Set and Setting Statement for the Ross Procedure
🩵Set — The Inner Posture
Throughout the Threshold and Contemplative chapters of recent years, I’ve been learning the quiet art of stillness.
That same spacious stillness defines my inner set going into the Ross. In both a medicine journey and a surgical one, intention anchors the experience; I’ve cultivated that through months of study, reflection, and compassionate service.
The inner environment I’ve been tending — the Caretaker Monk’s steady heart, the Technological Monk’s mindful curiosity, the quiet ritual of having tea with my neuroses, the gratitude awakened through caring for PRC’s residents — all of it leads me back to the love that has been here all along.
Letters of reconciliation and readiness trace the edges of that inner clearing. The ego has softened, the veils grown thin. What remains is awareness itself — the witness poised in surrender, ready to dissolve into grace.
💫Setting — The Outer Field
I’ve also carefully shaped the physical and relational space that surrounds me: the temple aglow, the organized yet lived-in apartment, the green plants, the sunlight through the blinds, the presence of family re-entering my life.
In ceremonial language, this is the altar; in medical language, the environment of healing. Both depend on trust — the sacred circle of doctors, nurses, family, friends, and the unseen lineage of teachers whose mantras I carry.
📜 The Invocation
I enter this experience with a clear heart and an open mind.
My intention is healing — not only of the heart within my chest,
but of the heart that connects me to life itself.
I acknowledge the sacred nature of this moment.
Just as in ceremony, the medicine is trust, the guide is love,
and the setting is shaped by those who hold me in their care.
The room, the lights, the instruments — these are part of the altar.
The breath before anesthesia is my offering of surrender.
When I awaken, may it be with gratitude and renewed awareness.
Whatever unfolds is the teaching.
Whether in dream or in waking, I am held in the same Presence.
May this body serve love, may this life serve peace.