Okay,
Welcome back to the Spiritual Recalibration Series.
Thank you for embarking on this series and opening yourself to a new way of being.
My name is David,
And this is Session 11,
Loving Kindness.
Find a comfortable seat in a space where you can allow yourself 20 minutes or so,
Undistracted,
To focus just on you.
A quick reminder,
To get the most out of this series,
Please be sure you've listened to the Welcome Session,
Session Zero.
Here we go.
And just talking about the difference between being happy and becoming happy.
That state that we tend to perpetually be in of becoming happy.
And what I was thinking about then was about how,
And I'm sure you can relate to this,
My specific story is I have just specific memories of when I was a boy,
It was my job to ride the tractor,
To mow the lawn,
We had a small lawn tractor in Massachusetts.
And I just remember riding that tractor and dreaming,
Just daydreaming about the next soccer game or what I was going to do when I grew up or just daydreaming.
And I think a lot of us spend a lot of our time doing that.
And so it's always,
And there's nothing wrong with daydreaming,
But when we think about sort of daydreaming and imagining from a standpoint of happiness,
Becoming happy,
Then that's different from being happy,
That happiness that just exists within us.
I was listening to something else just yesterday about the difference between pleasure and happiness that in kind of in secular society,
We tend to,
We,
It's,
We're kind of going,
What was the term that he used?
This was from a documentary,
Channel surfing,
Channel surfing through life.
He said one from one pleasurable experience to another.
So the difference between pleasure and happiness and that happiness that just exists within.
So we did a little affirmation practice,
Just kind of shifting our thoughts,
That affirmation that actually no happiness is here now in this,
In this moment,
You can actually,
I was reading another book the other day,
I guess this has come a lot,
Come up a lot.
But if you actually are present in this moment,
Right now,
You can't not be happy.
You can try really hard to be miserable,
But if you are actually here and not in the past or the future,
Thinking about something that's that might happen or might not happen or remembering something that,
That happened,
That wasn't so great.
If we're actually here,
We can't be miserable.
So that's a little plug for all this work that you all are doing,
Building your presence in this present moment.
And then,
So,
But the,
The other thing that came up in that same first blog post I was mentioning mentioned a couple solutions,
But one of them was a daily loving kindness practice.
So I was thinking about that and I was practicing this a bit and I,
I,
It was just this morning in meditation that I remembered that I remembered this book.
So this is every once in a while,
I bring a book up to you guys at attention.
So this one is the art of forgiveness,
Loving kindness,
And peace by Jack Kornfield.
And I hadn't pulled this book out in a while,
But I remember years ago when I was really struggling,
This was probably the first,
I don't know,
Meditation type book,
Buddhist type book.
And,
You know,
That sort of seeking type book that made its way onto my nightstand.
If it wasn't the first,
It was definitely one of the first,
But I was,
I kept going back to it because I felt it was helping me,
Helping me feel peaceful.
So I remembered this book when I knew that we were going to talk about loving kindness today,
And I just grabbed it and I started flipping through it again.
And I want to read you this very,
Very short section in here and what now I am not,
I'm not a Buddhist and I don't even know very much about Buddhism other than some practices.
But so I will not speak too much about loving kindness because as far as the foundations go,
Because I'll probably butcher it,
But I can speak to what I have experienced.
So anyway,
What this says is,
Since the time of the Buddha,
People have recited the many blessings that come from cultivating the power of a loving heart.
Here are some of them.
Your dreams become sweet.
You fall asleep easily.
You awaken contented.
Your thoughts are pleasant.
Your health improves.
Angels and devas will love and protect you.
Animals will sense your love and not harm you.
People will welcome you everywhere.
Your babies will be happy.
If you lose things,
They will be returned.
If you fall off a cliff,
A tree will be there to catch you.
The world will be more peaceful around you.
That sounds pretty good,
Right?
So the practice,
The loving kindness practice is this cultivation of a loving heart.
When we practice it,
What we'll do is you.
.
.
So we have done quite a bit with affirmations,
These affirmative statements,
Shifting our thoughts and speaking truth.
But with a loving kindness practice,
We use the words,
May I,
May I be well and happy.
And we extend that out.
This is the last thing I'll say about this before we practice,
Because this is what came up this morning.
For a while now,
At the end of when I sit to meditate,
At the end,
I say some blessings for my loved ones and for myself and for people I know and people I don't know and et cetera.
And what dawned on me this morning is it's actually during that practice where I tend to feel most quiet inside,
Most peaceful.
Isn't that interesting?
Because that is kind of,
Because in there is,
You know,
May all beings be well and happy.
It's kind of a loving kindness practice.
Who knew?
I didn't.
I didn't label it that way.
So that was a pretty cool realization to come to today.
All right.
So let's just get ourselves back nice and quiet again.
And then we'll do this very wonderfully simple loving kindness practice.
Okay.
So let's make sure your feet are flat on the ground.
If you're sitting in a chair and your palms are upright or face down on your thighs at the juncture of thighs and abdomen,
Or a little bit further forward,
If that's more comfortable for you,
Sit up nice and tall,
Nice straight spine.
Make sure that energy can be drawn up the spine into up and up,
Nice and high,
Closing down the eyes gently.
Or if that's not comfortable for you,
If you prefer to look at a spot across the way to focus on a particular object or a particular spot,
That's fine too.
Otherwise eyes are closed.
Eyelids are closed gently.
Eyes are soft behind the eyelids.
Allow yourself to fall into noticing the breath.
See if you can find the spot in your nostrils where you can feel the breath,
Where you can feel the air passing.
Notice what the mind wants to do.
Notice it wandering off,
Engaged in various thoughts.
When you notice the wandering,
Come back to your breath,
Simply allowing the breath to be as it is.
Noticing the breath for just another moment or two,
You notice your thinking,
Come back to your breath,
And you can let go of watching the breath and see yourself surrounded by light,
Beautiful gentle glow that outlines your whole body,
Your whole being,
This peaceful light,
This light of blessing,
Of ease,
Of a loving heart supporting you,
Here for you.
And say just in your mind,
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
Now bring to mind someone who you love dearly,
Someone who's easy for you to love.
In your mind,
Surround that person with light,
This loving healing light,
This peaceful beautiful light,
And say in your mind,
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
Now bring to mind someone about whom you feel neutral,
An acquaintance.
Surround that person with loving light,
And say in your mind,
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
Bring to mind now someone who challenges you,
Someone with whom there may be a little bit of difficulty.
Surround this person with loving light,
And say in your mind,
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
So important to begin with yourself,
Show this loving kindness,
To cultivate this loving kindness in yourself,
In your own heart.
For some,
It's actually easier to start outward,
Because showing this to ourselves is more challenging.
Be kind with yourself,
Gentle with yourself.
Now finally,
Allow this light of loving kindness to extend out across the whole planet,
And say in your mind,
May all beings be filled with loving kindness.
May all beings be well.
May all beings be happy.
Allow yourself to spend just a moment or two here in this space,
This space of loving kindness.
Take an intentional breath into the nose,
And exhale through the nose and mouth.
Allow yourself here to come back to the space where you are.
When you're ready,
You can stay like this for as long as you like,
And when you're ready,
You can flutter open your eyes.
