Monday, November 24, 2008

Global Gratitude

We reach the culmination of our two week Meditation THREE, with a unifying meditation of gratitude.

To wrap up Meditation Three, November 26th & 27th, Wednesday & Thursday Evening at 7pm MST, we will spend 15 minutes together as a group in global meditation of the gifts of Gratitude and Appreciation.

Start with your Sat Nam (details in following entry), and then begin to breathe in feelings of Appreciation and exhale feelings of Gratitude for something that you are thankful for in relation to what is happening in the world right now.

This could be the self-reflection that the upheaval has caused, it could be the way it has taught us that our actions individually really do affect the collective, or that we have an opportunity to see just how much our lives (economic and otherwise) are built on our faith in each other. Or...maybe appreciation and gratitude that many of your e-mail request inspired this meditation.

It is not a coincidence that financial language uses the word appreciation to describe something that increases in value. What we value appreciates, what we appreciate we raise in value.

Thank you for joining in!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Meditation Three—the language of what we “tell” our SELF

Meditation Three is a special practice done for 10-20 minutes at dawn. It is a meditation using a silent “mantra”…What is a mantra?

In the West we unknowingly already use mantras like “I’m such a loser”, “I hate it when that happens” or “no pain, no gain”. We each have our own special brand of reinforcing language that can lock us into patterns of depreciation, or worse apathy.

Using a mantra in meditation can help instill positive feelings that, when used with our breath, become more believable to us and subsequently have a positive effect on our lives, as well as others.

Mantras used in meditation can be more believable because in a relaxed thought process, we can loosen the ego argument with our higher self. The “higher self “is the part of us that knows we can think and act more mindfully than we normally do, the ego is the part of us that rationalizes and justifies.

Also, yoga mantras take us “outside the box”, because the words are somewhat unfamiliar, which makes it easier to not associate the mantra with anything we already know.

So for our dawn meditation we get to sit and follow our breath as we inhale and exhale two words: “Sat” as you inhale and “Nam” as you exhale.

“Sat” means “Truth”, and “Nam” means “name” or “me”. Together, with your inhale and exhale these words make up the mantra that we would interpret as “I am my true self”, “ I am my true identity”, “All Truth is ME”.

If you are participating in this incredible Global Meditation you will get an e-mail on Monday with more details about this mantra. If you would like to join our global group email: syl@whitemountainyoga.com.

Using this meditation as a group will connect us together to the collective Better Angels of our Nature. In participating, we send the light of our “true self mediation” across the landscape of the world, and we hold the space for everyone “under the sun”, as the day dawns, to also feel a sense of their “true self” or higher purpose. And in doing so, bring their actions into a healthy integrity.

We will practice together, from where ever we are, each morning at dawn, beginning November 11th, through Thanksgiving Morning in the U.S, November 27th. This day of Gratitude is really needed at this time. Coming into “your truth” will bring on a wave of gratitude. Each morning sit with it, or journal it, or write your comments at the end of this blog entry.

Personally, I also think of Thanksgiving as a family holiday. I am a 10th generation granddaughter of William Bradford, who came to America on the Mayflower. As many of you know, they arrived at Cape Cod the morning of November 11th 1620, and he was the second governor of the Plymouth Colony.

My “10-greats” Grandfather presided (with Indian Chief of the Wampanoag) over the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621. I have read from the original manuscript his personal history (written in 1620 old-style Kings English), and while many of the words, and rhythms were difficult for me to read, he spoke of two men coming to his door in England, with the message of religious freedom, and an underground movement, that would lead them (in his words) as Moses from Egypt.

I quote in his own words, (and spelling): “God’s blessing on their labours, as in other places of ye land, so in ye North parts, many became inlightened by ye word, and had their own ignorance discovered unto them, and begane, by His grace to reforme their lives and make conscience to their ways…”

I am honored over 388 years later to be a part of another group effort to do the same…”Like (10-Greats) Grandfather, like grand-daughter” I guess.