S/He who sees all beings in the Self
(Atman)
And the Self in all beings,
Shrinks not from anything thereafter.

-Isavasya Upanishad
translation by Swami Sivananda

Within you there is an opening. Within the vastness of your consciousness there is a doorway. The air is the same on both sides. The scene is no different inside or out. But on one side you are a separate being living a distinct life in a concrete world. On the other you are fluid consciousness, continuous with all of creation. Both possibilities live inside you. Both realities offer you a day of activities when you wake up each morning. Do you consciously choose? Or do you funnel yourself unwittingly into day after day of separateness?

Melting

Many of us walk around, not only committed to our separateness, but energetically frozen into icebergs of psychic tension. A crusty auric skin insures our isolation from one another.

And yet we have continual opportunities to choose differently. Every moment offers the possibility of expanding our perception. In any situation we can shift our awareness from an external view (one that may promote separateness and conflict within and without) to an internal view (one that promotes connection and peace within and without).

The process of melting the sharp edges in your energy field produces a number of beneficial effects. It will synchronously release muscle tension in your physical body reducing structural pain of all kinds. It will improve your relationships and soften the way others respond to you. It will open you to unconditional feelings of happiness, love and satisfaction. It will also contribute to the collective vibration of harmony in our shared world. Ultimately, this melting process will guide you into a direct perception of "all beings in the self and the self in all beings.”

Melting your icy aura means softening your interface with the world. It means there will be less of an awareness of where you end and another begins. This feeling of soft fluidity between you and the rest of your world promotes spontaneous realizations of true compassion. It promotes the type of caring that comes from the integrity of the whole as it lives through you. These harsh, frozen energy patterns that we are seeking to melt function mostly as protection. They act as barriers defending us against the world. But to the degree that we are truly continuous with our world, they separate us from ourselves. This defense harms us with its jagged edges and lifeless tension. It cuts us off from the depth of experience that is our human inheritance. As you begin to thaw, you may discover a whole new dimension inside yourself you didn't even know existed.

Thawing with Water

The process of thawing can be accomplished with short frequent moments of release. Meditation on water and focusing the attention on the 2nd chakra can produce the softening we are seeking.

1. Close your eyes and bring your attention to the area of your pelvis just behind your pubic bone. Feel your breath filling this region

with each inhalation and emptying with each exhalation. Now, imagine a bowl of water. Imagine the surface of the water, soft, smooth and completely responsive to any movement of the bowl.

2. Now, imagine a clear stream running swiftly through a snowy landscape. The fluid movement of the water flows over and around all obstacles with ease and grace, melting any snow or ice it touches.

3. Knowing that your body is made mostly of water, feel the fluid, responsive ease and grace of your physical self. Become seated in your water nature and feel the stream of life that flows purely, gracefully, elegantly through you. Feel the softening of what you perceive as the "edge” of you.

Thawing with Fire

The fire element, concentrated in the 3rd chakra, can also be useful in the thawing process. Fire, being less "physical” than water, moves with even less resistance and does not have a specific form to retain. As you seat yourself in your fire nature you arouse tremendous life force that can quickly melt away frozen patterns. If you are not accustomed to this type of meditation, begin with small doses.

1. Close your eyes and bring your attention to the area just behind the navel. Feel your breath filling this region with each inhalation and emptying with each exhalation. Now imagine a flame. Watch the edge of the flame as it changes shape. It may be helpful to look at a candle flame, examining the ease and grace of its flickering movements as well as its soft stillness.

2. Now imagine a campfire on a star-filled night. Feel the warmth of the fire's movement. Watch its freedom. Feel its freedom.

3. The heat, light and freedom of movement that you see in the flame live within your nature. Become seated in your fire nature and feel the upward dancing energy as it melts away all frozen distortions in your energy patterns and frees you to be the loving, joyful being who is substantially connected to the universe you live in.

Spring is here. As the earth thaws from the icy winter, you can join the process by softening your energetic field. Grant yourself the freedom of movement that flows like water, dances like flame and wears your unique face. You are your world.

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