This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching and Happiness.
This week's challenge was to contemplate my own divinity and to write about three practices that connect me to my passion and my sacredness.
I love all the meditations I practice, but mantra meditation always holds a special place in my heart. Even though I'm often alone while chanting, I don't feel alone. In singing the mantra, I feel the vibration of all of those who join me in the chant: past, present and future. And I find certain chants speaking to me at certain times. Chants that I connect to the most: Om Namah Sivaya, Green Tara Mantra (Om Tara Tutare Ture Soha), Guru Ram Das Mantra (Guru Guru Wahe Guru Guru Ram Das Guru) and Om Mani Padme Hum.
I feel like teaching is my gift. My purpose in life is to share Yoga (asana, meditation and the other aspects) with others. I teach what I'm meant to teach. When I get a feeling that something should change in the teaching (a different pose, a new mantra), I change it. Because when I'm teaching, I feel keyed in to my divinity. I feel like I'm truly expressing who I am and appreciating what I've been given.
I've recently started practicing tea meditation daily. This has become a fantastic touchstone in my day. I start with making my favorite tea (steeped cinnamon sticks), pour it into one of my tea meditation cups and go up to my room. At the end of my bed I have a print by Autumn Skye Morrison. I feel very spiritually connected to this print. I sit down in front of it with my cup of tea and do my meditation. I feel like those are the moments I am completely in the presence of my own Divine spirit.
