Making Meditation a Spiritual Practice
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There are three steps that can make meditation more than an exercise in relaxation (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but a sacred declaration of aliveness and goodness.
Before you do your spiritual practice:
Make offerings. When you walk into a shrine room of any religion, there are often flowers, candles, and incense. These are offerings. You can make a similar type of setup in your home, by creating a smaller version of a traditional shrine. Or you can simply place some fresh flowers next to a picture of someone or something you love and aspire to emulate. You can light a candle as an offering of warmth, light, and safety. And, when in doubt, the best offering is one you can always make, no matter where you are or how you feel and that is your own experience in the moment.
Before meditation, touch in with how it feels to be you right now. Maybe you feel great, crappy, or all of the above. Feel it. Offer it to whom or whatever you hold sacred by saying something like, “I offer exactly who I am right now to the highest wisdom and goodness I can imagine.” You don’t have to know exactly what this means, just rouse a sense of generosity.
Request blessings. It’s totally OK to ask the world to bless you. And who do you ask? If you are a Christian, you could ask Jesus. If you are Buddhist, you can ask for your teacher’s blessing. You can seek the blessings of magic if you are an Alchemist, of Gandhi if you’re a pacifist, of the earth if you’re a Pagan. The idea is to seek the blessings of your lineage.
What lineage do you belong to? Is it a religious tradition? Maybe so, maybe not. Maybe you’re of the lineage of poets or scientists, of painters, mothers, CEOs, crusaders, or lovers. Get a sense of your heart’s lineage and, in whatever way feels natural to you, request the blessings of that line.
After doing these two things, do your spiritual practice, whether it is meditation (hint, hint), journaling, hiking, or reading something uplifting.
Dedicate the merit. Once you have finished your practice, connect with whatever benefit you may have created for yourself through undertaking this practice. Once you have this felt sense, give it away. In whatever way feels natural for you, make the aspiration that the results of your practice could be used to also benefit others. This is very important. My teacher, Sakyong Mipham, says that not dedicating the merit is like not hitting the “save” button on your word doc before shutting down.
So try these things. I wish for you the precious and potent tenderness that comes from acknowledging your own basic goodness.
Ask yourself today: What is your heart’s lineage? (I would love to hear the answer if you care to leave in comments.)
And here’s a repeat of the stuff I just wrote, but in a video:
15 comments
My lineage is all people doing this practice….I think that would include mothers, fathers, grandparents, students, teachers, masters, people in stress, people in joy…..people who are serious about understanding themselves and the world we live in.
That sounds lovely.
My lineage is Mother Earth. I find inspiration, wonder and comfort in nature.
Lovely words, all.
Susan,
Your words are like a cool drink on a hot day or a hot drink on a cold day. They quench my thirst for what has been missing.
Thank you. Have a great weekend.
My heart’s lineage is Celtic Christianity.
my heart’s lineage is christianity. reading this was so nice. meditation isn’t practiced by many of my friends, and i wasn’t quite sure how it tied in with my personal beliefs…i just knew it was good for me and that, that in itself was honoring god. this was perfect…thank you.
So glad to hear it, Tamara.
I echo Angie. My heart lineage is the wonders of the natural world and the Dralas that enliven it.
Lovely…
What are Dralas, Lichens?
boy, good question Angie, there are so many layers I can’t even imagine, here’s how I envision them:
I think of dralas are those palpable riviting forces of nature that take my breath away–when the beauty and uplifted energy cradle my heart, bring tears to my eyes, and bring me to the unthinking present moment–then I believe I am in the company/realm of the dralas.
The Shambhala dictionary explains drala like this (from Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche’s book “Shambhala, Sacred Path of the Warrior”; http://www.glossary.shambhala.org/#DRALA:
“The dralas are elements of reality-water of water, fire of fire, earth of earth-anything that connects you with the elemental quality of reality, anything that reminds you of the depth of perception. Dralas [are] in the rocks…trees…mountains… a snowflake or a clod of dirt. What ever is there…those are the dralas of reality. when you make that connection…you are meeting the dralas on the spot. (pg 105) “The basic definition of Drala is ‘energy beyond aggression’.” (pg 108) ”
Those are just my rambling thoughts, Susan, can you help?
This sounds great to me, Lichens!! Thank you–
Lichen, thank you so much for taking such trouble to explain dralas for me. Now you’ve explained I feel I know exactly what they are and I know I have met them and connected with them many times. Now I have a name for them!
I also bought Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche’s book that you mentioned.
Thank you again – so much.
Angie
Hi Angie, I’ve often wondered what kind of world we’d live in if everyone were able to feel the dralas. Imagine how much suffering that could heal…