19th August

Nine of us today. We viewed a video showing a surgeon being interviewed about his finding of shared experience told by survivors whose heart stopped where their brain activity had flat lined. Many had after death experiences when conventional thinking would say it was impossible.
After a beak we read about sitting in the centre.
Your Centre of Being
You've probably heard of the phrase "being centred". Generally it refers to being focused, aware and totally present. If you play a sport you might prepare yourself by closing your eyes and taking a breath. If you are about to do something that requires concentration you might first draw yourself inward. Even if you are about to relax, you might look at your surroundings, make yourself comfortable and tap into a sense of contentment and steadiness within.

The ancient yogis called the state of being centred, "in your seat" or the Sanskrit term, asana, posture or seat. The universe holds your unique asana, or seat, no matter where you are physically, mentally or spiritually. The challenge is how well you sit in it.

To explore the experience of this, you might want to take a moment to notice how you are seated in yourself right now. Are you comfortable? Perhaps you feel settled, connected and in harmony. Being centred often carries a sense of strength and clarity. Or are you uncomfortable? Perhaps thrown off for any number of reasons—longstanding issues or everyday challenges. Self-criticism is a clever adversary to feeling centred.

Naturally you are more well-seated when you are pleased with the way your life is flowing. But can you maintain your centre in a storm? Outside circumstances act upon us to un-seat us. Sometimes you can feel shocked or knocked about. You can be engaged in external or internal battles.
But, even when you are experiencing big challenges and intense emotions you can be centred. Actually, sitting in intense emotion is a method of working through it. Consider, for example, the difference of taking the time to sit and experience anger rather than flinging it. Or feeling sadness rather than pushing it away. Here you can be firmly seated and acknowledge it. "I am sitting in confusion. I am sitting in frustration. I am sitting in a feeling of lack." You remain totally connected to your seat while fully experiencing heightened emotion at the same time.

Your Own Sacred Space
At a deeper level, your seat is an inner sacred space. This centre of being is your connection to your divine nature and is you as your spiritual Self. It is the posture of expansion and wisdom.
How do you build upon and maintain your centre of being? Through effort and awareness. The practice of observing yourself gives you the opportunity to notice how you are seated—when you are centred and when you have wobbled. Even noticing you are off your seat allows you to become more steady. The practice of meditation allows you to investigate the nature of the mind and over time gives you the ability to redirect the negative thinking that unseats you. And, the more you recognise the times you feel centred, the easier it is to get back to it when you are un-seated.
Being centred gives you a sense of scale, a power to see beyond the flux of everyday life. You expand your sense of being and you experience your life with awareness, wonder, understanding and acceptance.
Inquiry: At Your Deepest Core

Clear away any physical or mental agitation by taking a deep breath or focusing on the emotional centre of your heart. Gently inquire: "Who am I at my deepest core?" "What is the experience of my highest spiritual centre?" "How can I merge into the peace of being centred?" Allow the inquiry to resonate and investigate how you feel.
Meditation: Centre of the Universe
Take the point of view that you are the centre of the universe. Become acutely aware of how your life unfolds from within. Just as you can move your arm, consider how every word you say and every action you take comes from within. Close your eyes and meditate on the universe unfolding from within.

Contemplation: Perspective

When you shift into the perspective that you are the centre, the experience changes.
Contemplation: The Present
The present moment carries the most vitality. It is filled with vibrant awareness. At any moment, you can sit quietly and scan the impressions of your senses—sounds, fragrance, tactile experience. You can notice the chattering of the mind and go beyond it to focus on your own consciousness. Go deeper, past the knowledge of I am. Allow that experience to enter and expand into a sense of total connectedness in the present moment. Sit in this awareness now . . . and now . . . and now . . .
See your own reality. Throw off the outside coverings and see the inside substance. Observe that until now you have made a box around yourself. Now you want to know what is really inside. If you don't go to your reality, your whole life will be nothing but pretense and fantasy. Living in make-believe, you will not be able to take the last step of evolution. So if you want to go further, be genuine. Go beyond words and come to the truth of experience.
See that although "I" appears to change with the change, in reality it is changeless. When people depart from you or you depart from them, see with the knowledge that something in you both will stay, something in you will meet again. As understanding deepens, relationships become profound. They are not only of the body, but they are perfumed with essence.
Otherwise, life is filled with so much fear and anxiety that it is unbearable. But if you know that essence is never lost, though you feel sadness at a dear one's departure, still you can come back to your work, continue your routine, and experience living fully. Though there is seeming disappearance, this disappearance is in order to appear somewhere else. In order to go there, you have to leave here. In pure relationship one companion goes ahead of the other. The other follows later. The parting is temporary. They meet again. The changeless indicates that which cannot die, for it was never born; it is the very life of life.