St Jude's Summary 10-14-2008

Last week we talked about feeling the breath and the body moved together. One of the participants commented that practicing this helped her slow down which was nice. Other participants mentioned that remembering to breathe and move together acted as a reminder throughout the day to be aware of the breath and to relax.

This week we are going to expand on that technique. We are going to to use the breath and body awareness and combine that with awareness of a particular quality in order to experience that quality deeply within our mind-body system.

If we were to imagine Spirit within us, that can be a little vague because Spirit is non-conceptual. So we can start by picking a quality that is associated with Spirit and then imagine that quality within us.

Pick one quality and then think about what that quality means and how you would express it in your life. Also use your imagination to imagine how your body would feel and how you would speak and act while you expressed that quality in various situations in your life. After reflecting on the quality, shift your attention to your breath and allow yourself to feel your breath moving through your body. Then expand your awareness to include the thoughts and imaginings of the quality that you picked. Use your imagination to experience the quality flowing through your body with your breath. Imagine having that quality and your breath flowing through your body in various situations that you are likely to encounter. If your mind wanders away from thoughts or imaginings associated with the quality then focus your attention a little more strongly on the breath and then again expand your awareness to include the quality that you want to experience. Practice this technique for 15-20 minutes a day.

During the day you can practice a brief version of this technique by reminding yourself to feel your breath and body and the quality you are playing with moving together.

Here are a couple of hints:
When we think about one quality and reflect on it we often find ourselves thinking of other associated qualities. We get tempted to work on several qualities at once. This can distract us and it is better in general to work with one quality at a time. After working with one quality for a week or two we can then shift our energy to other qualities.
Sometimes we don’t get many thoughts or imaginings about equality that we want to work with. If that happens consistently then the problem may be that we don’t need to develop any more of that quality. Our wise inner self may be wanting us to work with a different quality. So if you consistently have difficulty with one quality than try working with some other qualities first.
Even though this is a meditation technique, thinking is an important when you practice. It is sometimes difficult to visualize or imagne a quality and deliberately thinking about the quality and how to express it can make it more real for us.