LISTENING TO THE MAN I LOVE

• Today's suggested practice: Ten minutes ... (see below)
• My playlist while writing today's meditation: Miles Davis, So What https://music.apple.com/ca/album/so-what/268443092?i=268443097
• My morning practice: 60 minutes, warm-up, followed by Sat kriya (Linking to the Infinite pranayama and mantra, later in the forest).
• My vulnerability practice: I release myself from seeking, release myself to receiving the silent wisdom of this body...
• An invitation to tonight's #MENSWORK conversation (below)

—Hans Peter Meyer

MY MEDITATION

How do I grow into the man I love? To trust myself, this heart, this mind, this body?

Young, I was in a hurry. Maybe still some of that youthful impatience. Young, I was impulsive, and hungry. Wanting more, wanting easier. Without training in the art of my masculinity I was inadequate to myself, and to the men around me.

There are good reasons to seek the company of "conscious men," as John Wineland puts it. But so many questions come from that direction. One, Where to find "conscious men," and what does that actually mean? And, let's say I find some of these rare men, how not to fall into the failings of men in groups? We are so easily distracted by things like "sex," "purpose," "depth." It's easy to make a fetish of these words, and lose myself.

When I teach my Yoga for the Sacred Masculine we start with a ritual borrowed from Kundalini Yoga: A short mantra chanted to remind ourselves that we bow to the greatest teacher, ourselves. I close with another ritual borrowed from Kundalini Yoga: the very short Sat Nam mantra, vocalizing that "truth is my identity." In between we practice by aligning our bodies to ourselves, through posture, breath, mantra, mediation... the practice changes weekly, but it is always about listening to the silent wisdom of our bodies, deepening our intuitive and unspoken understanding of our masculine capacity to hold sacred space for the feminine and Her gifts.

Stephen Jenkinson, talking about a crisis in elderhood in this culture, hints that we may be at a dead end for elderhood. A frightening thought. To me. It's not the company of conscious men I seek; I seek the wisdom of an elder, someone with the experience and the sobriety of years to see through the various stages of my struggle to receive Her gifts.

I am lucky. I have, over the years, found men a little older than myself, who have guided me through some of life's passages. Ultimately, however, I've discovered that in practice, and especially in solitude, I begin to know myself as the elder I seek. It's humbling, to come face to face with myself, to recognize that I've been running from myself most of my life. Humbling to finally and literally bow to this teacher that I am to myself.

Tonight, on #MENSWORK, we will talk about the gift of "feminine testing." We need our elder men to help us integrate this greatest of gifts She brings to us, to remind us that Her testing proves us worthy to receive. That takes practice. And, in my experience, solitude. Not a circle of men supporting me (which is often a good thing), but myself recognizing that I am deep enough and strong enough and capable enough to enjoy the test and all that flows to me from surrendering to the test.

Sat nam: Truth is my identity, my frequency, my vibration, my song. Sat name....

TODAY'S INSPIRATIONS

🌀Being around healthy men sets a standard, challenges you to new ways of being, gives you insight on how things can be better, lights the innate masculine in you to master something. Without someone preaching or telling you how to do it necessarily. By natural design. I never understood this as deeply until I witnessed it with my son over the last couple days. (Melissa Bloxham, April 2022)

🌀The Conscious Warrior is continuously refining his deepest purpose through dedicated time in solitude and in the company of other conscious men. (John Wineland, Precept 10)

🌀You're not like that now. (My beloved, my Oracle)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Ten minutes to begin to hear (and sing) the song of your truth. Today we are building on yesterday's practise, going deeper....

Please read through first, then ...

• Find a place where you can make some sound without being disturbed. Set a timer for FIVE minutes (you'll reset halfway through).
• Standing, close your eyes and allow your breath to gently slow....
• Place your right hand on your heart, your left hand on your throat.... Feel your breath gently filling both of your hands, emptying from your hands, as you inhale and exhale.
• With your mouth open, begin to chant "ONG," the "open" form of the "AUM" chant, as you exhale. Make this a long exhale and long chant. Gradually your breath will become longer, your chant longer and deeper. As you lengthen the exhale and the chant you may start to feel the vibration in your jaw, your nasal passages, in your throat, your heart, your belly, and deeper into your lower triangle. If you don't feel this vibration, know that at a subtle level, too subtle to notice, you are introducing a vibration into your body that begins to reset or realign your own frequency, the vibration of the molecules and subatomic particles that are you in this moment.
• Continue until the timer signals, then stop the chanting.
• Reset the time for five minutes. Bring your hands back to where they were, on your throat and your heart. Keeping your breath relaxed, but long and deep, allow yourself to feel the "echo" of the chant in your throat hand and your heart hand. Again, if you don't notice this, you can still know that, like the experience of subtle ultrasound you may have experienced in a clinical setting, your body is not subtly vibrating with the frequency of the ONG mantra.
• Continue to breathe gently, long and deep into your belly.Bring all of your attention to the front of your body and especially your throat and your heart, the hands that are holding you there. Breathe into these hands, breathe into your heart, your throat.
• When the timer signals, relax your attention and lower your hands. Sit for three breath cycles, then open your eyes, seeing the room or forest around you with curiosity. Move slowly back into your day, noticing any changes to how you hear, how you listen, how you speak, how choose to remain silent. Just notice.
• You may repeat this practice at any time, and for longer if you wish. And always, enjoy!

** Dear reader.... Please join me at 6:55pm Pacific time on April 20 for another #MENSWORK conversation. My guest will be men's sex coach Melissa Bloxham. Our topic, "Feminine Testing." The Zoom link is https://bit.ly/MENSWORKLIVE7PM

Please join me at 4am Pacific time on Thursday, April 21 for the weekly Yoga for the Sacred Masculine practice on Zoom at https://is.gd/RA2EEK