Finding the Lotus in the Muddy Pond
By Mandy Peterson
If we were to see the lotus as representing our purity of self and the muddy pond as representing the thought forms that clouds us from accessing that purity, then one great way to weed through the mud would be to employ some form of meditation. While breathing exercises and blank-mind meditation have much to offer, the below offers a guided meditation for those who feel more comfortable using visualization as a tool: begin, you may wish to get into a comfortable position. As you read this meditation, just go along with it in your mind’s eye without worrying too much that your eyes are open and not closed. When you feel comfortable, begin to focus your attention on your heart chakra.
Take a few deep breaths, and then allow your mind to visualize a beautiful white lotus blossoming out of the center of your heart charka. With each subsequent breath that you take in, allow your awareness to move deeper and deeper into the heart of the blossom until you feel yourself begin to make contact with your spiritual essence. This essence is the part of you that is whole and pure. It is capable of viewing your dream of life in a clear way without attaching judgment or blame to anything.
Then, allow your attention to focus upon the planet Earth. Allow your awareness to take you to the heart of the Earth, which there blossoms a beautiful and pure white lotus. Next, allow your attention to drift towards the center of the Universe. Here, as well, allow your mind to find a beautiful lotus blossom. Feel how your own lotus nature is similar and connected to the lotus nature of the Earth, the Universe and the Stars.
Now draw your awareness back into the lotus within your own being. As you sit with this part of yourself, feel yourself become it. As you become this lotus self, allow your mind to begin to observe it as seated within your material self. Observe how that material self is only a shell that surrounds it. This shell does not touch—and cannot harm—your pure and lotus self in any way.
Then, look for another kind of shell that surrounds the physical body. This shell expands out from your physical body and is what comprises your personal energy field. As you allow your focus to move beyond this energy field, you may also observe that you seated within an energetic field that surrounds the earth. As you allow your focus to expand even farther than the earth, you may observe that you are seated within a greater energy field of the Stars or the Universe. All of these shells you are seated within make up the pond in which you reside.
Now, I want you to return to visualizing the energy field that lies around your body. As you sit within the center of your lotus self, begin to see the various symbols, emotions, thought forms, hopes, aspirations, hurts, or relationships that have occupied your thoughts. See them dancing within your personal energy space. See how the dance moves in an unconscious and somewhat automatic way.
Observe the same pattern within the collective energy field of the Earth. Allow yourself to visualize all the thought forms and beliefs that most of the world embraces. Include anything that comes to mind; such as political, technological or ownership ideas; quotes from religious sources or gurus; collectively held hopes, emotions and fears; labels and definitions; or whatever within the outer world that leaves an impression upon the individuals within it. Observe in a detached way as these thought forms dance around you, sometimes dancing into your own energy field where they become part of the dance of your own personal beliefs and thoughts.
As you continue to watch the dance, perhaps you may find that so many thoughts are dancing around you that everything begins to appear cloudy. It may become more and more difficult to see beyond the thoughts that surround the self to be able to clearly observe the bigger picture of the greater world or Universe.
Now, return to focusing your attention upon the Lotus that blossoms within yourself. Take a few deep breaths to center yourself in its stillness. Then, allow yourself to imagine that a beautiful white rose blooms out of the Lotus’ heart. This white rose represents the Lotus’ pure capacity for love.
Now imagine taking all of what clouds the muddy pond into the center of that beautiful white rose. All the thoughts that are dancing around, all the definitions and labels you have held onto, all the strivings, aspirations, and everything else. Pull all of that energy into the center of the rose. Feel the energy of the rose embrace it all with its love. Feel that love having a transmuting or neutralizing effect upon whatever it embraces.
Now, allow yourself to imagine a beautiful white rose emerging out of the Lotus center of the Earth. As you gaze outside your un-muddied energy field, you may now be able to perceive the thought forms that are dancing around within the energy field of the collective and earth. If they are clouding your view of observing the bigger picture of the universe, you can ask that they be embraced by the transmuting love of the Earth’s white rose. Then, in similar fashion, you may ask that the rose in the center of the universe take on any cloudy thought forms that are left. Know that whichever heart center you choose to assist you, be it asking for love and healing from deep within yourself, from within the Earth, or from within the Universe, emerges from the same love source.
Allow yourself to take a few deep breaths as you allow yourself to observe and feel the clarity of the un-muddied pond that surrounds you.
Now, allow your mind to bring up any dream that you can vividly remember. Don’t worry if it was a nightmare or a pleasant dream. Then, see yourself standing in the center of your dream, in a detached state, while allowing all the action to continue on around you.
Begin to recognize that everything occurring around you is only arising from the energy of various emotions and thought forms that have been held within the pond. Keep allowing that dream to unfold without trying to control it. Instead you are going to imagine that pure white rose, growing out of the center of your Lotus self. Then, imagine the symbols and characters within the dream being funneled into the pure white rose. It was never real. It was only illusion. It was only a part of what made up a muddy pond. You were always whole and perfect.
Now, allow yourself to think of a situation which made you feel hurt by another. Begin to visualize yourself in the center of that action as this person stands in front of you. Centered in your Lotus self you may feel completely detached.
Allow yourself to imagine all the thought forms, beliefs and emotions from past and which originate or contribute to the cause of this event that hurt you. Observe how these energies are dancing around in both your energy field and the energy field of the other person involved. You can also imagine any collective thought forms which are moving in and out of each of your energy fields from being part of the collective mind.
After taking time to observe all of the action, allow your mind to imagine the three white roses: the one within your Lotus center, the one within the Earth’s, and the one within the greater Universe’s. I want you to ask these three roses to take in and transmute the energy of this event. Know that what is being transmuted is not only the surface energies, but the deeper collective, ancestral and universal energies that may be clouding the situation or acting as a cause.
After the Roses have done their work, visualize yourself standing in front of the person who hurt you. Without all the thought forms to cloud your vision, you may find it easier to look within their heart, deep into their Lotus center, and find that you are brothers and sisters in the purest and most loving sense. Within our illusions we are all part of the One that makes up the clouds within the muddy pond. Within our truth we are part of the One that makes up what is loving and pure. We are all worthy.
While still feeling the stillness and purity of the moment, give thanks to the Universe for its loving energy. Give thanks that the hurt was never real and only illusion. It was made up from the thoughts that cloud the pond with mud. Give thanks that you are more than how you have defined yourself within the dream of life. Then, quietly say to yourself; “It is done, it is done, it is done.”
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