause, step out of time in whole-hearted concentration – we can realize our wholeness.   We realize our being as part of something so much bigger than words or even imagination.  The inter-dependent universe that surpasses the limits of the small self.  Meditation teacher Jack Kornfield believes:

The place where we can most directly open to the mystery of life is in what we don’t do well, in the places of our struggles and vulnerability. These places always require surrender and letting go: When we let ourselves become vulnerable, new things can be born in us. In risking the unknown we gain a sense of life itself.

When we let ourselves be vulnerable new things can be born in us.   Take a moment to reflect on the last time you experienced struggle or vulnerability. As you reflect on the situation ask yourself “What’s happening inside me right now?” Take a moment to become aware of your felt sense of the situation.  Find the willingness be with your experience and let it be just as it is.  You might ask, “What about his most wants attention?  acceptance?”  Feel the experience in your body. Notice the emotion that may be present. Sense the sensations there.  There may be heat, tightness or soreness.  You might ask the place of hurt or vulnerability, “What do you most need?”  “How do you want me to be with you?”  As you sense what is needed, you might bring it in and offer yourself loving kindness. You might tenderly place your hand on your heart.  What is it like to befriend your inner life in this way?  Rest in the sense of openheartedness and presence.  Know this natural awareness as the innermost truth of what you are.

Here is Janet Gallagher Nestor’s poem, Belief:

Silence.
We are born from silence.
If we live from the silence within, we know our wholeness
lives there too.
It is limitless, eternal, trustworthy, joyous, compassionate,
loving and real.
Wholeness is not broken.
It cannot be broken, as each piece is part of the whole
and contains the mystery of the whole.
We cannot run from wholeness or turn away from it.
It goes with us, because we are wholeness.
I look at my finger and it is not only a finger. It is a part of a hand that is part of an arm, that is part of a shoulder, that is part of a body,
that is part of creation, and creation is wholeness.
This truth is challenging to understand. We cannot find wholeness
because it is not lost.
We are wholeness. When our mind is quiet and still, our heart is open,and our trust is strong, trust turns and looks straight into our eyes and speaks, “Here I am, I am wholeness. I have always been here. I was ith you before you were born and I remain throughout time, because
I am you.