Awakening Spiritual Audacity

moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. We can grow these qualities our world needs us to. Our world needs us to remember who we are together, our belonging and that love is what matters. So in that spirit, we'll do a meditation practice uh meditation that I love. Again, uh the invitation is to take some moments to find a way of sitting where you're comfortable and awake. Let yourself settle a bit. The title of this practice is awakening spiritual audacity. As you come into stillness, let the breath move gently and simply observe it. Feel it. The inflow, the outflow. Feel the life of your body. You can sense your whole body breathing even in a cellular way. And let your senses be awake, including the sounds around you. The changing moving sensations through the body. The felt sense in the heart. And then bring to your awareness someone for who for you who embodies spiritual audacity who inspires you in that way. It doesn't have to be someone famous. It could be it could be John Lewis or Harriet Tubman or Dick Nuthan or one of the many spiritual leaders that have inspired us. It can also be someone in your life who's brave and caring, who even in the face of fear dares to live, live and love and serve. Bring someone to mind. Person who has acted from love even when it's dangerous. And now imagine that you're looking into each other's eyes. So bring them close in. They're welcoming you. You're welcoming them. So there's an openness, undefendedness, looking into each other's eyes, them beholding you with care. And as you look into their eyes, let yourself see the light that's there. This is the kind of the light and energy behind the lion's roar. The love, the fearless heart and even behind that the presence that has guided them. How they rest in a presence that's steady and bold and full of care. Now imagine that that same spirit, that confidence, the fearlessness begins to move into you. That connection with truth, with awareness, with love, light, and the sense of what most matters. Let it fill you. See, just let the spirit fill you. Fill your heart, your spine, your hands, your being. You don't have to make it happen. Just receive it. Let it move through you. So you can feel that that courageous loving energy is filling you. It's grounding you. It's energizing you and it's affirming that basic goodness that's always and already here but sometimes forgotten. You're caring about life. Sense that great and common tenderness that has you care about life. Now, gently bring to mind a challenge in your life. something that asks for your courage, your truth, your presence that asks for you to go against the old patterning, some challenge. might be in a relationship to do with work, a lifestyle habit, health, some challenge that's calling for your courage. And imagine meeting it with the spirit that's alive in you, carried by this energy. Sense what's possible when you're trusting your belonging. When that basic goodness is experienced as who you are. You're trusting your heart. Sense what's possible. And staying connected to this energy, sense yourself responding to some suffering in the world that calls your attention. Bringing the lion's roar. This courage and truthfulness and love and tenderness. You might use the inquiry, what is love asking? And just sense how you might respond with that fearless whole heart. I want to say like Naruda that I'm waiting for a great and common tenderness that I still believe we are capable of attention that anyone who notices the world must want to save it. Sense us all holding hands, awakening from that collective trance. Feel the soul force that's possible when we all dedicate ourselves to living from love.