Welcome to this meditation,
Love is a Perception.
Most people think that love is a feeling.
In this meditation you'll experience that the feeling you call love is actually a perception.
It's a perception of the true nature or the essence nature of another which is impersonal and it's also a perception of the divine love intelligence expressing itself as diversity or uniqueness in,
As and through another which is personal.
Love is the act of perceiving the essence nature or the uniqueness or both in another person.
This action gives rise to the feelings of equanimity,
Loving kindness,
Compassion and joy also known as the four immeasurables in Buddhism.
So just allowing yourself to get settled.
You can be in a seated position with your feet flat on the floor and palms resting lightly on your lap,
Palms faced up or down or you may choose to be in a meditation position on the floor.
And as you get settled just begin to notice all the places where the surface underneath you meet the different parts of your body.
And just noticing now where your breath is.
Notice where your breath goes as you breathe in and where your breath goes as you breathe out.
And just begin to notice how your breath is almost like a bridge between your outer world and your inner world.
And allowing yourself with each breath to draw a little more closely into your inner world and into that place where everything that you've ever known or felt or sensed or imagined or dreamed or experienced is recorded.
And as you come into this place just allow all of your inner senses to begin to open.
Your sense of sight and sound and smell and touch,
Taste.
But especially allowing your sixth sense,
Your intuitive sense to begin to open quite widely as you bring to mind someone that you love.
A friend,
A spouse,
A child or even a pet.
And as you bring this person to mind begin to consider all the reasons why you love this person.
Perhaps you love the way they make you laugh or you love their view about the world or you love the way that they just get you.
Or maybe it's easy to be around this person.
Perhaps you have lots of great memories with them or maybe they've helped you out through tough times.
Just allow yourself to bring to mind all the reasons why you love this person.
Now,
Consider the idea that while all of these things about this person may be why you love them,
None of these things are who they really are.
This person isn't their personality or their humor and they aren't all the memories of the good times and the bad times that you've gone through with them.
This person isn't their world view or their religious beliefs.
Consider the idea that the true person that you love is none of these things.
What you're experiencing as love is something deeper than all of these things.
Something that you can't quite see or touch or know really with any of your outer senses.
Consider that what you're experiencing as love is the perception of the infinite radiance that shines forth from behind their eyes.
Consider that what you're experiencing as love is the perception of the unchanging awareness and bliss that lives in,
As,
And through this person uniquely expressed and now notice if you can feel sense or imagine a subtle shift in the quality of love you feel for this person now.
What does it feel like?
Think of it like this.
And what if you could begin to see or perceive this person in this way all the time?
How could it change your relationship to them?
And how might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
How could it change the quality of love that you have for them?
Now,
Bring to mind someone that you feel some animosity for.
Maybe it's someone who sort of bothers you or you always feel frustrated when you're around them.
Or maybe they trigger you in some particular way that's caused you to feel a lack of love or friendliness towards them.
And as you bring this person to mind,
Consider all the reasons why you don't particularly like them.
Is it something that they said or did?
Is it something about their world view that you don't agree with?
Or perhaps their political or religious views that you don't agree with?
Is it how they interact with you and others?
Is it their appearance?
Or is it perhaps just their personality in general?
Now,
Consider the idea that while all these things about this person may be why you don't like them,
None of these things are actually who they really are.
This person isn't their words or their actions.
They're not their world view or their personality or their intellect or lack thereof.
They're not their appearance.
And just like you,
They're none of these things.
What if you could allow yourself to perceive the true nature,
The essence nature of this person in the same way that you can easily perceive the true nature of those you love?
Knowing that the true nature of this person is in fact no different from those that you love,
It's exactly the same.
Hidden beneath the body-mind complex of this person and all the causes and conditions that make them appear to be someone that you don't like,
Beneath all of that lies the same infinite radiance,
Pure consciousness,
Unchanging awareness that shines forth from those who you love,
The same essence resides in this person too.
And while you might notice some resistance to seeing it,
While it might be hard to perceive,
If you use your inner senses,
You can slowly begin to perceive it.
So just allowing yourself now to use your inner senses to perceive beyond the body-mind complex,
Beyond the personality,
Beyond the views and all those things that aren't really this person,
And see if you can perceive their true nature.
And what if you could begin to see or perceive this person in this way all the time?
How could it change your relationship to them?
How might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
How might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
How might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
How might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
And just noticing if there's any resistance within you to perceiving this person's true nature without trying to do anything other than notice.
How might it change the quality of love that you have for them?
Now,
Bringing both of these people into your awareness,
The person that you love and the person that you feel or have felt animosity towards.
And as you see,
Sense,
Or feel,
Or imagine these two people in front of you,
Focus first on the person that you love and perceiving the true nature of who they are and allowing the experience of love to move through you as you perceive their true nature.
So that's good,
That's good.
Now turn your attention to the person you feel or have felt animosity towards and see if you can perceive this same true nature in them as well.
Perhaps shifting your attention from one person to the other until you can perceive the true self,
The true nature,
The essence nature of the person you feel animosity towards just as easily as you can perceive the true nature,
The essence self of the person that you love until perhaps it's hard to distinguish between the two people.
Now turn your attention to the person you feel or have felt animosity towards just as easily as you can perceive the true self.
Perhaps shifting your attention to the person you feel or have felt animosity towards just as easily as you can perceive the true self.
Now turn this same awareness towards yourself.
Can you perceive your true nature beneath your body and all of your senses beyond the mind and emotions,
Beyond the personality and the intellect?
Can you perceive the truth of who you are as pure awareness,
The ever conscious observer unchanging,
The knower,
The knowing and the known all at once,
Radiant bliss?
Slowly bringing your awareness back to your brain.
Once again becoming aware of the way in which your breath is like a bridge between your inner world and your outer world.
And with each breath just coming back a little more closer to the outer world.
Resurfacing slowly with each breath.
Perhaps feeling the surface underneath you and noticing all the ways in which you're supported by the surface underneath you.
Using your breath to bring you back out into the outer world.
But bringing with you this experience of love as a perception and knowing that the act of perceiving the truth of who others really are is a radical act of love.
And that this is a practice that you can commit to daily.
You can do this anytime,
Anywhere and without anyone even knowing.
So this is your invitation to bring this act of perceiving the truth of who others are into your day.
This is your invitation to bring this act of perceiving the truth of who others really are.
