We offer you the following audio tracks from Wendy Palmer’s CD “Recover Your Center”.
1. Short Centering Practice
2. Introduction to Conscious Embodiment
3. Practice for Important Conversations
4. Preparation and Warmup for Exercise
5. Practice for Calming and Renewing
6. Practice for Patients and Their Communities
7. Centering Practice to Balance & Focus Your Energy
Wendy Palmer is sharing an audio file of a meditation from her recent Intensive Leadership Embodiment retreat at Whidbey Island. Please click below to hear the meditation.
We Are Stardust
Meditation Transcript
Wendy Palmer
Whidbey Retreat, 12 April 2022
Start as usual by lengthening our spine and imagining little clouds or cotton balls between the vertebrae and the ribs.
“The atoms of our bodies are traceable to the stars that manufacture them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on earth, and we are automatically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.” *
Tracing back the radiance.
As we sit, let our breath soar upward on the inhale, riding the thermal spiral through your body. As we exhale, floating downward on the thermal, flowing around our bodies, take a few breaths where we’re riding the thermal. Inhale soaring upward. Exhale floating downward.
Visualize a double helix inside you.
The helix is extending above and below where you’re sitting.
And inside that double helix form, are little flakes of light;
floating like the flakes in the snow globe.
The flakes are floating in a field of light.
The flakes floating in a field of light begin to fill your arms and legs.
Stardust is shimmering inside of you.
You might hear the faint hum of the particles vibrating, as the Starlight shimmers.
Let the light begin to spread outward into your bubble.
Your personal space.
The flakes of light are pulsing; they’re flashing off and on;
dancing in the space above, below, and all around.
Starlight, Stardust surrounding us.
This sense of an entity of pulsing particles is linked to other entities of light particles.
It’s part of a web of hundreds of thousands of lights, shimmering like the dew on a spider’s web in the morning, the web of pulsing light and life extends up to the stars.
The stars are pulsing, exploding, light releasing particles like fireworks! The particles dissolve into starlight.
As we inhale, Starlight fills our body.
As we exhale, Starlight flows into the space;
Breathe in the Starlight,
Breathe out Starlight.
Once again, visualize the double helix inside your body, extending above and below where you’re sitting.
Inside that double helix form are little flakes of light,
Floating like the flakes in a snow globe.
They’re floating in a field of light.
The shimmering light begins to fill your arms and legs,
your whole body.
In listening, we might hear the faint hum of the particles vibrating as they begin to dance.
The light begins to spread out, filling our bubble and beyond.
The light is pulsing, flashing off and on,
dancing in the space around us.
This entity of pulsing light particles of Stardust, is linked to other entities of light particles,
is part of a web of hundreds of thousands of lights, shimmering,
like the dew on a spider’s web in the morning,
The web extends all the way to the stars.
All the light, is pulsing.
The stars are pulsing. Exploding light releasing particles like fireworks and the particles dissolve into Starlight.
As we inhale, Starlight fills our bodies.
As we exhale, Starlight flows out into the space.
Breathe in the Starlight, breathe out the Starlight.
And now let’s bring our attention to our hearts saying for ourselves: May I be happy so I can spread happiness.
May I be peaceful so I can spread peace.
And may I be filled with love, so I can spread love.
Bringing before us the faces of our loved ones, seeing them smiling, May they be happy,
Peaceful,
May they feel loved.
And may they learn whatever lessons they need to learn as easily as possible.
Letting our awareness radiate out over the entire planet,
May all beings be happy,
May they know peace,
And may they be free need and greed.
Visualizing starlight surrounding our planet, stardust connecting all the galaxies, tiny points of light, pulsing and vibrating. It’s all connected.
* Quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson
The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn to see everyday life as mandala. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe.
By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.
From where do we summon the ‘energy’ to override our habit of wanting of doing what is familiar and comfortable? We know it takes more energy to do our behaviour differently – In this case interrupt our personalities momnentum.
How do we activate or engage with enough life force that we can overcome the resistance we may have to sitting down with ourselves?
Meditation in this context is a ritual……
How do you define meditation? – if someone asks you what do you say?
Here are some ideas:
Prayer is when you speak…Meditation is when you listen
Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s definition:
Bring the mind into the present by focusing it on the breath, and then make a calm, mindful analysis of the processes of the mind as they present themselves directly to immediate awareness
Finally, a definition that I love, is this of Zen master Dogen (13th century). Although he said it of enlightenment, it can be applied equally to meditation:
Meditation is to be intimate with all things.
It seems committing to meditation is a brave thing to do. It means that we are willing to face into our selves. In sitting we have the chance to examine our narrow mindedness.
We have patterns of thinking – stories that prove that we are smart, attractive and altruistic. Stories that prove the opposite – that we are failures, unattractive – old, weak – and impoverished. We replay memories – how badly we did or how well we did – or might have done.
When we do this – We miss the quality of light or sounds in the room. The feeling textures –cool, warm, sticky, thick or thinn……
If we are brave in our sitting we can notice that we are caught in the story and choose to continue or notice our posture, the quality of light or sounds in the room.
We could choose to engage in the stories of our teachers and inspirations. We could remember the feeling of their energy, their smile, how they engaged in everyday situations….. they could become our model.
To do this we need to be brave enough to look at our minds. To see how they repeat thoughts and make the big effort to choose…..
“People have difficulty beginning a spiritual practice because they put a lot of energy into looking for the best and easiest way to get into it. We might have to change our attitude and give up looking for the best or the easiest way. Actually, there is no choice. Whatever approach we take, we will have to deal with what we are already. We have to look at who we are. According to the Buddhist tradition, the working basis of the path and the energy involved in the path is the mind—one’s own mind, which is working in us all the time. – CTR
In considering the recent disaster in New Jersey and New York it brought the issue of loss.
Somehow loss implies the possibility of bravery – are we brave enough to face into loss?
Verse #48 of the Tao –
The Student learns by daily increment.
The way is gained by daily loss,
Loss upon loss until
At last comes rest.
By letting go, it all gets done;
The world is won by those who let it go!
But when you try and try,
The world is then beyond the wining.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston Churchill
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ― Nelson Mandela
“We have to make a definite move to cross over the boundary from
cowardice to bravery. If we do so properly, the other side of our
cowardice contains bravery.” -CTR, Smile at Fear
So meditation is a way of bringing together generosity, discipline, patience and energy – the first 4 paramitas – to address how we ignore the fact of impermanence and interconnectedness. If we are brave we can see it and make a different choice thousands of times.
Wendy Palmer offers a meditation and talk at the LE Center in San Rafael.
You can download the 30-minute meditation by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save as…” or “Download Linked File As…” etc.
One way to make the shift from personality to center is to start by working with the breath and posture.
(This takes about 15 to 30 seconds)
Once you have a distinct experience of the centered state you can streamline your practice and coach your self into the state with the words:
(This takes 3 to 5 seconds)
