Pointing Out through Metaphor

"I'm Michael Taft, and we're going to do Deconstructing Yourself tonight. That's a one-hour guided meditation, as usual. I'll just say, if you're not used to sitting on the floor cross-legged for an hour, or you never do that, and it just seem seems like a cool thing to do, you might want to sit in a chair right now, because if you're not used to doing it, it can be very uncomfortable. And an hour is longer than you may think."

"Other than that, I'll be talking through the whole meditation, offering, suggesting stuff you can do with your awareness, and you can follow along with that-or not. You know, if you don't feel like doing the meditation that I'm leading, don't do it. You know, it's your mind. It's your experience. Do what works for you. And, at the end, I'll give some kind of talk, and then we will pass this thing around"

"In the Hindu sphere, it's Navaratri, right? The nine nights of the goddess. So in honor of Navaratri and the various goddesses, the bija syllables we'll do tonight are the four seed syllables of goddesses. So just follow along, but we'll do them in order, not one after the other. We'll spend some time on the first one, and then spend some time on the second. The bijas are: AEEM, HREEM, SHREEM, KREEM, KLEEM. Okay, it's easy. Actually, we'll start out with OM."

Begin by choosing a comfortable posture, with chair recommended for those who do not sit cross-legged. The practice runs an hour and includes spoken guidance, movement, chanting, and periods of silent presence. Chant OM followed by goddess bija syllables AEEM, HREEM, SHREEM, KREEM, KLEEM, progressing through each with focused attention. Emphasize resting awareness outside the thinking mind and noticing the afterglow of chanting. Honor Navaratri and invoked goddess energy as part of the practice. The session offers optional sharing and a brief silent meditation at the end as a closing practice.

Read at Deconstructing Yourself