Author: Elizabeth Moran

Body Butter Recipe

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

As we move through winter, I'm called to share a body butter recipe that's kept my skin happy in the blowing winds and biting cold.  It's a great skin treamtment year round, but I find it especially wonderful in the cold and dry.

Body Butter

2 Parts Cocoa Butter

1 Part Almond Oil

1 Part Avocado Oil

I use a scale to measure the ingredints right into a steel bowl.

Then set the bowl over boiling water and whisk the oils together until completely combined.

After the oils have completely cooled and solidified, scoop the mixture out onto a plate and mash it with a fork until pliable.  

Fill a stone container with the mixture and make a little well in the center for essential oils.

Add the essential oils and carefully mix.  I use a ratio of 8 drops of essential oil for every ounce of body butter in the container.

The body butter is fairly solid in the stone container but melts on contact with the skin.  I use a popsicle stick to dig it out.

Mudra Series for Working with Intention

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

This contemplation is based on a series of mudras I learned at a workshop given by one of my teachers, Loriann.   Like so many of her classes, it inspired me to explore a little more, and now it has become a somewhat regular practice with only tiny alterations  from its original form.

In my experience, our fingers are little antennae tuners for the  radio of subconsious mind.  Mudras, which are specific hand and pody positions, are finely tuned tools for focusing intent.  This contemplation uses intent, in the form of mudras and prayers, to work with intention itself.  It is not a practice to help you realize your personal goals, although it may do that.  Instead, it's about discovering your purpose here as a human being in this world.  It's meant to find answers to the question:  "How can I, as an individual, best serve all of reality?"

We begin by releasing....

Apana Mudra

With both hands, join the middle finger and the ring finger to the thumb.  Extend the pinky finger and the index finger.  Turn the hands so that the palms are facing down.

Prayer:  "May all fear and craving be washed away."

Padma Mudra

Join full length of the thumb on the left hand to the full length of the thumb on the right hand.  Join the full length of the pinky finger on the left hand to the full length of the pinky finger on the right hand. Join the heels of the hands together and bring them to the heart center, opening the fingers outward like a flower.

Prayer:  "May the heart open, and may the ego release its grasping."

Sankalpa Mudra

On the left hand, join the middle finger to the thumb and extend all the other fingers.  On the right hand, lay the thumb tip alongside the inside tip of the ring  finger and extend all the other fingers.

Simply wait with open, silent awareness for an intention to form.  

If an intention doesn't form, go ahead and proceed with rest of the practice as if one did.

Ajna Chakra Mudra

On the left hand, bend the middle, ring and pinky fingers down and cover their nails with the pad of the thumb.  Extend the index finger upward.  Wrap all of the fingers of the right hand around the index finger of the left hand.  Lay the right thumb alongside the nail of the left index finger.  Raise the hands to the level of the third eye.

Prayer:  "May I be given clear vision."

Caution:  Do not hold this mudra for longer than a minute or two.  Just 10 or 15 seconds will do.  Too much focus on the 3rd eye can cause some whopping headaches.

Ganesha Mudra

Place the back of your left hand horizontally across your heart center.  Place the palm of your right hand horizontally across the palm of your left hand.  Curl your fingers to clasp the hands together and actively pull the elbows apart.

Prayer:  "May the obstacles be removed." 

Prana Mudra

For each hand, join the ring finger and the pinky finger to the thumb.  Extend the index finger and the middle finger.  Turn the palms to face upward.

Prayer:  "May I receive energy and strength."

Chin Mudra

For each hand, bend the index finger down and cover the nail with the pad of the thumb.  Extend the other 3 fingers and turn the palms to face upward.

The index figer represents the individual, and the thumb represents the divine.  In this mudra, we are subjugating the will of the individual to the will of the divine.

Prayer: "Thy will be done."

You can find detailed descriptions of Apana mudra, Padma mudra, Ajna Chakra mudra, Ganesha mudra, Prana mudra and Chin mudra in Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance .

Loriann taught me this particular version of Sankalpa mudra.

My True Home

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

My true home... Inspired by Han Shan (Cold Mountain)

My true home is on Cold Mountain

My true home is on Cold Mountain
perched among cliffs beyond the reach of trouble
images leave no trace when they vanish
I roam the whole universe from here
lights and shadows flash across my mind
not one dharma appears before me
since I found this magic pearl
I can go anywhere everywhere is perfect.

From The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain translated by Red Pine

My true home is deep ocean

My true home is deep ocean.
My substance surrenders
To moon's inexorable pull.
Land succumbs to my touch.
My currents shape the air above
Finding their way to Cold Mountain.
From the boiling cauldrons of my depths
Springs forth new life.

Meditation on Forgiveness

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

Resting awareness deep within the heart, gently allow this prayer to move through your consciousness .

For all of the ways that I have betrayed others,
Through thought, word, or deed,
Knowingly or unknowingly,
I ask forgiveness.
Please forgive me.

For all of the ways that I have betrayed myself,
Through thought, word, or deed,
Knowingly or unknowingly,
I ask forgiveness.
I forgive myself.

For all of the ways that I have been betrayed by others,
Through thought, word, or deed,
Knowingly or unknowingly,
To the extent that I am ready to let this pain go,
I offer my forgiveness.
I forgive you.

