Right Where You Are – Opening to Meditation
An Excerpt from Opening to Meditation by Diane Lang
Meditation is a state of consciousness. It is a growing thing that, when nurtured and cared for, grows strong and constant, like a big old oak tree. You can count on it.
Every time you meditate, it is as if you are building a mountain, one layer at a time. Meditation is like strata; once a layer is set down, it becomes a permanent part of your landscape. It is cumulative. When you meditate again, you add another layer to your mountain. You keep getting stronger and stronger. Even if there’s a gap of many years in your meditation practice, this stratification doesn’t go away. It’s right where you left it. You just pick up where you left off. Usually, it will have grown on its own some, too.
Meditation is a discipline of mind blended with spirit that teaches concentration and focus. It brings clarity to every area of your life. It broadens your perspective, opens your mind to new ideas, and helps you feel free.
The answers you are looking for can be found right where you are. Your point of power is in this present moment. It is so simple, yet it is true. All you need to do is know where you are in this moment in order to gain your orientation and sureness of footing. If you don’t know where you actually are, all the good or even profound direction in the world could lead you far from your intended destination. If you don’t know where you’re standing, your aim will be far from the mark.
Meditation helps you know where you are in time and space. It grounds you in the world so that you can move forward with fluidity and grace. Like a big red arrow on a map at the mall, it lets you know that you are here. When you understand where you actually are, the universe opens up with a thousand choices, each one unique and perfect in its own right, making it easy to know what your next step is.
All you have to do is open your heart to the light and energy that flows through us in every moment. That flow is always present; it is constant and perfect, always available to you. Imagine a stream of pure love pouring from the universe straight into you. Imagine that same pure love flowing and dancing around and through every single thing on this planet and beyond this planet, every rock, every blade of grass, every deer in the forest, every star in the sky. Everything is connected to this flow.
And you are too.
The only reason we don’t feel it is because we think that somehow we are separate from it. But we are it, and it is us. Feel it right now, in this very moment — let yourself open to the flow of love that is coursing through every single thing on this planet, through every single atom of every single one of us.
Meditation gives us an experience of this, so we feel it and know it deeply, beyond words. Meditation opens your mind and heart.
The opening of your heart is the most precious gift you can give the world. It affects everyone, and in this way meditation is also service: it supports the whole of humanity and all of life. As you become more aware, more conscious, you blaze the trail for the rest of us to follow, and our paths become much easier because of the steps you have taken. Know this, in your unfolding, in your deepening: that your inner journey creates an easier way for all of us.
By meditating we open into love. We enter a place that is sacred. By knowing where we are, we create an opening, a window to expanded consciousness. In that opening, we can feel and merge with the creative force of the universe. This cosmic creativity is simply love. We may call it God, or nature, or luck, or spirit, or universal energy, or a higher power, or something else. Whatever you call it, it is still love. Pure love. Love that intends, love that makes, love that builds — not in an emotional way, but in a laserlike, conscious, and precise way.
When we meditate, we begin to recognize our connection with this creative force, and we begin to know that we are part of this love, that we are the same as this love. We are infinite and eternal.
When we meditate, we become one with our infinite self. In our growing awareness of this higher self, we become much more than our personal self. We begin to recognize the magnitude, the beauty, and the infinity of who we really are.
Every time you meditate, it is as if you are building a mountain, one layer at a time. Meditation is like strata; once a layer is set down, it becomes a permanent part of your landscape. It is cumulative. When you meditate again, you add another layer to your mountain. You keep getting stronger and stronger. Even if there’s a gap of many years in your meditation practice, this stratification doesn’t go away. It’s right where you left it. You just pick up where you left off. Usually, it will have grown on its own some, too.
Meditation is a discipline of mind blended with spirit that teaches concentration and focus. It brings clarity to every area of your life. It broadens your perspective, opens your mind to new ideas, and helps you feel free.
The answers you are looking for can be found right where you are. Your point of power is in this present moment. It is so simple, yet it is true. All you need to do is know where you are in this moment in order to gain your orientation and sureness of footing. If you don’t know where you actually are, all the good or even profound direction in the world could lead you far from your intended destination. If you don’t know where you’re standing, your aim will be far from the mark.
Meditation helps you know where you are in time and space. It grounds you in the world so that you can move forward with fluidity and grace. Like a big red arrow on a map at the mall, it lets you know that you are here. When you understand where you actually are, the universe opens up with a thousand choices, each one unique and perfect in its own right, making it easy to know what your next step is.
All you have to do is open your heart to the light and energy that flows through us in every moment. That flow is always present; it is constant and perfect, always available to you. Imagine a stream of pure love pouring from the universe straight into you. Imagine that same pure love flowing and dancing around and through every single thing on this planet and beyond this planet, every rock, every blade of grass, every deer in the forest, every star in the sky. Everything is connected to this flow.
And you are too.
The only reason we don’t feel it is because we think that somehow we are separate from it. But we are it, and it is us. Feel it right now, in this very moment — let yourself open to the flow of love that is coursing through every single thing on this planet, through every single atom of every single one of us.
Meditation gives us an experience of this, so we feel it and know it deeply, beyond words. Meditation opens your mind and heart.
The opening of your heart is the most precious gift you can give the world. It affects everyone, and in this way meditation is also service: it supports the whole of humanity and all of life. As you become more aware, more conscious, you blaze the trail for the rest of us to follow, and our paths become much easier because of the steps you have taken. Know this, in your unfolding, in your deepening: that your inner journey creates an easier way for all of us.
By meditating we open into love. We enter a place that is sacred. By knowing where we are, we create an opening, a window to expanded consciousness. In that opening, we can feel and merge with the creative force of the universe. This cosmic creativity is simply love. We may call it God, or nature, or luck, or spirit, or universal energy, or a higher power, or something else. Whatever you call it, it is still love. Pure love. Love that intends, love that makes, love that builds — not in an emotional way, but in a laserlike, conscious, and precise way.
When we meditate, we begin to recognize our connection with this creative force, and we begin to know that we are part of this love, that we are the same as this love. We are infinite and eternal.
When we meditate, we become one with our infinite self. In our growing awareness of this higher self, we become much more than our personal self. We begin to recognize the magnitude, the beauty, and the infinity of who we really are.