Today I want to share with you a beautiful Taoist meditation/Qigong visualization practice ... So to begin, please find a comfortable place to sit, either on a chair with your spine up-right and your feet flat on the floor; or in a comfortable cross-legged or "hero" position on the floor. Take a couple of deep, slow breaths, filling your lungs completely and then saying (either out loud or to yourself) "aaah" as you exhale. Let go of any tension you find in your neck, face or shoulders. Feel your energy descending, filling your legs and hips and belly. Smile gently, and close your eyes.

Now, imagine that you're sitting outside, at dusk, on the shore of a beautiful mountain lake. The air is pleasantly warm, and perfectly calm. As the sky darkens, stars begin to appear. Soon, the entire night sky ~ visible above the silhouettes of the mountains ~ is filled with them: golden-white points of light, millions and millions ... Let yourself be filled with amazement at the vastness of it all, its quiet mysterious beauty.

And then, in your imagination (still sitting there on the shore of the mountain lake), notice one of those stars moving toward you (kind of like a "shooting star," but slower). As it moves closer and closer it "grows" in size, becoming ever more bright, and ever more beautiful. Closer and closer ... larger and larger.

And as it draws even closer to you (hovering now somewhere above the lake), what you notice is that it's not a star at all, but rather it is an infant: a beautiful newborn, naked and shining like a star. And as this newborn, golden-white, moves even closer, what you notice is that it's not just any newborn ... but rather it is YOU as a newborn!

And now, imagine that beautiful newborn, who is you-as-a-newborn, floating even closer, until s/he is hovering directly above your head. See and feel his/her Presence there, golden-white, shining like a star. And now, allow the crown of your head to soften, as though it were the dome of a temple, which you were slowly opening ... And as you do this imagine that the newborn who is floating above your head is beginning to descend, toward the opening at your crown.

Now imagine the newborn entering that opening at the crown of your head, as though entering a temple ... and continuing to float downward, along the central channel of your body (just in front of the spine), until s/he is floating in your heart center. Feel the Presence of the newborn, shining like a star, in your heart-center.

And now the newborn-who-is-you continues to float downward, along that central channel inside of your body, until s/he is resting in your low belly, below the navel. See and feel that newborn, warm & bright as a star, floating there in your belly. As you breathe, send waves of love and appreciation to this infant, this newborn-who-is-you, resting now comfortably in your lowest belly. Let yourself feel delighted by his/her Presence there, inside of you ... as though you had within you a secret treasure, which you had just now discovered.

And now, keeping a portion of your attention here with that new-found treasure ... open your eyes.

To end (this post, and begin the rest of your day), a poem about the Kahmiri yogini Lalla (written by Frithjof Schuon):

Lalla

When Lalla Yogishwari found Atma

Within herself, the outer world became

Her sole garment, a web of dreams;

Thus she went naked beneath the vault of Heaven.

And as she entered from the outward to the Inward,

So did the Inward enter her body's fullness;

And thus she went naked and dancing through the land -

In Lakshmi's ecstasy and in Atma's stillness.