Practice 3: Sacred Tree Meditation

To do the sacred tree meditation, sit in your sacred space and focus on your breath. Begin by following your breath as in the previous practice, relaxing your body and your mind. Once you have dropped into the breath, use a deep exhale to imagine that you are growing roots from the base of your spine and your perineum (the place between your yoni or lingam and your anus). With each exhale let these roots grow deeper, thicker, and stronger. Let them penetrate the floor you are sitting on, the soil beneath, the bedrock, and the molten rock beneath the bedrock. Let your roots wrap around the Earth’s magnetic core and anchor you there. Breathe out into these roots to relax tension from your body. Breathe out anger, grief, sadness, frustration, anxiety, and any other negative emotions you’d like to let go of. Imagine that as you breathe out, these emotions flow out of your body, into the roots, and down into the Earth, where they become compost. Once you have taken several breaths to discharge your tension and negative emotion, begin to use your inhaled breath to breathe in the solidity and strength of the Earth into your body. This may feel like water or nutrients flowing up your roots, heat from the earth’s core or simply a loving energy.
 
With your roots firmly in place, bring your awareness to the crown of your head, and imagine that branches are budding from the top of your head and growing up into the sky. With each exhale, let these branches grow tall and wide so that you become a mighty tree. Let them grow through the ceiling if you are indoors, then through the clouds and the Earth’s atmosphere. Let them grow all the way up into the sun, and feel them hooking into the sun’s warmth and radiance. Breathe out from your head and body distracting thoughts, creative blocks,and sexual wounds. Let them just rise up out of you and float up into the sun to be burned as fuel for its radiance. Once you have taken several breaths out, begin to inhale the sun’s warmth and radiance into your body, feeling it warm the top of your head and fill your whole body with warmth and energy. Feel your mind empty and sharpen. With your branches firmly in the sky and your roots anchored deeply in the earth, begin to breathe into your heart from both the earth and the sky at the same time. Breathe these energies and their support in through the top of your head and the base of your spine. Breathe them into your heart. Feel the centering there. When you breathe out, imagine these energies flowing out through your arms and hands. Take your time breathing this loving energy into your heart and out your hands. Notice if you feel any tingling or warmth in your hands and arms. Finally, place your hands on your heart so that you are breathing this love back into yourself, loving yourself, and notice how that feels. With each inhale bring love into your heart from the earth and sky and with each exhale, let this love flow out your hands and right back into your heart.

Do this meditation each day for at least 5 minutes when you are beginning your tantric practice. It is more important that you do the practice daily than that you do it for long periods of time. It is the daily act of reminding yourself of your center and of your connection to Spirit that is most important. If you can’t see or feel the energy moving through you right away, just keep trying, and imagine that you can. You can try sitting with your back against a tree and let your awareness merge with the tree as it teaches you its gentle way of staying connected to all of life. Daily practice of this meditation can help to keep you centered, even in the midst of difficult times. These difficult times are when you especially want to do this practice, even though they are the hardest times to stay with it. The peace of mind that you will gain in these circumstances is well worth the work. And in time, this meditation can become ecstatic, moving sexual energy powerfully through the body, and creating an arousal that moves through all of you, merging you with Spirit and the bliss of that connection.