It occurred to me during a wonderful workshop at Brooklyn Yoga School this evening that throughout this entire challenge, I have yet to sit after an asana practice. After all, each posture is like a little mini meditation in and of itself, and the postures are is in essence a way of opening and preparing our bodies to sit in meditation. It seemed logical then that I would sit after asana, and yet I hadn’t. So after arriving home and a long-awaited pineapple-coconut-avocado smoothie, I sat. I have to say that my body did feel more at ease, and it was much more comfortable to sit. Everything seemed more still.
I haven’t had a lot of experience with lovingkindness meditation. [Full disclosure:] I learned it during my teacher training at BYS, forgot the components of it, didn’t bother to look it up again, and therefore haven’t really worked with it since. It’s not that I didn’t like the practice, it just seemed like so much more to remember than “sit and direct your attention to the third eye.”
It’s very clear though that as I delve into this last week of the challenge (how did THAT happen?), lovingkindness meditation is really so much more than just repeating these well-wishes over and over. It’s about connecting with ourselves and others, and realizing that at a base level we’re really all the same. As Sharon points out, we really do all want to be happy. When I first read that, it seemed so…silly…there on the page. But when you sit and think about it, is it ever NOT true? Instances keep popping up in my mind of, “Well what about this person?” and still, while it may not be my choice route to happiness, maybe it’s theirs.
Cycling through various people in my meditation this evening, I couldn’t help but feel this boundless energy radiating from my body. It was as if my skin was slowly dissolving away and my being was expanding into eternal space, as if I was growing larger and outward. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt while sitting before; I could feel the good vibes being sent out into the universe.
This meditation challenge has been an interesting journey so far, and to see that in the end it all comes back to love and compassion is quite something. There’s a lot of shit that comes up in between, but in the end, hopefully, we all wind up in the same place. I wish I had something more profound to say for this last post I’m writing for Sharon’s blog tonight, but I don’t. I can only hope that this practice continues to grow for me over time, that I can continue to learn from it, and hopefully in the process learn to love a little bit deeper, no matter what.
Brooklyn Yoga School 