by Jeanne and John Adams
Easter arrives with the beginnings of spring, like a child with a fresh and eager curiosity for life. The cold, dark days and longer nights of winter have passed, and colors burst from buds on trees and beneath the ground. Greens, pinks, yellows, and whites sprinkle the trees and grass and delight the senses.
Easter has a unique significance to us because it speaks of grace, redemption, and proclaims an existential hope for humanity. Somehow, the harm we cause each other is not necessarily the end of things but part of a journey to redemption, renewal, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The heart of Easter beats with a truth that resounds within our own heart and invites awareness to our minds and healing to our lives.
An Easter Meditation:
1. Find a quiet space in a place where you feel safe. Kneel, sit, or lie down – any position that invites you to remain awake, steady, and relaxed. Invite your mind to quiet.
2. Soften your lower ribs and abdomen and feel the cleansing and nourishing movements of the breath. Allow the breath to become diaphragmatic.
3. Inhale and exhale through the nostrils. Invite your breath to be deep, slow, relaxed, and even. Let it flow without effort.
4. Notice if you are holding any tension in your body. Relax your body from head to toes, and toes to head, breathing and releasing tension. Then breathe as if the whole body breathes.
5. Focus on the touch of breath in the nostrils. Be patient as you gradually narrow your attention, detaching from passing thoughts. Allow distracting thoughts to pass without judging, criticizing or analyzing them.
6. Relax your mind further and merge the sound of the breath with the touch of the breath. Let the sound flow effortlessly at the natural pace of your breathing.
7. Center your awareness in the sound where it arises in your mind, with only the merest awareness of the breath.
8. Meditate on these words taken from a beloved prayer by St. Francis of Assisi
Make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Read this prayer to yourself or say it aloud three times. The first two times, simply listen for a word or phrase that sticks out to you. The third time through, pay attention for any images that come to mind.
Pause. Contemplate with deep introspection and honesty and align your heart to challenging situations, such as your relationships with difficult people or those with whom you disagree philosophically or politically. As you visualize and practice opening your heart in your various relationships, you practice compassion (ahimsa - the first Yama in Yoga) and begin the journey of redemption, renewal, forgiveness, reconciliation, and grace.
Remember: Practice! it is called Yoga Practice, not Yoga Perfect. Practice daily to cultivate walking in your higest good, just as Jesus walked in his.
