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Writer's pictureShirley Riga

Breathing In Unity


Four Buddhas sit on my desk, all in different shapes and sizes. There’s the green jade, the ironwood, the plastic purple and the small wooden one. I have them lined up in front of me. Each Buddha gifts from different times in my life. They used to sit alone on window sills until my practice of silence commenced.


Selenite also sits on my desk, a “translucent white crystal that represents spiritual purity, light, and connection to the angelic realms.” Five pieces spaced evenly in front of my computer screen. Selenite helps ground me, protects me from absorbing emotional energies.


Buddhas honor silence. Selenite honors my energy. With intention, they each actively participate in my practice of silence.


As an empath, I naturally kyth. Kything (like tithe) is a conscious act of spiritual presence. It’s a Scottish word. It helps to understand what it’s not. Everyone knows what it means to be physically present. Kything is having the presence and awareness energetically, like an energetic communion with others. It’s used in spiritual practice when working with someone and for those wishing to help others.


Kything has helped me understand what I’ve done all my life reading energy around me. My practice is to learn to pull it back. Otherwise, I am inundated with emotions. Practicing awareness has helped me learn to identify what emotions are mine and what emotions belong to others. It’s an ongoing practice as I learn more and more about me.


I have created an altar I literally sit in on a daily basis to listen, feel, write and deliver. These 300 days of meditation via Zoom have been a journey for me. March 18th commenced with eagerness and as the days passed, I’ve moved through valleys and over mountains experiencing vulnerability, fear, incredible love and community, self-doubt, self-judgment, heartache and joy, all in the name of silence. Every day, every experience deepens my commitment to the practice of silence.


It is a powerful practice that at times scare me because of the immense expansiveness of energy I experience. I want to know where I’m going. My inner child wants surety she is safe. When I get a glimpse, I pull back in fear. My meditation journey has been an ebb and flow, all in the name of moving, listening, feeling and being with me one step at a time.


The brain behind my spiritual practice is my heart. My heart has such knowledge of past, present and future. My heart has a connection with the higher realms. I’ve learned to listen to my heart. I’ve learned to respect my heart and with time have cultivated a direct path to my heart, especially when I’ve been hurt and run away. I know my way back, all in the name of silence.


I am deeply grateful to each of you who have joined me on this continuing journey. We honor our individuality breathing in unity. We discover together. We are the mirror we can see ourselves in each other as we sit in silence.


Our world is changing, ascending, transforming, cleansing, awakening and shedding so much pain and heartache. It is painful to feel. It is painful to watch. Every outcry of greed, corruption, dysfunctional action is expressed from a traumatized heart not yet willing to open, not yet able to open. In time they will thaw and recognize and move beyond.


This ascension is imminent. The energy of earth is on course and there’s no going back. We are well under way. We each have built a thick foundation. We hold steady as lightworkers in this grounded community as humanity wakes up. We hold this light that is strong and burns bright with our personal commitment to honor ourselves. No matter what your story, no matter your doubts and fears, no matter your wavering path, you are well under way. Thank you for joining me.



Press your hand

to this blessing,

here along

the side

where you can feel

its seam.


Follow the seam

and you will find

the hinges

on which

this blessing turns.


Feel how

your fingers

catch on them—

top,

bottom,

the slightest pressure

sending the gate

gliding open

in a glad welcome.


Wait, did I say

press your hand

to this blessing?


What I meant was

press your hand

to your heart.


Rest it over that

place in your chest

that has grown

closed and tight,

where the rust,

with its talent

for making decay

look artful,

has bitten into

what you once

held dear.


Breathe deep.

Press on the knot

and feel how it

begins to give way,

turning upon

the hinge

of your heart.


Notice how it

opens wide

and wider still

as you exhale,


spilling you out

into a realm

where you never dreamed

to go

but cannot now imagine

living this life

without.


Participants’ Reflections:

  • I am going back to work tomorrow for a half-day. I don’t know if I have the strength for it. I need everyone’s support tomorrow. Thank you.

  • I loved the reading. I want to acknowledge the incredible devotion you have had to us and for holding the light as we walk through these terrible times. It also reminds me we may not know exactly where to throw the light or what the light needs to look like in this new age we are in, but the opportunities are to simply be that light and let everything else unfold. I needed to know that now. I thank you for that and I thank for your devotion.

  • During the meditation, I was musing on the fact that I was walking with a friend and the field was muddy and I slipped and took a fall. I fell on my breastbone which is right over my heart. I thought, there might be something to that. The other thing I’ve noticed is that, when I am napping, I lie on my back and put my hands across my heart. New behavior.

  • Thank you. I was particularly drawn to your telling us about your buddhas and how you’ve moved them. I’m drawn to Buddhas and statues, sitting with them during meditation. I have a Buddha lamp. The image of Buddha brings me peace; I feel peace from Buddha. During the meditation, I had a hard time letting go of thoughts, they were rushing in. Suddenly, it was like a voice in my head said connect with the group. I felt the energy shift and I felt all of us. At first, I saw you in the middle of the group and then that transformed into Buddha. I was feeling Buddha’s energy and the group’s energy. Thank you.

  • I am feeling so much core light energy lately. I feel like it is a new experience for me. I’ve never heard the word kything before, but I am practicing it with all of you and with family members. I’m remembering that I am not healing anyone but I am opening to love, and it is the love that heals. I’m going to be taking a spiritual painting class where we paint the 21 different aspects of Tara, the female Buddha (see also). The goal is to use it for reflection about those aspects in ourselves. She is also known as the Green Buddha.

  • During the meditation, I thought about the word rust. When we’ve left something that has the capability of rusting and we realize the rust has formed, we try to remove it or let go of it. During a day’s activity, there is a bit of rust that may form as we are dealing with so many raw images and hard things to see and feel. So that when we come to this group in the morning, it feels like we are baptized with some sort of rust remover, and being reborn each day. Thank you for your energy that you give to realizing how we all need freshness before the light can come in, before we can really see the shininess of our souls. It does help when we sit together in community.

  • Thank you. Thank you for just being present, just being able to be one with us, stay with it, to hang in there with it no matter how uncomfortable it is to sit in silence for fifteen minutes. Even with the struggle, we have a new chance every day. Thank you for being part of this collection of hearts, it is an amazing experience. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

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