Eco Meditation

BONES⁵ is a simple, yet comprehensive process to meditate in Nature.


Each letter represents a specific activity. Similar to our bones being the structure of our body, BONES⁵ provides the structure in which we can access the embodied experience of being a unique expression of the cosmic whole. 


CONTEXT


SolEarthing — our meditative posture is to stand barefoot on the Earth opening to the Sun; similar to our vegetative kin. Our organism serves as a conduit, rooted in the Earth and reaching towards, and receiving energy from the Sun. This is the physical corollary of expanding my consciousness to embrace the truth of who I am: the result of their 4.5 billion year miraculously creative process. 


My shorthand for this expanded identity is SHE, which stands for Sun, Human, Earth. SHE and me, aka Shme, opens as an unique expression of Universal consciousness,  the culmination of our 13.8 billion years of evolution. We are both personal and the Universal simultaneously.  Being a mystic -- a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Absolute -- is the  direct, inherent result when SolEarthing while identifying as SHE. 


The context of Existence is this evolutionary process. Being the growing tip of SHE aligns us with this. 


Simplicity is key. We’re fostering beingness, keeping us aligned with “what is”, and initially avoiding “doing” from a contracted personal self that is operating from a separation from the whole. Our habitual sense of “doing”, which is our strategic response as young children to be accepted and to avoid punishment, contains evaluative and self-conscious awareness which abstracts us from direct experience. 


  • On the other hand, evoking our childlike capacity to be in “beginner’s mind”, a prominent goal and feature of contemplative practice, is highly desirable. To experience ourselves and our ecosystem unencumbered by abstract thinking, is most conducive to being a full body conduit for Universal unfoldment playing through us, as us, and with us. A playful synchronicity is that the word “beginner” begins with the letters of the word “being” in it. 


Other than establishing a full, embodied breath and the suggestion to smile, all the other steps are intentions and prompts which can flow from our immersion in being SHE.


BREATH 

Touch the roof, hit the root. 


Becoming aware of the placement of our tongue allows it to rest comfortably behind the top teeth along the roof of the mouth. This will naturally bring air in through the nose which is more conducive for relaxed and embodied respiration. Smell the breath entering the nose. 


Imagine the air coming down to our root at the base of our spine. From there we can imagine the air continuing down our legs into the Earth, and rooting us there. 


The fullest breath is to relax our bellies on the inbreath, filling it completely. Then allow the chest to expand and continue opening up into the neck and shoulders. To open even more, one can repeat this process while breathing in through the mouth.


OPEN


Responding to the prompts, “how open can I be?”,  and “opening always and in all ways” gives oneself permission to move, sound, and expand as freely as possible. Imagine we are filling up like a balloon on the inhale, one's arms raising up and out, fingers stretching wide, expanding as the breath fills the lungs.


Yawning, shaking, swaying, and sounding “ahhhhhh”, are natural responses of our bodies as it relaxes into opening.


We live within an expanding universe, so our opening to this expansion is simply aligning with our cosmic context. 


Another aspect of opening is imagining the reality that our world is the result of billions of years of evolutionary process. Feeling the momentum of this, we can ride on this current of energy and consciousness.


NOTICE 


Notice process, “not ice”. 


This synchronistic play on words reminds us that everything in existence is vibration and in motion at a fundamental level;  a fluid process rather than a static representation. The territory that the map depicts. 


Focusing outwardly on the ecosystem and inwardly on our senses, there's a natural expansion of consciousness that occurs when noticing the ongoing process that’s unfolding in each moment that underlies our abstract description of it. Like a young child, be aware of awareness without commentary or fixing it in place.


EMBODY / EXPAND


Simply allow one's awareness to include the entirety of one’s whole body as much as possible. This naturally expands our normal focus and field of awareness from being primarily in our heads. Along with the prompts to open, this focus on expansion of awareness of the body naturally lends itself to an expansion of consciousness. I imagine my “consciousness body” happily playing “monkey see, monkey do” with my physical body.


