To begin the practice,
We return to the tactile field of the body,
Noticing its contact with the ground,
It being in contact with the ground,
Noticing the sensations of firmness and stability there.
And then,
With our body being held by the ground,
Being supported by the ground,
We once again can perform an abbreviated body scan,
This time starting with our facial muscles,
Noticing the sensations,
Releasing muscle tension,
Softening the face,
Then coming down to our shoulders,
To our hands and fingers,
To the pelvic floor,
And eventually to our feet and toes.
And then for some time just breathing naturally and releasing all types of tension and deliberate movement with each new exhalation,
While the attention is gently resting on the tactile field as a whole,
This entire network of tactile energy,
That in our perception might be slightly expanding and contracting with each new cycle of breathing,
Allowing the field of the body to continue resting and returning to our highest aspirations for this specific meditation,
For contemplative practice in general,
Strongly re-establishing those in our mind and even breathing life into them,
Into our resolve to fulfill those aspirations,
Using the exhalation to strengthen that wish.
And then thinking of an inspiring,
Optimistic,
Jovial,
Naturally joyful person,
If we wish,
Imagining them in front of us as their joyful,
Optimistic self and discerning the sparks of outer hedonic joy,
The deeper flames of eudaimonic inner well-being within them,
Finding delight in all of that,
Feeling how wonderful that they do have these wholesome,
Hedonic experiences coming from outer stimulation,
How wonderful that they have that inner peace,
Joy,
Well-being coming from within,
But also to add an element of rejoicing,
How wonderful that they have these noble qualities,
Generosity,
Love,
Compassion,
Serenity,
And so forth,
And how wonderful that they express these in action.
So,
We're attending to the person as an object,
And what we're discerning within that object is the joys of this person and the virtues of this person,
Their virtuous qualities and their virtuous actions.
And the way we're attending to all of that is with delight.
How wonderful!
How amazing!
How incredible!
Even at this stage we can also add the element of aspiration.
May this joy grow.
And then bringing our attention to ourselves.
Even the sparks of joy that we have been able to generate right now by thinking of this person are noteworthy,
Are worthy of our delight.
However humble,
However contrived,
Still truly wonderful to be able to rejoice in the happiness of others.
But then beyond that we have so many hedonic blessings,
So many eudaimonic types of well-being.
And in addition to that we do,
We can say that validly,
Possess some positive qualities,
Some levels of generosity,
Compassion,
And so forth,
Wisdom,
Concentration,
Mindfulness,
And so on.
And we do on occasion express these.
So how wonderful!
All of it.
May this joy grow.
Then bringing to mind someone from our friend category.
A loved one.
Whether that's literally a friend,
Or a romantic partner,
Or a child,
Or a parent.
Someone we naturally feel some tenderness and affinity and affection for.
Once again bringing this person to mind,
Thinking of them,
Imagining them with we wish.
And within their field of existence,
Within the little bubble of their being,
Discerning the same elements.
Outer joys,
Deeper joys,
Virtuous qualities,
Virtuous actions.
And once we have discerned this dance of joyful,
Happy energy related to virtue and pleasurable,
Good-natured experiences,
Generating the attitude of empathetic joy and rejoicing combined.
How wonderful!
May this joy grow.
Delighting in the well-being and virtue of this friend and wishing for that well-being to become deeper,
To become more expansive,
To become more meaningful.
Then thinking of a neutral person,
Someone we can visually imagine because we know them visually,
But someone who is not really a friend,
But is also not really an enemy.
Someone we feel relatively neutral about.
Could be a celebrity,
Could be someone from our actual circles.
Thinking of this person and then discerning accurately that they too must possess these different types of joy.
They too must possess positive qualities.
So how wonderful!
May the joy grow.
Then choosing someone from the category of people we find somewhat unpleasant or difficult.
And not starting with someone we truly detest and hate,
But choosing someone we have some level of discomfort with.
Someone we wouldn't want to have coffee with,
For example.
And once again discerning even this person must have some good-natured hedonic joys.
They must on occasion enjoy a good cup of coffee or a sunny day.
And they must have their moments of clarity,
Inner balance,
Sense of peace.
And beyond that it is impossible for them not to have some seeds of generosity and love and compassion and wisdom and so forth.
So in attending to those seeds we can generate the delighted attitude.
How wonderful!
May the joy grow.
May everything that's good-natured grow.
And then opening it up fully towards all beings everywhere.
All around us physically,
Belonging to our communities,
Connected to us in any way or seemingly not connected to us at all.
Each bubble of a being,
Each individual being as a field of experiences would have some types of joy or at least the potential to experience joy.
How wonderful!
We're attending to this entire dancing field of sparks and flames.
May this joy grow.
Then releasing that to rest in spaciousness without a particular reference point.
And out of that spaciousness comes up the dedication of energy.
We dedicate the positive energy of this practice to our highest aspirations.
And then we once again find the appearances of the body,
The sensations of the body,
Its configuration in space.
We ground ourselves there and we introduce some gentle movement as we conclude the practice.
