For Truth in Each Moment

Here is a Sufi Meditation for truth in each moment, using the mantra: Al-Haqq

Center again in the heart. Breathe the sound Ya into the heart, and breathe out the sound Haqq from the heart, downward, all the way to your feet. Allow a door to be open to the inner self. Then release any tension you feel. Relax and allow the full embodiment of the One's truth for this moment to be absorbed into you like rain into the fertile soil. Breathe rhythmically in and out. As you feel more force in the sound, keep releasing more. Let go. It is Allah's force, not your thought of yourself that does the work.

~Neil Douglas-Klotz

The Localization of Will

Our choices around work, no matter what the field, are unavoidably influenced by historical notions around choice itself. The possibility that we can actually choose our way or create our career is the result of long-fought battles for freedom contested on many fronts. To speak of the right use of will is to speak of something more than immediate choices facing a single individual, for in many cases true choice is about choosing what or whom to align ourselves with - be it social or political movements, green businesses, or new ways of exchanging goods and services. The alignment of will, which is the alignment that takes place in the third chakra, entails more than personal preferences as we seek to make choices that are aligned with spirit and its power.

This is no simple affair, for it seems that choices that lead toward growth and individual freedom often do not possess much market value, and are therefore not encouraged. And there are all sorts of influences around us asking to be chosen. There are the voices that tell us, for example, that we have no choice, that all our career possibilities are determined by existing market conditions or by the government or by fate, and we should consider ourselves lucky to just get by. At the same time, other voices tell us that we have unlimited choice, that we can accomplish anything we want to if we just think in the right way. None of these voices, of course, are completely true, and it is therefore up to each of us to find our own voice, to choose from our own place of clarity and power.

~Rick Jarow

Questions to think about:

• What are your inner voices?
• Where do they come from?
• What do they say?
• Are they in agreement?
• Or do they disagree?
• How do you know which voice to listen to?

What Feeds You?

Perhaps right now life is calling you to sense what is behind your senses. What is feeding you in your food? What breathes through your breath? What makes love when you do? Pull back the senses from always reaching outward, and try directing them inward by taking a few gentle breaths. Take this time to clear the senses, which may be overstimulated or exhausted. Fall back into the dark arms of Sacred Sense. Remain in the middle of things.

~Neil Douglas-Klotz

The Feeling Flow

NOTE: Hi guys! I know I promised to make recordings of the guided meditations, and I have figured out how to do it, I've got "the stuff" and solved the problems. The quiet time simply hasn't been available. So, hopefully soon I'll be able to get this done here in the next few days. In the mean time, you could simply read this into a cassette recorder and make your own.

The Feeling Flow Guided Meditation

Find a comfortable seated position in which you are aware of your body touching the ground. Feel your spinal column extending upward from your pelvis. Feel its strength and suppleness. Begin to breathe gently in and out. Allow your breath to flow freely and deeply, relaxing your entire being. Feel it flowing through your arms and legs, through your spinal column, and through the wide bowl of the pelvis. If any part of you feels tension or resistance, breathe into that place and gently release it. You may voice a long “Aah” on the exhalation.

As the breath drops you down deeper and deeper into your inner world, allow your body to begin to be breathed by the rhythm of the in breath and the out breath. Notice all the places where you are holding, trying to maintain control, and gently release your energy with deep trust into the ever-present current of life. With every breath feel yourself more deeply in the current, connected to the earth and its subtle power and great patience.

Begin now to focus on your second chakra in front of the sacrum. Let the breath rise and fall on the ebb and flow of the great inner waters. Breathing merges with the flow of the tides, the flow of blood rivulets and lymphatic systems, of the liquid life forces within the body: water, the great ocean, dancing coin waves and deep-cold depths, the faces of the Great Mother, unfathomable depths within. The past, the womb like folds of memory are protected inside. Allow yourself to enter into this great inner space through memories of your own life.

Imagine yourself walking backward now through an underwater cave. On the walls of the cave find pictures of your own life, of the roads taken and not taken, of times of hurt and times of joy. Move gently. If you feel stuck, ask for a guide to come and take you by the hand as you go back, back, all the way back in time, into the labyrinth of the past. Notice the roads you could have taken but did not. Notice the places along the way that are blurred and murky, the places where energy has been obstructed.

Now let your guide take you by the hand to the first moment in your life when you felt the swell of feeling, when the wonder of the world burst into your being and you suddenly realized that there was so much more to life than you had been led to believe. It may have been a moment of great joy or sorrow, a vision of the beauty of nature, the excitement of discovering how something works. You might be led to a different moment each time you do this meditation. Trust in the wisdom of your inner being and move deeply into that moment, into its form, texture, sound, taste, and smell. How did you feel? What was it like to be alive at that moment? Hold this moment for as long as it remains powerful and then slowly begin to let it go, leaving a door open, knowing that you can return to it at any time to be nurtured and empowered by its energy.

And as you breathe in and out and slowly return and reintegrate within your physical form, keep the imprint of the vision with you and, for a moment, juxtapose it with the life you are currently living. How does your current life reflect your deep inner experience? Have you let the experience of joy, of wonder, of passion, of conviction into your day-to-day life, or have you kept it boarded up somewhere? Now, in this moment, conceive of one thing you can do every day, be it the smallest thing, that will breathe life into your way in the world. What can you do, every day, that is an expression of your deepest joy? Be it singing, meditating, watering a plant, cultivating a garden, working out in the gym – whatever it is, let it become a practice that will begin to link your inner joy with your outer life.

~Rick Jarow