A colleague and I were talking about the polarization currently expressing in human communities all around the world. I mentioned that I have a practice of sending universal love to people who are caught up in the kinds of fears that generate aggression, harsh laws, nationalism, and other similar responses. As we continued to talk, I also mentioned something that I learned in a class with David Spangler: When we find ourselves encountering energy or behavior that we experience as negative or threatening, remember to generate a frequency that is inhospitable to that energy or quality of being.
In my experience, the most positive frequency or quality of energy is universal love. Every spiritual tradition I’ve explored speaks to the power of universal love, that it is the most essential healing energy in the universe. Because of this, I’d like to offer a practice this time that orients to offering the essence, the frequency, the light of Universal Love to our beautiful planet and all beings on it. In this practice, not only do we imagine Universal Love pouring into our precious planet but remembering that this energy naturally conveys blessings and healing. Gaia, Earth’s intelligence, then decides where healing is needed most.
For many people, doing this kind of practice means imagining the light of Universal Love, usually a white or golden light, but see what color comes to you, flowing into the body perhaps through the back of your heart, filling your entire heart space, and then out through your heart to the planet. For this practice, I invite you to imagine a place on the Earth that you experience as a sacred place. It may be a mountain, a lake, a forest, or some other natural setting that calls to you. Hold in your awareness that this sacred place accesses the intelligence of Gaia, of our Earth, and that Gaia receives the healing energy and will distribute it as needed most.
In addition, and I offer this only as an additional suggestion, I also hold the thought that all humans on the planet who suffer from fear, and who act in violent, repressive, and/or aggressive ways, even when they don’t realize that it’s fear that drives them, will also receive an inflow of universal love, along with the blessings and healing that this powerful energy automatically conveys. I don’t qualify the blessings or healing in any way, other than to hold the thought that these people can be healed from the grip of the kind of fear that leads to hatred and division.
In terms of when to do this practice, some of us are doing it at 8am our local time, remembering that there isn’t actually any “time” in the arena of consciousness. Whenever any of us engages this practice, we automatically join with people all over the world who are doing this or similar kinds of practices focused on Universal Love. Together, we generate an information field, a collective, that holds and conveys a healing intention for our human family and our planet.
Here are the steps in the meditation:
- Begin by settling in and finding a comfortable position where your back is straight and you are supported.
- If you need to lie down, do so on a surface that offers your back solid support.
- Take a few gentle breaths where you breathe in through your nose and imagine that you breathe out through your heart space.
- Now, imagine that you can access Universal Love simply by opening to it, by holding the intention that you will draw on it. You may experience it as white light, a golden light, some other color—or no color at all.
- Imagine that Universal Love flows in through the back of your heart space, fills your heart with its essence, and that you then breathe this energy out through the front of your heart, offering it to the planet.
- As you breathe out, send this healing light to the sacred place you have chosen for this time.
- Imagine this sacred place filling with the light of Universal Love and recall that the intelligence of Gaia will know exactly where this light of healing and blessing is most needed right now.
- Continue to breathe in and send Universal Love for a few minutes, or for as long as you wish.
- This flow of love is infinite, there is no risk of its running out, so send as much as you wish.
- If you feel moved to do so, take an additional minute or two to send Universal Love to people you may never know personally who are gripped by a kind of fear that leads them to lash out at those who are different from them.
- For this part of the meditation, if you choose to do it, please release any need to focus on anything specific. Keep your own biases out of the process. Right now, you are just offering Universal Love to people who are participants in our overall human species wholeness and Oneness.
- In addition, if you feel moved to do so, you can also send Universal Love to all people who suffer in any way and to all beings who suffer in any way.
- You can shape this practice in any way that resonates for you this time, remembering that Universal Love is limitless, infinite, and constantly available.
- When you are ready to return, notice that you can stay attuned to Universal Love, even though you are not now actively offering it to your world, and that you can draw on it whenever you wish, offering it to yourself, as well.
As with all these practices, please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise. And, be sure to acknowledge any mixed feelings that may arise as you work with this practice, allowing them to be present without your having to do anything with them right now. They often represent hidden aspects of our wholeness and they tend to invite our awareness to notice things that are important to recognize.
Here are two recordings: one of the written material for this practice and the other the audio version of the guided meditation. Please remember never to listen to guided audio meditations while driving or using dangerous machinery.
Above is the audio for the written material.
This is the audio of the guided meditation.