Guided Meditation: Be Present in Your Heart

Nayaswami Maria leads a 30-minute guided meditation to help you become more present in your heart. She is a longtime meditator and one of Ananda's most experienced teachers.

Transcript

[Soft music plays in the background]

Nayaswami Maria:

Welcome, everyone; let us meditate together. And first, let us assume a posture that is comfortable, sitting either on a chair or on the floor, and sit with the spine tall, the hips rotated slightly forward to support the lower back.

Be present in your heart. Lift the heart, open the heart, and feel you're being surrounded in divine peace, all around you, above, below, to the left, and to the right. [Long pause]

Energizing The Body

And let’s now energize our bodies.

We’ll do a double breath, inhaling with short and long breath in through the nose. [Sound of  double inhaling breath] Tensing the whole body. Vibrate with energy, divine energy. And throw the breath out, exhaling through the mouth and nose. [Double exhaling breath]

Again, inhaling through the nose. [Double inhaling breath]  Tense the whole body. Vibrate with God's energy. Throw the breath out through the mouth and nose. [Sound of double exhaling breath] Releasing all physical tension, all mental tension, all restlessness, all worries, and all fears.

Once again. [Double inhaling breath] Tense and vibrate and throw the breath out. [Double exhaling breath] 

Again, be relaxed in your posture, tall spine.

A Practice of Sitkari Pranayama

And let's practice together now sitkari pranayama

We’ll place the tongue just behind the teeth.

Teeth closed but not tightly.

Deliberately draw the breath in across the top of the tongue with a hissing sound. [Hissing sound of long, slow inhaling breath]

Concentrate on the coolness, and as you hold the breath, feel that coolness filling the brain. [Pause]

Exhale through the nose and feel that coolness descending down the spine and through the body and nervous system, cooling and calming your whole being. [Pause]

Let's do this twice more together.

Inhale [Long, slow inhaling breath], holding the breath. Feel the coolness filling the brain, calming it.

Exhale through the nose. Feel that coolness descending down the spine throughout the nervous system and whole body, taking with it all anxiety, all agitation. Feel yourself immersed in divine vibration within the security of your own soul.

Prayer Before Meditating Offering Up All Fears, Restlessness and Worries

Now let us pray together.

Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, beloved God, Great Masters. Saints of all religions. Friends and Guides.

We offer to you in this meditation all fears, all restlessness, all worries. We lay these at your feet. Fill us with Thy Divine Presence. Help us to feel Thee within our souls, residing there.

May Thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of our devotion, and may our peace, our love, Your Divine Harmony flow through us to all whom we meet. We are your children. Bring us home to Thee.

AUM, Peace. Amen [Pause]

Paramhansa Yogananda’s Cosmic Chant: Listen Listen Listen

Let’s chat now together one of Yogananda’s chants: “Listen, listen, listen”.

[Chanting with harmonium playing]

The words are: Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.

And let's feel as we're doing this chant together, ourselves enveloped in a divine aura of peace.

[Begin chanting. Repeat 5-7 x]

“Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. Listen, listen, listen to my heart song.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.”

[Gradually begin chanting softer and softer with each line.]

“Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. Listen, listen, listen to my heart song.

Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. Listen, listen, listen to my heart song.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.

I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee.”

[Pause]

Practicing the Hong Sau Technique

Now, let us meditate together, and we'll be practicing the Hong-Sau technique in the spine.

So let's check our posture again.

Make sure that you're sitting comfortably, but also that the spine is tall, the shoulders back and down, chest lifted, chin parallel to the floor.

And with closed eyes, check to see that your gaze is upward to the spiritual eye as though you're looking to a far-off distant mountaintop. [Pause]

And now, as you begin with the breath, follow the breath, follow the breath mentally from the base of the spine to the spiritual eye. [Pause]

And then follow the breath out from the spiritual eye to the base of the spine.

Remember that we're observing the breath. We're not controlling it. We're simply watching it. [Pause]

And as you follow the breath, center your observation as well in listening for the mantra HONG as the breath comes up the spine, SAU as the breath travels down the spine.

And feel within this mantra, your energy, your consciousness, centered in the deep spine. [Pause] Centered in peace and perfect harmony. [Pause] Feel strength and security beyond all restlessness, beyond all fear, deep within the soul.

Let's practice this together for a few minutes, observing the breath in the spine. [Long Pause]

Swami Kriyananda’s Boundless Lake Meditation

So now we're going to listen to words from Swami Kriyananda, letting go of that technique and taking these words, these truths, into our meditation or silent meditation.

Visualize your heart's feelings as a boundless lake.

Strive to see reflected in that lake, the full moon in the sky above.

Ripples in the lake’s surface, and deeper vortices, churning below its surface disturb that reflection. This agitation is due to disturbances in your heart’s feelings, past as well as present.

Calm that movement, not by suppressing it, but by seeking at the center of every ripple, and vortex, the undistorted reflection of the moon above.

You do not have to work to develop Divine Love. The calmer your lake of feeling, the more clearly and spontaneously will love and devotion appear reflected in the heart. Love is the very essence of reality.

And let’s meditate now in stillness, holding this deepening awareness of love within your heart. [Long pause]

Affirmation on God’s Inner Presence

Now as we prepare to come out of our meditation, let's practice together an affirmation by Swami Kriyananda.

Focus at the point between the eyebrows and hold your gaze there, your full concentration.

And we’ll affirm out loud, first to the conscious mind, and then will affirm a little more softly to the subconscious mind, silently, and then to the superconscious mind mentally only.

Let's affirm now. Let's do this responsively.

Close your eyes and center your awareness at the point between the eyebrows using the fullness of your voice.

“I live in the fortress of God's inner presence.

Nothing and no one can break through these walls and harm me.”

“I live in the fortress of God's inner presence.

Nothing and no one can break through these walls and harm me.”

And now, a little more softly directing it to the conscious mind.

“I live in the fortress of God's inner presence.

Nothing and no one can break through these walls and harm me.”

And now more softly in a whisper, taking it into the subconscious.

“I live in the fortress of God's inner presence.

Nothing and no one can break through these walls and harm me.”

And now, mentally only, taking this into the superconscious mind. Feel as though that part of your being is repeating this prayer, this affirmation, living in this state of awareness. Repeating now mentally.

“I live in the fortress of God's inner presence.

Nothing and no one can break through these walls and harm me.”

A Guided Closing Prayer

And let's close now with a prayer together

Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved God, Great Masters, Saints of all religions, Friends, and Guides, we lovingly bow to You all.

Guide our lives in every moment in peace and harmony. Help us to feel ever surrounded by your love, our lives flooded with your grace. Banishing all restlessness, all limitations, all fear, helping us to feel Thy presence within our hearts, free in our hearts.

AUM; Peace, Amen.

 

[The instrumental song version of “Home is Green Hill” by Swami Kriyananda plays softly in the background.]