The Flow of Being the Universal Christ
Whole-Body Awakening in Six Practices – Part Two
Theologian Ramone Panikkar says that Christ is “the Christian symbol for the whole of reality.” Panikkar further points out that the “whole of reality” consists of three seamlessly connected dimensions: (1) the divine (2) the human, and (3) the material. Last week we presented the first three of the six Whole-Body Awakening practices, the personal, individual experience of the Universal Christ. This week we integrate these centers into the outward flow of being the Universal Christ in the world.
Practice Four: Grounding in the material universe
MEET YOUR FEET
1. Let your awareness move down to your feet. Stand on grass, stone, sand, or dirt if you can, even occasionally. If sitting inside, place your feet on the floor, if possible, near a window where you can see trees or even an indoor plant.
2. See your feet spreading roots like a tree into the ground. If outside, hug a tree and feel its amazing energy coming into you. Become aware of a felt sense of being directly connected to the earth and beyond into the cosmos.
3. Sense the energy of the earth and material cosmos move up into your feet and then into your gut. Notice the feelings and/or sensations you are having as you do this.
The extent to which we are grounded (the felt sense of incarnation) is the extent to which our gut can transcend and include our constructed self and embrace our embodied True Self, one with all material reality.
Practice Five: Embracing humanity in loving compassion
IMPART YOUR HEART
1. Return from your gut up to your heart, carrying your divine identity and grounding with you. Feel how your heart is now charged with a depth and being greater than simply your own individual self.
2. Send this love out to humanity, whether that be to a particular individual, a group, or to the whole world. The flow first moves beyond our chests. It goes out to the hurting world full of pain and suffering. It goes out to the loving world full of beauty and joy.
3. Now bring others into your own heart, soaking them in the divine heart of love. You can see and feel loved ones and friends coming into your heart space. They are physically “out there” but now they are also “in here.” That space is infinitely flexible and expandable since it is a God Space. Now draw in those you don’t know, people in your neighborhood and/or at work. If you are ready, you can see and/or feel the entire city in which you live in your heart space. If you want to really stretch, let in all the sentient beings in the universe!
The extent to which your heart can lovingly embrace humankind in all of its suffering and glory, to that extent you are experiencing the human Universal Christ.
Practice Six: The joy of stretching from earth to the heavens
FETCH THE STRETCH
This last step helps to integrate the material, human, and divine dimensions of the Universal Christ. We are going to move from the material earth, through the loving heart, to the transcendent mind opening to the heavens beyond, stretching from feet to head.
1. Starting from the feet, move up to your gut, beginning your cosmic stretch. Notice the charge from your grounding feet. Intuition is grounded within the sensations inside of the body. See your Christ identity, shared with all of materiality.
2. Take any awareness you want from your tummy as you move back up into your heart of loving connection. Rather than personalizing the love, this time feel the bliss of oneness with all of humanity. Embrace the connection within your heart to the divine heart in all.
3. Move upward and out of your head as far out as wish. You are one with the transcendent God in whom we live and move and have our being. You are one with the universe. All things in the universe are also in you. “I looked at the stars. Suddenly I was the stars!”
4. Conclude by embodying your whole being and raising your hands, signifying the release of your love, joy and gratitude—your entire self— to God and the universe. From the roots below your feet, all through your whole being, and out into the universe beyond, you are the Universal Christ. Feel yourself in each of these places of being. Rest in your rooted, divine identity. Lovingly relate yourself to God, Jesus, and/or other saintly guides next to you, as well as your human brothers and sisters. Reflect on the transcendent God beyond, the universe of which you are and as which is you!
To the extent you can see and embrace the seamless unity of God, humankind, and creation, to that extent you are experiencing the material, human, and divine Universal Christ.
You may want to try the entire flow of all these six Whole-Body Awareness practices altogether or feel free to do them in smaller parts. I will elaborate in future writings on all of these practices and more. Make sure you are signed up to our mailing list to receive those writings.
Each of these practices help us transcend the boundaries of the self, the individual ego, and become a part of something larger—the Universal Christ—while remaining our unique True Self.
You can try variations in sequencing these practices, but I encourage you to always begin and end in the heart space.
Come join us in a WeSpace group with a few others on the same journey into Whole-Body Awareness of the Universal Christ.