Guided Meditation – TAKING REFUGE: RECEIVING AND RADIATING SPIRITUAL STRENGTH

Resource book: Simple Meditation & Relaxation by Joel Levey and Michelle Levey, Castle Books, 1999. ISBN: 0-7858-1512-0. This meditation is an edited version of one in this book, Chapter 2, pages 49 to 56.

In guided meditation, someone else walks you through the process.

The advantage is that it can help you concentrate and expand your ability to meditate effectively.

The disadvantage is that for the time of the meditation, you abandon some of your control over your meditation process.

Today’s meditation is the type known as “taking refuge”

Common in most of the world’s spiritual traditions

Can offer a sense of deep connection and groundedness.

Relaxation

Sit comfortably with your feet on the ground, hands resting in your lap, back straight but not rigid.

Close your eyes.

Tense each part of your body as I instruct.

Sit quietly paying attention to your breathing. In…. out…. In…. out…. In…. out…..

Reach out

Now see yourself sitting in the center of a ball. That ball is your universe. In it and on it are all living beings.

Note the presence of those who have most deeply inspired you in your life.

Imagine that all of them are right here with you now surrounding you.

with each breath reach out to them and hold their hands. Feel strength and inspiration radiate from them to you.

Imagine that each of these inspiring people in turn reaches out to hold the hands of those to whom they look for guidance, strength, and inspiration and that they in turn reach out to those who have inspired them.

Plugging-in

Envision yourself balanced within your universe, receiving an endless cascade of wisdom and love as it flows to you from countless inspired ancestors of the far and distant past.

Envision this inspiration as knowledge and energy soaking into you now.

It energizes the parts where your life-force is weak.

It balances what needs to be balanced.

It floods, cleanses, and opens the spaces and places within you that are clogged or congested, and nourishes the seeds of your deepest potential to blossom beautifully.

Like sunlight filtering into a deep clear pool, sense these waves of inspiring grace flooding your mind-body-energy-spirit.

Every dimension of your being is illuminated, blessed, and renewed.

With each breath you are filled saying silently “receiving.” With each breath you release what you no longer need to hold on to, saying inwardly, Releasing ….Receiving …. Releasing …. Receiving…. releasing…..

Plugging into this renewal circuit, you are revitalized, calmed, and energized, and move toward balance between your inner and outer worlds.

Radiating

Having cleared your circuits, charged your batteries, and filled your tanks, begin now to radiate and expand this sense of peace and well-being within you.

With each inhalation, shift to receive, and then with each exhalation, radiate. Breathing in, imagine the inspiration and blessings converging and spiraling into you, filling your heart.

With each out-breath feel your heart silently radiating like a bright, shining star.

Effortlessly offer the natural radiance of your innermost being to the world.

Let this be the light of your love, the light of your peace, the light of your presence, the light of your goodwill and positive regard.

Now direct your attention and energy to the world around you.

Reach out to those who look to you as a source of inspiration, guidance, and support.

your children

your students

your patients

your clients and customers

Envision each person you reach out to taking your gift to heart, and feel that it truly inspires and awakens greater wisdom, balance, and strength in their lives.

Imagine that all of them take these gifts to heart and pass them on to others who will pass them on, nurturing harmony and wholeness for countless generations to come.

See yourself balanced here, reaching out from this fleeting moment where all the experiences of the infinite past and all the potential for the boundless future converge.

Realize that your real life work is to reach out

Realize your connectedness and wholeness

Imagine the silent light of your innermost being blazing with exquisite clarity and radiating out to fill your body.

Imagine it radiating out into the world around you now

Holding your loved ones and friends in mind, radiate this love to them.

Bring to heart and mind the leaders of the world, the children of the world, the beleaguered nations and species of the world, and radiate you heartfelt care and prayers to them.

Sense that those you offer to are actually helped and inspired by the love and energy you radiate to them.

Out of gratitude they radiate back to you waves of thanksgiving and blessings. These add to the waves of your inspiration.

You radiate and offer your heartfelt thanks to those who inspire you, and they in turn, pleased and inspired by your gratitude and generosity, then radiate even more energy, inspiration, and blessing to you.

This reciprocal and responsive flow radiates in both directions like a figure eight of receiving and radiating.

allow this sense of deep relatedness to remain active as it slips more into the background of your awareness.

Throughout the day remember that this deep connectedness and flow is only a thought or a breath away.

When in doubt, remember these four things: “reach out,” “plug in,” “receive,” and “radiate.”