Cultivating Patience, Friendliness, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity

This meditation was recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart in Wununu on Zoom in June 2020.

So finding yourself a comfortable sitting or lying posture.

Relaxed but alert.

Noticing the posture you've chosen,

The way your body's arranged.

Maybe your last few little movements to find yourself really settled and comfortable.

Noticing the contact with the chair or cushion or stool or floor.

Having that sense of settling in.

Spending a short time just noticing what you've brought to this meditation.

Noticing if thoughts are coming thick and fast or maybe just little fleeting thoughts.

Notice whether they're audios or visuals or other.

Noticing emotional tone.

Notice your general mood state.

No need to change any of this,

Just noticing as best you can,

Just allowing it to be here.

Noticing the body sensations that are present.

With the sense of touch,

Contact with surfaces,

Clothing,

Jewellery,

Hair,

The air temperature,

Body parts touching,

Eyelids,

Lips.

And noticing your reaction.

As I say,

We're going to meditate today on cultivating heart qualities.

Notice a sense of anticipation or perhaps a sense of reluctance.

Again,

No need to change that,

Just noticing gently and kindly what reaction you have.

So we're going to spend a little time consciously and deliberately exploring,

Cultivating some positive qualities to ourselves and others.

The word cultivating is a common term in gardening.

You can see this meditation as a type of gardening,

Imagining maybe that we're in a big,

Wide,

Open field,

Just planting little seeds of intention without too much attachment about where they go,

What happens to them.

As I give direction,

Just noticing which parts you connect to and which parts there's a bit of a rejection or resistance or neutral sort of feeling.

Starting off by noticing the heart area.

Not noticing the literal heart here,

The metaphorical heart in the centre of the chest.

Just breathing in and out of the heart area.

Having the breath to touch the heart.

Maybe having the sense that the breath is touching the heart the way little waves lap the shore at the beach.

Opening to any sensations in the heart area as you breathe in and out of the heart.

Perhaps there might be some warmth or opening,

Vibration,

Tingling,

Perhaps a bit of a blank or perhaps even an active,

Closed,

Cold feeling.

As best you can,

Allowing whatever sensations or lack thereof that you notice in the heart area.

And opening to the quality of patience.

The quality of patience which maybe sounds a little boring on the surface,

But it can give us the time and the space that we need.

Wherever we are now is dependent on so many different causes and conditions in our life,

In our relationships,

In our environment,

In our genetics.

There's only a certain amount that we can actually control.

Maybe using the breath and the heart to really open to this quality of patience and perhaps having a sense of bringing patience to our problems in our life.

Patience can bring all the time and space in the world that we need to explore kindly,

Gently,

Perhaps discover insights.

Patience can bring us that acceptance that things take their own time.

Patience can give us a bit of a pause in our reactivity.

If we're feeling stuck,

Patience again can give us that spaciousness around that stuckness,

That trust that all will be revealed.

Patience can give us time to notice the changes that might be happening.

And patience can soften and loosen constricting patterns in our life.

Noticing our response to this invitation to cultivate the quality of patience.

Maybe you have someone in mind that you feel could really do with this quality.

Perhaps you can have the sense of having cultivated a little bit of patience.

You can sing some out to them,

Giving them the time and space to unfold.

Patience is Opening now to the quality of friendliness.

Notice any reaction to this word.

Perhaps friendliness includes qualities like gentleness,

Kindness,

Even respect.

Perhaps using the gardening metaphor,

You can imagine friendliness as a soft rain,

Falling without effort,

Permeating your mind and your body.

Watering these seeds we're planting.

The quality of friendliness can allow our hearts to open to the possibility of making peace with ourself,

Even in turbulent times.

Not necessarily waiting until the turbulent times are over,

But right in the midst of them,

Offering ourselves friendliness,

Kindness.

If it's supportive,

You can continue breathing in and out of the heart area.

You have the sense of perhaps cultivating friendliness.

Any judgments or really contrary reactions that come up,

Just noticing those.

Can you even be friendly towards judgments and reactions?

Not noticing any sensations generated in the heart or not.

Or any other body sensations perhaps associated with this kind,

Gentle friendliness.

Or perhaps the sensations might be some resistance to that.

Opening in a really friendly way to whatever body sensations are present right now.

As you breathe in and out,

Experimenting with this quality of friendliness,

You may have the sense of being able to send this out to your loved ones.

Just noticing is that easier or more difficult than extending friendliness to yourself?

