This is the first guided meditation that I ever led. Adapted from Paulo Coelho's 'Blue Sphere Exercise' in the novel The Pilgrimage, this particular variation of the meditation is designed to be most powerful when performed in a group. However, I've found that many of the components of this ritual can be powerful additions to private meditative practices.
Originally written and read aloud on August 26th, 2014 at Trout Lily Farm in Madison, NC:
Agape is total love. It is the love that consumes the person that experiences it. Whoever knows and experiences agape learns that nothing else in the world is more important than love. Agape is so powerful that it can shake the stars and can change the course of history. It is a feeling that suffuses, that fills every space in us, and turns our aggression to dust.
During the millennia of Christian civilization, many individuals were seized by this love that consumes. They had so much to give - and their world demanded so little! - that they went out into the forests and desserts and isolated places, because the love they felt was so great that it transformed them. They became the hermit saints that we know today.
But you and I experience agape in a different form: ENTHUSIASM! For the ancients 'enthusiasm' meant 'trance' or 'ecstasy' - a connection with the Creator. Enthusiasm is agape directed at a particular idea or specific thing. We have all experienced it. When we love and believe from the bottom of our hearts, we feel ourselves to be stronger than any conflict, and we feel a serenity that is based on the absolute certainty that nothing can shake us in our sovereignty. This unusual strength allows us to make the right decision at the right time, and when we achieve our goals, we are amazed at our own capabilities! Because when we are involved in the good fight, nothing else is important; enthusiasm carries us toward our goal.
I love you all and have the deepest respect for what you are doing. I want to share with you an exercise to arouse your enthusiasm, to create a power that is going to expand like a blue sphere that encloses the entire planet. This is called the Agape Love Ritual.
"Please be comfortable and close your eyes. Be present to this moment, to this place, to the people, energy and spirits gathered here. Breathe in the remembrance of your divinity and sovereignty. Exhale your sorrows and frustrations. Breathe in the experience of being alive. Exhale gratitude for all the gifts of life.
Softly hum a familiar song from your childhood. Let your heart feel free and affectionate. Remember the enthusiasm you felt as a child. Allow the love that consumes to return.
Imagine that your heart is growing, filling this place with an intense blue light. Imagine that the blue light is a current, flowing through you like a shining, soothing river. This blue light begins to spread, filling this space, and spilling out into the spaces all around, expanding until it becomes miles wide in every direction. The blue light spreads to consume the homes of our families and friends, bathing everyone and everything in its shining, loving radiance. Eventually the blue light envelopes the entire country, then the continent, then the hemisphere.
Hum and sing more loudly as you see this brilliant bright blue light spread and spread until the entire planet is illuminated, a shining Blue Sphere. The loving power of the blue light covers every inch, fills every crevice and touches every living thing in our world. The blue sphere is the manifestation of the Great Love that goes beyond our day-to-day struggles. It reinforces and invigorates. It brings divine energy and peace. Your heart is open, spreading love. Feel it pulsing in unison with the bright blue sphere!
When your song is finished come out of your trance bit by bit, and return to the present moment knowing that the blue light continues to illuminate the world.
When you are ready, open your eyes and smile."
With love and gratitude,
-SB