Inspired by A Meditation on Forgiveness. “A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life” by Jack Kornfield, page 283,

Labyrinth Meditation

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

There’s an outdoor replica of the Chartres Labyrinth near the town where I live, and I visit every chance I get. It’s a place of great clarity and power, and I have always been grateful for the messages I have received there. Labyrinths have been used for centuries to make pilgrimages, meditate, commune with divine beings, or contemplate difficult questions. A labyrinth consists of a single, winding, concentric circular path that leads from one entrance to the center. Unlike mazes, where there can be multiple exits and many dead-ends, a labyrinth has only one way in to the center and one way back out. You cannot get lost in a labyrinth.

The center of the labyrinth can mean different things, depending on your intent: the Holy Land, Jesus’s presence, oneness. The labyrinth’s winding path symbolizes our lives, or spiritual paths, with all the apparent successes and failures, ups and downs. When the path is moving away from the center, it symbolizes the places in our lives where we feel we have gone astray. When we are apparently moving toward the center, it symbolizes the times in our lives when things are going well. But regardless of where we think we are in relation to the center, we know that the path leads us there unerringly. All we have to do is keep going.

When I have the opportunity to walk the labyrinth, I often begin by asking, “Please show me.” Then I slowly place one foot in front of the other and open to any experience that comes into awareness, trusting the labyrinth to show me what is needed at that moment. It’s a beautiful, powerful practice. If you’re interested exploring this meditation and need to find a labyrinth near you, the Labyrinth Locator may be of some use.

Mind

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

Think of mind as a sense organ – one that picks up and translates vibration into thoughts and sensory experiences. It has two habits that help us survive as beings, but don’t serve so well when navigating the deeper levels of consciousness. The first habit is attaching an I-sense to some of the thoughts and sensory experiences and the second habit is attaching an emotional coloring to the experience, such as pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable.

The I-sense differentiates the experiences into components that are “me” and components that are “not me”. The moment we attach an I-sense to an experience, the energy vibration that the mind has translated sticks and becomes part of our energetic structure. As soon as we differentiate the experience into pleasure and pain, we suffer. Think of all the years we spend with these habits, collecting and differentiating over and over again. To quote one of my teachers, “The mind is a hoarder.” After many years, many lifetimes of hoarding, there’s no more room in our energetic houses for energy to pass through. We react to every single little thing that hits us.

When we meditate, we focus with single pointed concentration on an object. Object and observer dissolve into each other – become one – and a little bit of that stuck energy clears out. This happens again and again. Each time, our energetic structure becomes a little more empty. Our houses start to clear out and, when we open a window (pay attention), the breeze can move through. We feel the breeze of energy hitting our obstructions, vibrating them. For a while, the mind continues its habit of interpreting the vibrations into thoughts and sensory experiences, and we ride these out, refraining from judging them as bad or good, unpleasant or pleasant. Simply watching the play of consciousness.

Now, instead of doing, the meditation becomes an undoing. In stillness, we watch the mind’s translations. Eventually, even the habit of translating starts to go, and one simply abides in silent clarity.

Tadasana – Mountain Pose

Posted on by Elizabeth Moran

If you practice no other posture at home, try doing this one just once a day. It has so much to offer.

Stand with the feet at hip’s distance apart. Look at your big toes and the toes next to the big toes. Draw an imaginary line from the crease between these toes to your ankles. Then adjust your feet so that these lines are parallel to one another. Stand back up and look down your legs for those two imaginary lines. They should be directly under your hip bones. Rock back and forth on your feet. Rock your weight side to side. Feel down through your feet and find the four points of connection: the inside toe ball mount, the outside toe ball mount, the inside of the heel and the outside of the heel. When you feel all four corners of your feet engaged with the floor, lift your toes and feel the arches engage. Then slowly lower the toes back down to the floor. Learn the feeling of being grounded through the bones of the feet.

Draw the kneecaps up the thighs. Engage the muscles of the outer hips, the gluteus medius muscles. Feel the legs come into alignment, where all is pointed directly forward. Learn the feeling of being stable.

Lift the pelvic floor. Feel the tailbone drop, and imagine all the muscles surrounding the abdomen hugging into the spine like a tightening corset. Learn the feeling of being lifted and strong.

Place the fingertips of both hands on the center breastbone and draw them outward to the shoulder joints, opening through the chest. Then place the fingertips of both hands on the crown of your head and draw them downwards over the ears to the outsides of the shoulder joints. Feel the shoulders drop downwards. Allow the hands to fall loosely, palms facing the thighs, and feel all the tension in your neck and shoulders drip out your fingertips. Learn the feeling of being open and relaxed.

Imagine a rope running through the center of your spine that exends all the way down to the center of the earth and all the way up through the back of the head to the sun. With each inhalation, imagine the rope is tugging your spine longer, lifting you through the back of the head toward the sun. Relax with each exalation. With each inhalation, feel the energy of Mother Earth flowing up through your body to the sun. With each exhalation, feel the sun’s energy flowing down through your crown to Mother Earth. Learn the feeling of being radiant.

Stay with this pose for a while. Let it bake in to your muscles. When life throws you some sucker punches, and you begin to draw in on yourself, protecting yourself, you will have the muscle memory of this pose to remind you of what it feels like:

To be:

Grounded

Stable

Lifted

Strong

Open

Relaxed

and Radiant.