Focusing on one's whole body, especially from a deep time perspective, can naturally elicit a spontaneous appreciation and gratitude for the evolutionary process that has given us this extraordinary gift of 50 trillion cells, originating from a single egg and a single sperm. As well as gratitude for the countless mothers and fathers that cared for their babies so well that this unbroken chain of life continued for millions of years until the present.


The context for our existence is the expanding universe.  When we open and fully embody, we can allow this inherent expansion to animate our bodies and feel ourselves ballooning outward. Opening our arms up and out, and allowing sound to move through us, we can give ourselves a chance to experience this.


SMILE


At this point, smiling is often happening or responds easily to a prompt, more than something I am needing to do. The ancient Eastern mystics identified 3 characteristics operating in the Universe -- Truth/Existence, consciousness, and bliss. They believed that bliss was inherent -- therefore our joy aligns us with this.


SOFTEN / SURRENDER 


Softening can elicit a physical relaxation, and a letting go throughout the body, which strengthens the flow of energy from head to toe, and deepens our experience. 


Surrendering is a releasing of the contraction of the separate self which naturally opens one to the universal self 


SAVOR


Given all the above steps and the context in which we exist, it's up to us to see how much we can enjoy it. 


One way I include this step which links back to the first step, is to give myself the prompts on my in-breath, “How good can it feel?”, “How to enjoy this moment?”, and “How much fun can we have?”


Our capacity for joy is a superpower, which can increase our capacity for wellbeing, creating a positive feedback loop. 


For those of us who are concerned about the Earth,  we can help save Her by savoring Her, and acting accordingly.



SWEETEN


The simple inquiry - how to sweeten this moment, can elicit deepening emotional and sensing awareness. This heightened enjoyment catalyzes increasing, natural gratitude is to arise spontaneously in appreciation.


 



AFFIRMATIONS, SONGS, CHANTS 

(Silently or out loud if it pleases...)

       

  1. Be a tree 
  2. Every moment new and more
  3. Open always in all ways
  4. I am the Universe playing hide and seek with itself
  5. How to enjoy this moment?, How good can it feel?, how much fun can we have?
  6. Opening up in sweet surrender 
  7. Home –om
  8. We are she 4.5B-ing Perfection and beyond Perfection 
  9. I am one, with the Earth and the Sun, forever and ever and ever
  10. Every little cell in my body is happy, every little cell in my body is well
  11. Super saturate me with goodness
  12. Surprise me
  13. We are the emerging rainbow butterfly 
  14. SHE’s us
  15. Thank you, thank you, give us more, so all may share this love and joy




ADDITIONAL NOTES 


Because everything in the universe is process, then this awareness is essential in accessing the new paradigm most effectively if one wants to align with the creative genius of the Universe in all the ways we have touchpoints to engage with it.


The inquiry, “every moment new and more” aligns us with the evolutionary frequency of the Universe. 


Once Bones³ is established, then the inquiries,” who am I?” followed by “what do I want?”, where both questions are an experience of process rather than representation, are extremely revealing and rewarding.


The 7 steps are not just a linear process, although initially they can start out that way. There's a synergistic experience of softening, surrendering, opening, and embodying as our breath and our experience deepen.


There's a literal reprogramming and renewal every moment we are solEarthing because we are constantly adding millions of cells every second. That's why having spent most of 11,000+ hours vibrating as SHE is literally and

inherently transformative. This is maximizing epigenetic potential.



THE 7 MIRACULOUS GIFTS OF THE UNIVERSE


These are 7 distinct miraculous realities that we have been gifted with, and that naturally generate tremendous awe and gratitude, and align us with the nature of Existence.


  1. The unbroken chain of life that gave us our bodies to inhabit
  2. The clever, kind, and generous humans who gave us this world of wisdom and technological progress
  3. The Sun that self-organized enough hydrogen atoms in deep space to burn for over 4 billion years so far, providing heat and light that makes life possible 
  4. The Earth and all that it has miraculously created
  5. The manifested Universe
  6. Eternity/Creator from which the Universe emerged
  7. The 5 hyper-fast ways we are moving through space simultaneously while experiencing stillness