Mystic Musings: Lent 3/22
“In my travels I spent time with a great yogi. Once he said to me, “Become so still you hear the blood flowing through your veins.”
One night as I sat in quiet, I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast I know it is the source of all of us.”
Mirabai a 16th century Indian mystic and poet
Cycling across Colorado, 2011
I remember fifteen years ago as I was preparing to embark on a 4,000-mile cycling pilgrimage through the American West that my greatest fear would be the hours of solitude on the bike every day for ten weeks. I wasn’t scared of the miles of cycling. I didn’t fear being in the elements. I wasn’t even anxious about sharing the road with cars, campers and semis. It was the solitude that made my knees shake.
And then I had a marvelous discovery. I had been told that the solitude often catches up to pilgrims like me about 10-14 days into the adventure. As I neared that threshold I wondered if I would suddenly hit a psychological wall. I didn’t. In fact, I discovered that the solitude was introducing me to a deep, rich and interesting internal world that I didn’t know existed. This will sound funny, but I really fell in love with myself on that trip. I couldn’t get enough of my internal conversations and discovery.
By the end of the long trek I was tired of the miles. I was tired of pulling up stakes every morning. I was tired of dealing with traffic. But the journey of discovering my deeper humanity had just begun. To this day I take 45 minutes every morning for meditation and journaling in solitude.
Photo by Milan Popovic @itsmiki5
At the end of each of these meditations, I invite you to breathe. The invitation is really about creating a little space for quiet solitude so that your psyche has room to reveal itself and your soul has a chance to expand. I have become convinced that there are really two worlds to discover—the external world and the internal world. I never imagined that our internal worlds could be just as interesting, complex, rich, and intriguing as traveling to exotic far-off lands. That is, I never imagined it until I took room to breathe and give myself the gift of solitude.
Not everyone can take off for a silent retreat or a long pilgrimage as I have done. But all of us can take ten minutes to sit, to breathe, and to make room for the world inside of us to show up.
Breath is both simple and profound. The more you get in touch with yourself, the more you will discover the source of all life. And you will probably discover you are more interesting than you thought!
Sit quietly. Breathe deeply. Ponder this question:
What do you discover about yourself? Does the breathing set your body at ease? Does it make you anxious? Either is okay. Just notice the sensations and stay with them. Try to lengthen the time of your practice each day as you become more comfortable with it