You’re about to read Chapter 27. Want to start this story from the beginning? Go here.
Thank you, Lesson 27, for giving me a frickin break.
Not only was this topic already near and dear, but the homework did not even include journaling!
Prayer and meditation is my everything
I cannot imagine a day in which I do not meditate and pray.
Actually, I can imagine, because I have lived through plenty of them.
But not lately, and ideally, never again.
What you need to know about prayer and meditation
I could easily write a book on all the ways prayer and meditation have positively changed my life, not to mention all the different ways I have found to pray and meditate.
And in Lesson 27, Katherine certainly provides a fair amount of info.
So instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel or go off the rails giving my personal testimony, I will simply share a few significant quotes from this lesson’s reading.
“Prayer and meditation plugs us into the source of love and, therefore, renders us much more conscious and aware of its constant presence.”
And “there is a tremendous similarity between what scientific evidence indicates a daily practice of prayer and meditation provides a person, and the emotional maturity that demonstrates a readiness to create and sustain a loving partnership.”
Basically, prayer and meditation is “the fast track to developing the emotional maturity one needs in order to ensure a more successful union.”
Also, it’s important to “remember that, on some level, we are already profoundly connected to the forces of love. The more we go within to tap in to this supply, the more equipped we are to come from there in our dealings.”
I can use some extra prayer and meditation today
I might see Paul tonight.
We haven’t seen each other in more than two months.
(It’s been 75 days, to be exact, not that I just looked it up using an online date calculator or anything.)
There is a big party tonight and, last I knew, both of us were planning to attend.
I seriously considered making other plans to avoid the possibility of crossing his path, but I want to dress up and see my friends.
And I don’t want to miss the celebration tonight. So I won’t, and I have no idea what will unfold.
I do not enjoy noticing how much I am not-so-secretly hoping Paul will be present.
It’s embarrassing to observe the way my brain wants to fantasize scenarios and work out conversational scripts and even go so far as to imagine whether or not I’d be open to inviting him home with me.
SIGH.
And also, surrender.
Lesson 27 in practice
The homework for Lesson 27 was blessedly devoid of journaling. Our only assignment was, naturally, a meditation.
It was a simple practice: get still, relax, and call to mind one of the “Essence Qualities” from Lesson 4.
My selections from that lesson were (and are) faith, trust, and surrender.
And since surrender was the word that jumped out at me right away last night, that’s the one I was supposed to say silently to myself on each inhale, drawing its quality deeply into the center of my heart.
On each exhale, I was supposed to release anything that was in the way of my being completely immersed in surrender.
This process was supposed to last for at least three minutes, or until a deep sense of peace washed over me.
Since I am pretty nerdy about doing my homework, I did attempt to follow this ritual.
But given I’d had a transformative meditation on surrender just the night before, it felt a little anticlimactic.
And although I don’t have time to get into the whole story because I am about to leave for Sanskrit class, the transformative meditation was actually because of Sanskrit, so I’ll try to sum it up quickly.
Om Namah Shivaya FTW
Okay, actually, I’m realizing I don’t have enough time to give the Om Namah Shivaya story justice.
(It’s amazing how, even writing to you every day, there is still so much I’ve left out! I didn’t tell you what happened when I met up with Paul’s cousin’s wife—aka my awesome, independent friend. And I haven’t shared how that random date the other night spawned an unexpected potential boost to my career—and how much that upset me. I’m beginning to think these stories may extend beyond a blog…)
So for now, suffice to say that Sanksrit is a powerful language, which is why I wanted to learn more about it. Each syllable carries energy, so even if you don’t understand the words, you benefit from their frequency.
Which means that even before I was aware of the nuances of Om Namah Shivaya, I was able to sense its significance.
But after the meditation I did on Thursday night, via my favorite Yogaglo.com meditation teacher, David Harshada Wagner, I felt the full potential of the phrase, which, per David, can be translated as follows:
“I offer a surrender to that power of dissolving so that something new can arise.”
I can’t say I’d ever inwardly chanted Om Namah Shivaya for thirty minutes straight before.
And I don’t know if it was David’s excellent guidance or my newly heightened awareness of the Sanskrit language or my extreme willingness to LET GO, FOR REALZ, but, whatever it was, that meditation WORKED.
I started out resistant, burst into tears, softened my heart, melted into the floor, and by the end I had shaking hands and full-body tremors.
Mid-meditation, I jotted down this…poem?
om namah shivaya
I am vibrating
my body is booming
breath is intentional deliberate
an effort
a release
a quiver
a shake
a labor
a gift
And then the meditation was done, and I finished up with this:
I feel so humbled and thankful. I am still afraid, like a trembling child, but I also know that my parent is near. I am so deeply cared for; a power much greater than “me” is present. Can I be brave enough to let it flow through me with increasing intensity?
(What if that current washes Paul away? I’m afraid that’s a risk I will just have to take.)
In conclusion, let us pray (and meditate)
I hope that even a glimpse of my Sanskrit meditation experience provides an example of how powerful prayer and meditation can be.
When I am willing to go within, my life changes without. Which can be scary, even when it’s good.
But really, it’s always good.
So as I move forward with my day, I will take in some sacred language and then prepare for a night of fun and celebration.
I will meditate, and I will pray.
And I will trust that, whatever comes, I am cared for—and so is Paul.
Love > fear,
Christina
Want to know what happens next? Proceed to Chapter 28.
Missed what happened before? Go back to Chapter 26, or start from the beginning.
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