“Good morning! This is Guan Yin.

“Kneel to govern, true humility is the surest way to Heaven.”

Xi Tuo Yu Yi, Da Bei Zhou Buddha.

By govern, I mean govern your mind, your thoughts, your actions, your emotions. It is fine to have these things in your experience, but it is important that they be disciplined. If you let your thoughts and emotions run away with you, it is like riding an untrained horse with no saddle and no bridle. Sooner or later you will be scraped off by a tree, or trampled under hoof.

The ego mind is a wild horse with a bad temper. It will do anything to get its way, which is to live in the future and the past, to prevent you from present moment awareness and stillness that is your true power. To the ego mind, loss of identity is the ultimate disaster, and it has no identity in the silent now moment.

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Pride is another stumbling block. It presents itself as feelings of superiority, competition, separateness and “better than”. It is also depressing, because the prideful mind is always on the lookout for anything that might threaten that sense of better than, it worries, and holds others in disdain.

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When one is encouraged to begin a practice of bowing down in love and gratitude, it can be difficult, even painful to start. “Stiff necked” describes the inability to cede personal power and persona to a higher power and being.

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My advice is start small. Just bow the head and say “thank you”, to God, or your teacher, whatever seems appropriate. Stretch out the time more and more day by day. Consider the possibility of doing this practice in a kneeling position, or even in a full, head to the floor bow down position.

There comes a deep feeling of relief when the practice is done every day. We begin to truly realize that there is something so much bigger than we are, that has infinite wisdom and intelligence. We realize that we are like little children in the arms of a loving mother, protected, loved and guided, when we will allow it. A certain sweetness of spirit emerges when our dark and toxic mortal pridefulness is transformed.

So. If there is anything in you at this time that is uncomfortable with the state of true humility, or that feels separate and superior, or not! Try this practice.

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Sit comfortably, cross legged or in a lotus position, become quiet, close your eyes. Rest your awareness in your lower abdomen, and breathe light into your body. Open your physical hands fully, and see the sticks and rocks, snares and traps of erroneous thought and belief falling from them. Do this for as long as it takes to perceive that the energy of your hands runs freely.

Now unfold, bend forward and press your forehead to the floor, see it as the living heart of the mother Earth.

Say,

“Dear Divine, Dear Tao, Dear Source, Dear all my teachers, guides, angels and guardian ones. Dear the living soul of the mother Earth. I bow down to you in deepest gratitude, love and humility. With deepest relief, I let go my load of mortal darkness. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

If you can touch your head to the floor 108 times, you have completed a great step on your journey. You may come to be able to bow down 10,000 times, which symbolizes an infinite amount in Chinese culture. There are ways to do this. This is a gift, accept it if you can.

That is all. I love you.”

Flowed through Kristin Strachan. Guan Yin Lineage holder, teacher, student of Master Zhi Gang Sha, spiritual practitioner in Colorado.

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