This follows the short break that comes after all participants have practiced the second module's form on the first side. Now they are preparing to share it on the second side when the receivers will lie on their right side. Have the pillows that will be under the head and behind the back in place, and the receivers sitting where they can easily lay over to their side to be spooned, the givers sitting facing them just far enough apart that they won't touch arms during their movement in the meditation
In our earlier stretches we got in touch with two Heart Centers, one on the surface, our heart chakra that resonates to connect to others, and another, our deepest center within. At the Heart Math Institute, researchers studying the relationship of different rhythms in our heart to our other rhythms, have found one rhythm in the heart that is chaotic under the normal stress of our lives. But when we enter into a very positive heart felt state, they find that rhythm's wave becomes regular and entrains all our other rhythms to it. When we are in that positive heart state the rhythms of those we touch begin to match ours. This may be happening when we hold someone close in Watsu or Tantsu, and feel a connection that comes from a deep place within the heart. So deep, it may be the rhythm that connects our deepest heart center to the one on the surface, that connects us to everything.
Now before lying heart behind heart, we are going to share a meditation that engages our whole being to help us get in contact with that rhythm and our deepest Heart center.
Sit eyes closed. Notice all the movement within, the flows that our stretches opened and all the other flows. Welcome them. Let them move your body. Each time you breathe in feel your breath accompany those flows out to every part of your being. And as you breathe out, feel everything empty into the bowl at the base of the spine, your navel the front, the sacrum the back, and the perineum the bottom. And at the bottom of the breath, when everything has emptied into that bowl, the bowl itself empties into that point at the bottom, at the base of our core where our energy returns into the void, which is its most powerful state because it is pure potential. At the bottom of each breath drop a little deeper, stay a little longer in that void.
Lang Tzu in the Tao Te Ching says the Tao gives birth to the one, the one gives birth to the two and the two to the three and the three to the ten thousand which is everything. What you feel in that void at the bottom of the breath is the Tao, the undifferentiated, the mother of all beings... and what you feel rising up your back as you breathe in is the Tao giving birth to the one... and the one is your crown chakra where you are one with everything. The next time you breathe in, breathe that birth all the way up your back, all the way up to that place of light, not a seeing light but a being light, a shining out to all sides. And as you breathe out feel how all that light settles down the front, as slow as snow falling, darkening as it empties back into the Tao. And this rising up the back and down the front is a continuous cycle. We use our breath as a vehicle to ride up and down it, but it is continuous. And where you can feel that continuity the most is right in its center. Midway between the rising and the settling. Midway between the Tao and the one, in the deepest Heart Center.
As you focus on that center notice whatever tendencies might appear in your body around it, old habits, ways to protect it, because it is your deepest center. The next time you breathe in fill that center, and as you breathe out, let whatever pain, or ways you no longer need to protect it, settle and empty back into the Tao. As you breathe in, feel how open that center can be. Feel that opening up through your chest, opening it, and up the insides of your arms, raising and opening them the way they open to hold someone. With your hands not quite touching, let those arms dance the opening of the heart center. Dance that opening all the way out to the points in the middle of the palm. Gradually bring your hands one on top of the other over your heart center, not to close it but to hold its openness. Feel that openness all around the heart, in the back behind it, and in the diaphragm below, and in the vocal cords above. Let them open to the sound under the sound that is the song of the heart opening. Gradually rest your hands on top of your legs, palms up.
Drop again into the void at the bottom of the breath, the place where you ground, the base of your core. Those about to receive keep your eyes closed. You will not open those windows into the core until the session is complete and you are again sitting facing each other. Lie down now on your right side in the fetal position, as the other lies at the back of your heart, a forearm against your occiput, a thigh at your base, and an arm reaching across to hold your heart from the other side. Notice how there is a deeper rhythm within the core connecting everything.
©2007 Harold Dull