Like a Star

What to expect

Like a Star — a 21-minute meditation on warmth, read by Jessi

Sunlight falls on everyone the same, choosing nobody, and doesn’t ask for anything back. Some warmth is like that, already in you. This meditation settles the body, rests in the space around it, lets go of where the body ends, and then finds the warmth the body already gives off, three times, with a few quiet words, light in, warmth out, before a rest and a slow return. Nothing is to be achieved, and nobody is asked to shine.

How to listen:

• Sitting or lying down somewhere quiet, eyes closed. Never while driving or walking.
• Headphones help but aren’t needed.
• There are long quiet stretches. That is part of it.

About

Before you listen. Somewhere quiet, sitting or lying down, with your eyes closed for the whole of it, so it is not for driving, walking or standing.

Dedication. For Jenna and Jessi. This collection exists because of them and is named for them. The practice is theirs twice over. What it is about - two people who radiate, without performing it - is what they do. And the discipline it is written to is Jenna’s own, in her own words: “eventually you don’t need the dark because you become the eternal light. Wholeness = sovereignty. It is a state of being.” Her second sentence takes the first one back, and that is the rule this whole script obeys: nobody is told they have become anything.

Safety and aftercare. The end brings you back slowly, and its last lines ask you to stir before you open your eyes. Give yourself a minute before you stand, and longer before you drive. If anything feels like too much at any point, open your eyes and let the room come back. That isn’t failing.

Credits. The way down - settling the body, resting attention on space, letting go, then the practice, a long rest and a return - follows the shape of Dr Joe Dispenza’s guided meditations and of his book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself; resting attention on space is Les Fehmi’s practice, which that book credits. None of his words is spoken. Letting things pass through is Michael Singer’s teaching, and the three images in the practice - something the body does by itself, like the heartbeat; light that lands without choosing; the sun behind cloud - are from his talks. That the sun is a star, so its light is a star’s, is his too. Tejas, a word for shining, is in the chants at his Temple of the Universe, in one written for two people practising together. The close of Part Seven, the sun beside a warm heart, is inspired by the Sri Atma Gita, as the Temple of the Universe reads it: the sun in the sky who lights heaven and earth cannot be compared to that sage who lights hearts.

Written by Lee.

Transcript

Opening

Sunlight falls on everyone the same, choosing nobody.

It doesn’t ask for anything back.

Some warmth is like that, already in you.

So let’s notice it, and let it shine.

So for a while, there’s nothing to make happen.

Nothing to do but rest.

Sit, or lie down, at ease.

Rest your weight on what’s beneath.

Close the eyes.

Breathe in, slow and full.

And out, even slower.

Leave the breath to itself.

Notice where the body is touched.

Part One: Space

Notice the space around the body.

Past the top of the head.

Out beyond the feet.

On either side.

Rest in how far it extends.

All of the space at once.

Part Two: Release

Release the jaw.

Whatever the shoulders carry, release that.

Any effort in breathing: release it.

Behind the eyes, release any grip.

Release tracking where the body ends.

Part Three: As if in sunlight

Rest as if in sunlight.

Its light, on every side.

The sun shines on everyone, choosing nobody.

Part Four: Warmth at the skin

Notice warmth at the skin.

In the hands, if nowhere else.

Enjoy it, if it’s pleasant.

Some of it, your body’s own, going out through the skin.

And some, from around you.

Part Five: A warm spot

Settle attention on a warm spot.

Stay with it.

Whatever warmth is there, spreading like a star’s.

Release the warm spot.

Rest in the ordinary body.

The eyes stay closed.

Part Six: The saying

Again, settle on a warm spot.

Leave the warmth to the body, as you leave the heart beating.

Inwardly, say: light in, warmth out.

Under the words, the warm spot.

A few breaths, in your time.

Release the words, and the spot.

Rest in the body, eyes closed.

If the mind has wandered, fine.

The warmth, like sun behind cloud, is there, felt or not.

Part Seven: Onward

Settle on a warm spot again.

Attention at the skin, all over.

Warmth you don’t keep goes onward.

The air and room receive it.

If anyone is near, it arrives.

Let it go as goodwill.

The sun lights the sky and the earth. A warm heart reaches where the sun does not.

Part Eight: Rest

Nothing more is asked.

Simply this, as it is.

Part Nine: Return

Breathe a little deeper.

Feel the body’s weight again.

And its warmth, at the skin.

Every warm body does this, unasked.

We all do.

Inwardly, say: my warmth goes out on its own.

Notice whatever reaches you: sound, air.

Let each pass through the body.

Each one came in.

Each one passed through.

Move the fingers and toes.

Feel the room around you.

Open your eyes, in your time.