Flow with the Stream

Water overcomes obstacles by yielding, by letting go of how it gets past the obstacle -- whether it flows over, under, or around the obstacle. Here are a couple meditations that will help you be more like water when you need it most.

1-Minute Letting Go Meditation
Imagine yourself standing by a stream.
Step into the cool water.
Feel the cool water on your feet.
Sit in the cool water.
Feel the cool water on your skin.
Feel your skin become the water.
Melt into the water.
Become the water.
Open your eyes and breathe.

(Source: Sunemaura O'Brien, www.sacredearthcenter.org)

Stream Story Meditation
This is a Sufi teaching story by Awad Afifi.

Awad Afifi the Tunisian was a nineteenth-century dervish teacher who drew his wisdom from the wide expanse of desert North Africa. He once shared with his pupils a story that began with a gentle rain falling on a high mountain in a distant land. The rain was at first hushed and quiet, trickling down granite slopes. Gradually it increased in strength, as rivulets of water rolled over the rocks and down the gnarled, twisted trees that grew there. The rain fell, as water must, without calculation. The Sufi master understood that water never has time to practice falling.

Soon it was pouring, as swift currents of dark water flowed together into the beginnings of a stream. The brook made its way down the mountainside, through small stands of cypress trees and fields of lavender-tipped purslane, down cascading falls. It moved without effort, splashing over stones-learning that the stream interrupted by rocks is the one that sings most nobly. Finally, having left its heights in the distant mountain, the stream made its way to the edge of a great desert. Sand and rock stretched beyond seeing.

Having crossed every other barrier in its way, the stream fully expected to cross this as well. But as fast as its waves splashed into the desert, that fast did they disappear into the sand. Before long, the stream heard a voice whispering, as if coming from the desert itself, saying, "The wind crosses the desert, so can the stream." "Yes, but the wind can fly!" cried out the stream, still dashing itself into the desert sand.

"You'll never get across that way," the desert whispered. "You have to let the wind carry you." "But how?" shouted the stream. "You have to let the wind absorb you." The stream could not accept this, however, not wanting to lose its identity or abandon its own individuality. After all, if it gave itself to the winds, could it ever be sure of becoming a stream again?

The desert replied that the stream could continue its flowing, perhaps one day even producing a swamp there at the desert's edge. But it would never cross the desert so long as it remained a stream. "Why can't I remain the same stream that I am?" the water cried. And the desert answered, ever so wisely, "You never remain what you are. Either you become a swamp or you give yourself to the winds."

The stream was silent for a long time, listening to distant echoes of memory, knowing parts of itself having been held before in the arms of the wind. From that long-forgotten place, it gradually recalled how water conquers only by yielding, by flowing around obstacles, by turning to steam when threatened by fire. From the depths of that silence, slowly the stream raised its vapors to the welcoming arms of the wind and was borne upward, carried easily on great white clouds over the wide desert waste.

Approaching distant mountains on the desert's far side, the stream then began once again to fall as a light rain. At first it was hushed and quiet, trickling down granite slopes. Gradually it increased in strength, as rivulets rolled over the rocks and down the gnarled, twisted trees that grew there. The rain fell, as water must, without calculation. And soon it was pouring, as swift currents of water flowed together - yet again - into the headwaters of a new stream.

Aswad Afifi refused to say what the story "meant," how it should be interpreted. He simply pointed his students to the desert nearby and urged them to find out for themselves.

(Source: unknown)

Walking With Peace, A Peace Mantra

This is another lovely Vessels of Peace practice. The Peace Mantra can be used in many situations or as a walking meditation.

Working with the Vessels of Peace practices will strengthen your ability to choose peace in all your thoughts, words, and actions and will act as a catalyst for the process of partnering with the Divine Feminine.

Peace Mantra
Peace, Om Shanti, Salaam, Shalom

The mantra comes from four languages - English, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Hebrew – and offer a multi-faith way of invoking peace, since they are commonly used by the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

Repeat the peace mantras, aloud or silently, as the focus of a sitting meditation or as a contemplative practice while walking (see below) or when in stressful situations.

Pronunciation:

Peace (pea-sss)
Om Shanti (oh-mmm shawn-tee)
Salaam (saw-lah-mmm)
Shalom (shaw-low-mmm)

Cadence:
There is a particular cadence or pace at which the mantras are repeated, and it's important to try to stay with that rhythm, for it creates a vibrational effect in your being and in the atmosphere around you. You are literally aligning with a peace frequency and building the strength of that frequency in yourself and on the planet.

To create the cadence, pause for about two seconds after the repetition of each mantra and before beginning the next round of repeating them: Peace (pause) Om Shanti (pause) Salaam (pause) Shalom (pause).

Walking With Peace Meditation
Walk at a pace that is comfortable for you, then begin repeating the peace mantras.  You will find the mantra cadence fitting with your walking pace in some way -- every other step, every third step, etc. Just let it evolve over the course of your walking. The main thing is to keep the mantra repetition slow no matter how fast or slow you are walking.

You can repeat the mantras silently or out loud. If walking with others, repeating them softly out loud together, and walking at the same pace, is one option, or letting each one walk and repeat silently as guided is fine too. Try to refrain from interrupting the meditation with other conversation -- the power of the meditation is in the continuous focus on the mantras, the rhythmic movement of your body and the intention you hold to presence peace within yourself and in the world.


(Source: Vessels of Peace and Lynda Terry, author of The 11 Intentions: Invoking the Sacred Feminine as a Pathway to Peace)