And settling in,
Begin the practice with awareness of the breath.
To wherever the breath is appearing most obviously or easily,
Could be in the belly,
Could be in the chest,
Could be the sensation of air on the upper lip or the rim of the nostrils.
Move our attention to investigate the sensation as much as possible,
Letting the body just breathe naturally,
Noticing whether the breath is long or short,
Deep or shallow,
Smooth or a little bit jaggedy.
And as a matter of slowing down,
Can you follow the full length of an inhalation,
Noticing when it shifts and the exhalation begins,
Following it to its conclusion and starting again,
Full inhalation and exhalation,
Noticing the energy of the breath,
Kind of rising energy of the inhalation and the falling,
Deflating,
Or releasing sensation of the exhalations.
So the practice of loving kindness,
The Pali word is metta.
Loving kindness is a friendliness or goodwill,
A benevolence,
A kind of flavor or attitude,
Attending in a friendly way.
So we can start the practice here on the cushion with a loving kindness towards the experience of sitting,
Towards the experience of knowing the body breathing.
One simple way to begin to evoke this is by allowing yourself a little smile,
Turning the corners of the mouth up,
Allowing yourself a sense of enjoyment of the breath and the body,
Of checking any sternness in our attitude towards our meditation,
Kind of shifting to gentleness and playfulness.
This is the body sitting and breathing,
Aware of it with a loving attitude,
A sense of care,
And this would express itself if the breath is being enjoyed,
If the body is comfortable.
And we appreciate and delight in that.
And when there's any discomfort that we're aware of,
Any sense of disquiet or agitation,
You know,
We attend to that with care,
With kindness.
This is what it's like in this moment.
We can use an analogy if it's helpful,
A kind and caring attitude towards the body breathing,
Much like a kind and caring attitude of a mother towards a baby,
Puppy or kitten,
Whatever for you evokes a kind of inner softness.
And here what is being held instead of a baby or a kitten,
The sensations of the body breathing.
You might notice there's kind of two aspects.
One is the attention that we're paying,
Attending or tending to,
And giving our full attention is a kind of love.
It is love.
The second quality is that softness that accompanies the attention.
Again,
It's not separate from the attention.
It's not a contrived gentleness.
In fact,
When the mind becomes interested and attending,
It actually has that quality of softness as a part of it.
We're letting go of everything else in favor of the sensation of the belly breathing.
We can also use words to either kindle or stoke or increase the warmth of our loving kindness.
May I be peaceful.
May I be relaxed.
May I live with ease.
Or you could shift the words to I am peaceful.
I am relaxed.
I live with ease.
They could be any words that work for you.
So we're looking to connect with a feeling of warmth and open-heartedness,
This friendliness,
Goodwill.
May I be safe.
May I be healthy.
I am safe.
I am healthy.
And whenever we get the fire actually going,
You know,
A sense of ease and well-being,
Warmth,
A loving presence,
We can let go of any cultivation,
Any imagining or words and simply enjoy the feeling.
Enjoy the loving kindness.
Let it resonate through the body and mind.
And then if you notice it diminishing or the mind becomes distracted,
You come back to contemplating or evoking until the heart feels light and open.
And then again just enjoying the resonance.
One final instruction here before leaving us for a period of silence and that is to notice where you're resistant,
Where you feel unworthy of love or resistant to receiving love.
We understand instead that love is something that is limitless,
Immeasurable.
The more love we cultivate,
The more love there is.
It's like ever increasing.
So any sense,
Any belief we have that we should limit or that it's scarce,
We investigate that.
See if you can instead just let the heart fill.
When it's full to overflowing,
Let it overflow.
Fill the space around the body and radiate it out into the world to others.
The last minute or so of the sit could allow the eyes to open.
Just keeping the gaze down and soft including light and color,
The visual field,
Sensing the softness of an open heart,
How it softens everything.
