MEDITATION
Most deeply, meditation is simply who we are, our essential nature as Pure Awareness: a silent, loving, all-welcoming Presence.
When we knowingly abide as this Presence, we are in true meditation; and our human body-mind quite naturally becomes a portal for the deepest kind of beauty, love and wisdom.
So, in its essence, meditation does not require any specific technique. However, specific techniques can support us in accessing and stabilizing the insight, love and understanding that are already present in the core of our Being.
Paying gentle attention to the movement of the breath also puts us in touch with the truly miraculous nature of this everyday activity. We see that breathing is a continuous exchange between the inside of our body and the surrounding environment. It is firsthand evidence that the body is not an isolated entity. Trees, for instance, “inhale” the carbon-dioxide that we humans exhale; and we humans inhale the oxygen that the trees “exhale.” How amazing!
Other techniques that may prove useful to you during your pregnancy and birthing process—and into the years of parenthood—include mindfulness of thoughts, sensations, feelings and perceptions. Cultivating mindfulness allows you to remain spacious, free, intelligent and loving in even the most challenging circumstances. Instead of being lost in thoughts or overwhelmed by sensations, you give these phenomena lots of space to dance and play. Instead of being triggered into emotional reactivity, you’re able to respond appropriately, with a level head and open heart. In this way, you’re fully intimate with experience, while staying in touch with your inner freedom.
As you become more and more familiar with meditation, you’ll also become adept at turning your attention—the light of Awareness—away from the phenomena of the world, and toward Awareness itself. To simply rest as Awareness (aka Universal Consciousness) is to connect with your inherent Divinity—a dimension of Being that is utterly complete and whole; that can neither be degraded nor enhanced; that needs no improvement. It is your True Self.
