What I Learned in Therapy

K66-1: Hi.

Welcome to our meditation on Bra Chaia.

Bra.

Chaia is about it's about walking a
conscious path toward our highest self,

or I like to think of our unique divinity,
and that can be hard because I don't

think we're taught that we are divine.

I think we are taught to strive
for something that gets close

to what might be deemed as.

Success, achievement material wealth.

And while these things aren't
bad in isolation, they're nothing

close to the divine inside of you.

So I ask you to find a place where you can
be still for the next 10 to 15 minutes.

A place where your body
is not in discomfort,

A place where your body can let go.

And what does that mean?

It means that the body is not
reaching for the next moment.

The body is not reaching
for the past, the body.

Surrenders to the time we
are going to share together.

And that begins also
with calming the mind.

So once you have found a quiet
place where stillness can hold you,

a place where you're comfortable, where
your spine is long, your heart space is

open, and your hands are resting gently.

Either beside you on your belly, on
your knees at prayer, you decide.

And once you have reached that space,
I invite you to close your eyes

and take a slow, deep breath in.

Feel the temperature difference
in the air that enters your body

compared to the heat in your body,

this air expanding, your lungs, expanding
your chest, expanding your belly.

And as you release, as you
exhale, I'm inviting you to begin

to notice your expectations,

the expectations you put on yourself,

and then take a slow,
deep breath in again.

Feel the difference in the temperature
of the air you've brought in and

the temperature in your body,
and how this breath expands your

lungs, your chest, and your belly.

And as you exhale, start to.

Take your awareness to tension of
anything that keeps you from this moment.

Bring your awareness to anything
that is keeping you from this moment

and continue to use the breath and
tell that thing or those things that

keep you from this moment have calmed.

And integrated into your
body and into your breath.

You are here.

You are always here.

There is nowhere else for you to be.

You have arrived and will continue
to arrive in this very moment.

Take your awareness to your
jaw and relax your jaw,

your lips and your tongue,

and the muscles in your nose.

Take your awareness to
the backs of your eyelids

and wrist, your gaze on what you see.

Notice where the light gets in.

Take your gaze there and rest
your brain on what you see.

Wrist, your brain on the light.

And then invite your body to join in

as you are resting your gaze on the light.

Keep the breath long.

Keep the breath nutritious.

By that I mean conscious.

This breath has been with you since
your first moment of existence.

Your breath is the quiet witness
to your joys and your suffering,

your love, and your longing.

This breath is not yours to control,
nor is it separate from you.

It moves through you as a gift.

One, you need not earn one that
asks for nothing in return.

Notice that you have a life force
moving through you as a gift.

One you do not need to earn, and
one that asks for nothing in return

with each inhale.

Recognize that you are
breathing in something eternal.

This breath has been around long
before you took your first, and the

breath of the universe will exist
long after you take your last breath.

Bring into your consciousness that
you are breathing something eternal,

and with every exhale, surrender
yourself to the rhythm of the eternal.

The divine is not something
outside of you waiting to be found.

It is already here, already woven
into your being thread through the

experiences of every moment of your life.

It is not earned through perfection
nor diminished by your suffering.

It is the thread beneath all things,
the silent presence that has always been

bring your awareness to your
heart space, both internally and

externally, the beating of your heart.

And the rise of your chest.

Imagine a warm, radiant,
light glowing within it.

This is not a light you must create,
rather it has always been there.

It is the essence of your being.

The truth beneath your fears,
the knowing beyond your doubts.

The accumulation of everything you've
ever become, an accumulation of

everything you've ever dreamt you've
ever learned, you've ever seen,

you've ever lost.

This light is your awakened
self, your Buddha nature.

It is the part of you that is untouched
by the fleeting troubles of the world.

It is still, it is fast, it's enough,

yet we often turn away from the light.

Sometimes in grand obvious ways, but
mostly in the small moments when we choose

excess over sufficiency, distraction over
presence, indulgence over contentment.

When we grasp at more, instead
of honoring what already is.

We turn away from our
natural, unique divinity.

The Buddha taught that suffering arises
when we chase after pleasure, as if it

will save us when we clinging to what
is impermanent, as if it will last.

But the light within you is not found in
excess, nor is it lost when you struggle.

It may feel obscured like the sun hidden
behind clouds, unchanged in its radiance,

waiting for you to turn back toward it

and just take a big inhale with me.

And a nice long exhale.

Please do yourself the honor

of reflecting on the ways you turn
away from your own sacred light,

not in judgment.

That's not helpful.

But in order to create a more
profound, deeper awareness,

do you steal time from yourself,
filling your days with distraction,

never allowing yourself stillness?

Do you still joy telling
yourself you must earn rest.

That happiness is for another
time, another version of you.

Do you silence your own truth,

stepping on your own voice, dimming your
light to fit the world's expectations.

Continue long, deep breaths
as you notice these moments.

Can you name them?

Can you let them rise and fall like
waves without grasping, without

resistance, without judgment?

Because these things you have
reached for, were in effort

to protect you from your pain.

That does not make one a bad person,

but it leaves our divinity in the dark.

Now gently bring your awareness
back to your heart space,

back to the light within you.

And notice it hasn't gone anywhere.

It has not dimmed because
of your forgetting.

It is here waiting.

Always waiting for you to return.

Tick in.

Inhale and say, I remember who I am.

Exhale, say I return to my sacred self.

To walk the middle path is to recognize
when we have moved too far in any

direction, when we clinging too tightly
or when we let go too recklessly.

Balance is not restriction.

It is not denying yourself joy, nor is it
indulging and pleasure without awareness.

It is knowing that true freedom
comes not from taking more, but from

understanding, you are already whole.

You are already full.

You are already complete.

When we overindulge whether in
food and desire and material

comfort, in distraction, we are
not simply seeking pleasure.

We are seeking an escape.

We are numbing, avoiding covering
over something we do not want to

feel, but no amount of excess will
ever be enough to silence our pain.

Instead, we can return
to the light within.

Notice the light within.

Instead, we can practice presence.

You're doing it right now,

and instead we can continue to practice
the enoughness of our own experiences.

Everything you have experienced has been
enough because you are here right now.

No matter how far we stray, no matter
how many times we may forget, the

divine within us does not leave.

It does not punish or withhold itself.

It's always waiting.

It's always been waiting.

This is the path of awakening, not
perfection, not to never falter, but to

notice when we have turned away and to
gently return to the light, to the divine.

That has always been waiting.

Let this settle into your body.

Your breath,

one big inhale with me.

I am enough.

One big exhale with me.

I return to my sacred self.

When you're ready, take one hand to
your heart and one hand to your tummy.

I.

The divine is right beneath your hands.

When you forget, take your hand to
your tummy and your hand to your heart.

Breathe in.

I'm enough.

Breathe out.

I return to my divinity.

When you're ready, gently open your eyes,
but take all the time that you need.

Lay there for the next
20 minutes, an hour.

We can never spend enough time
with the divine within us.

Carry this with you off your mat,

into your work, into your life, into
your family, and out into the wild.

The divine is not something
you must search for.

It is already here

it is, you.