Heart Meditation for Av
Guided meditation created by Leora Fridman, an interdisciplinary artist, ritualist, and educator living in the Bay Area. Find out more at www.leorafridman.com
Sit quietly, and close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing so. If you don’t want to close your eyes, just keep your gaze soft and gentle. Scan through your body, just noticing what’s there right now. Are there any points of tension, tenderness, calm or numbness? What is your breath like right now? Just feel what’s there from your head to your fingertips, from your belly to your toes.
After you’ve scanned for a few moments, bring your attention to the center of your chest, to your heart space. What do you feel there? What do you notice? Warmth or coolness, numbness or tightness? Whatever’s there is okay.
Keeping your attention at your heart space, imagine there’s a small fire at the center of your chest, your heart fire, the fire of your capacity for connection, intimacy and compassion. Picture that small bonfire in the center of your chest. With each in breath, watch the fire rise, and with each out breath imagine you’re blowing on the fire gently, giving it oxygen, feeding it. Breathe in, watch the fire rise. Breathe out, blow on it gently to feed it. Do this for a few moments, keeping your attention on the fire and allowing it to build or shrink as it may.
Keeping the fire in your chest, bring to mind one thing that’s hard for you or for someone you love right now, and bring it into your chest. Let it sit by the fire. Know that this fire is the fire of compassion, intimacy, care, and love. Whatever you bring to the fire of love is fuel for that fire — it only creates more love, more compassion. Let the hardship meet the fire and be transformed into compassion, compassion for you or someone you love, compassion for the suffering that is around us. You can bring whatever you want to the fire. Whatever you bring there is transformed into compassion and love. Breathe in and out, watching what happens to the fire as you bring hardship there, as you bring breath there, as you focus on the fire.
In the last few moments, you can let the fire die down. There’s no need to bring effort to it; just observe. Before you open your eyes to consider Av with your circle, feel what’s there in the center of your chest. Let it accompany you as you dive into this month of loss and love. Whether you notice it or not, your heart fire will be here.