And only if it feels right for you today,

Perhaps you might even extend some of that friendliness to those that you've had conflict with.

Not forcing this process.

If you are able to do it,

You might remember that they also suffer.

They also get caught in reactivity.

And also would like more peace and ease in their lives.

Noticing any responses to these invitations.

Being as friendly and gentle as you can towards them.

Perhaps you can spend a few seconds just beaming out friendliness to all beings on the earth.

Maybe to the earth itself.

That friendly,

Gentle,

Kind quality.

So now opening to a subtly different quality of compassion.

That heartfelt sensing,

The painful and tender aspects of suffering in ourselves and others.

That real wish to alleviate it.

And if you find it supportive,

Continuing to breathe in and out of the heart.

And perhaps placing a hand over your heart.

If it feels okay,

Allowing yourself to be touched by suffering.

Allowing your heart to feel the suffering of what or whoever comes up for you.

Maybe yourself,

Maybe a group of people on the planet,

Maybe non-humans,

Maybe a loved one that's suffering.

Breathing in and out,

Allowing your heart to be touched by the suffering.

Seeing if you can open your heart and allow your heart to expand knowing that it actually has no limits.

Noticing is there a sense of warmth or a sense of connection,

Of tenderness?

Or maybe very different reactions.

And whatever's present,

Allowing yourself to be as compassionate as you can.

Knowing that your heart is doing the best it can.

It will depend on the day and the mood and the circumstances.

No need to force.

Continuing to breathe in and out of the heart.

Touching the suffering of yourself or another.

Perhaps having the sense of breathing out some form of relief of the suffering.

This can be in a sense of feeling body sensations in the heart and sending these out.

Or a visual thing like golden light or cool air.

Or perhaps a really concrete offering like a nice cup of tea or a hug.

Touching into the physical sensations,

Thoughts and feelings.

Arising here and now as best you can.

Allowing.

Letting be.

Softening.

Manxness.

And letting that sense of compassion relax now.

Maybe just taking a few deeper breaths,

Noticing how your whole system,

Your body,

Mind and heart is reacting.

And now allowing yourself to recall,

Perhaps a moment of spontaneous joy.

There might be something in the last few days,

It could be something very,

Very small,

A beautiful sight or sound or taste or good news.

And if that feels really difficult,

Then perhaps just having a sense of what you feel grateful for,

What you appreciate in your life at the moment.

So noticing the thoughts,

Whether they're audio or visual,

Maybe memories.

Noticing the feelings.

Is there a feeling of joy or is there another reaction?

Allowing this as best you can.

And either way,

Noticing the body sensations that are present.

Particularly focusing on the heart,

The chest area.

Maybe there's a smile on the lips,

Maybe not.

Maybe there's a warmth or opening,

Maybe not.

Cultivating joy allows us to savour and honour moments of expansion and delight in our own lives and in the lives of others.

It can open us to gratitude and to generosity without needing reward.

It can be a great practice in our daily life to notice even the tiny little flickerings of joy as it arises in our life.

We can be in the middle of intense grief.

Yet something,

A warm hug or a cup of coffee.

Still bring us some joy.

Perhaps we can have room for the difficult and the joyous in our heart.

Noticing your response to this invitation to cultivate joy.

Making space for your response.

Opening now to our final heart quality.

Which sort of balances the others.

The quality of equanimity.

That calming,

Balancing,

Accepting quality.

Equanimity has a spaciousness that allows us to work with rather than against change.

Equanimity can give us that acceptance that everything is impermanent,

Everything does change.

Equanimity can give us some balance and evenness of mind to be able to see suffering and accept or perhaps at least tolerate suffering.

And it can help balance the excitement of joy and perhaps a craving or grasping for pleasure.

Give us that balance.

So in this moment,

Seeing how it is to bring a sustained,

Even,

Non-reactive presence of mind to whatever is arising.

Perhaps bringing that attitude of the mountain if that supports you.

Accepting whatever is present as best we can.

Not abandoning or pushing anything away.

Having that sense of holding all experience in that container of lightness and spaciousness.

As best we can,

Letting go of striving and needing things to be fixed or be in a certain way in this moment.

Touching your experience in this moment with an expansive and accepting heart.

And if there's lots of other difficult thoughts or emotions or body sensations arising,

Perhaps some resistance to these suggestions.

Is there any way you can just allow those to be there?

Opening your heart to the possibility of living with all these heart qualities.

Now lower your voice and�.

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