The cave of your heart.
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January 21, 2020
Last month, I participated in a buddhist mindfulness and Iyengar Yoga weekend with Mark Epstein, a psychiatrist and Buddhist scholar. He has a great gift for taking the complex and making it simple and easy to understand.
One of our discussions that most impacted me was Buddha’s teaching that “the mind sits in the cave of the heart.” In yogic philosophy, there is a similar teaching. Sutra 1.36, “Vi shoka va jyotismati” has been translated as “concentrate on the luminous state in the heart which is beyond all sorrow.”
What it boils down to is that we have control. We can train our visceral and emotional responses to support us rather than create chaos in our lives. From a scientific perspective, mindfulness allows us to change and strengthen our neural pathways to do everything from reducing pain response to improving cognitive function.
Last night, I began our Flow to Rest class with a meditation on the cave of the heart. I’d like to share it with you.
MEDITATION:
Lie quietly.
Feel the weight of your bones sinking into the floor. The back of your head, your shoulder blades, your scram. Let them all sink down.
Imagine you are lying on warm sand. Feel the support of the sand . Feel your bones growing a bit heavier, imprinting into the support of the sand. Let your body drape.
Feel your heart. Begin at the edges and draw in to a center point.
Exhale gently, softly. Let your breath subtly soften the edges of your heart.
Inhale drawing in, deeper into the heart, into the center.
Exhale let the edges of the heart grow softer still.
Inhale draw in deeper and deeper to the center of your heart.
Exhale softening, broadening. Let the edges of your heart feather and blur.
Inhale in
Exhale let the softness, the stillness of your heart spill over the edges, releasing all the way to the edges of your body.
Inhale draw deep
Exhale broaden and release.
Continue following your breath in this way as long as you need to. When you end. Let your breath be natural. Soft and even and take a moment to notice the change in the state of your heart, your mind, and your body.
