Welcome everyone to a 10 minute Common Humanity meditation.
So we use common humanity to develop compassion.
And in this meditation we'll realize that,
Just like us,
Everyone would rather be free from suffering than suffering.
Everyone would rather be loved than hated.
And when we're children and babies,
That is all that we truly wanted and needed.
Just take some deep stabilizing breaths.
Signal to your body that you are safe in this moment.
And just allow our breaths to slow down.
Feel our heart beat slowing down as we settle into the present moment.
But first let's bring to mind somebody that we love dearly and have an uncomplicated relationship with.
It can be anyone,
However big or small,
Old or young.
And once you bring them to mind,
Feel in our heart a sense of gratitude for their presence and a sense of love for them.
Look in their face,
In your mind's eye,
And understand that just like you,
They want to be free from suffering.
Just like you,
They want to be happy.
And just like you,
They were once a baby who needed the support of others to survive and who needed love and compassion to survive.
Sit with this feeling and continue thinking,
May you be happy,
May you be free from suffering.
Continue sending good thoughts and wishes to them for the next minute.
Next let's bring to mind someone who we may not know very well or who we're neutral towards.
It could be a neighbor.
It could be somebody you saw walking past you today.
Someone that works at a grocery store you go to regularly.
Someone without any deep connection to you.
And just realize that just like you,
They want to be happy.
Just like you,
They do not want to be in pain.
Just like you,
They love other people and other people love them.
This person who is very one-dimensional in our minds is actually just as complex as we are and shares a lot of the same basic desires and needs that must be met for survival that all of us have.
Take another minute or two to let this realization sink in.
That just like me,
This person who I barely know,
Who I don't feel strongly for one way or another,
Just like me,
They want to be happy and they want to be loved.
We're going to move on to the most difficult part of this meditation.
Bring to mind somebody you have some negative feelings towards.
Maybe someone who cut you off in traffic,
Someone who was mean to you once,
Someone who hurt you in some way.
Let's start small.
Start with something that wasn't traumatizing,
Something that was just a negative experience or,
You know,
An annoyance.
And bring this person to mind.
Now we'll do the opposite of demonization.
We'll practice humanization.
We'll humanize them in our minds by understanding that just like us,
They want to be free from pain.
Just like us,
They want the causes and conditions of happiness and of love and of satisfaction.
Understand that just like you,
This person who caused you some annoyance or anger or sadness,
They were once a baby.
They once only desired support and love and care and for their most basic needs to be met.
For people to cause us harm,
Often it is because they themselves have been hurt and they just don't quite know how to handle it properly.
So they often push it outward and perpetuate a cycle of hurt.
But we can choose to stop that cycle with ourselves.
We can choose to develop an understanding of this person to see that just like us,
They want to be happy.
They want to be free from suffering.
They're doing the best that they can with the resources they have at their disposal.
This part is optional and something I really like to do.
I bring all three people into my mind's eye and thank them each individually for the role that they played in my life.
The first person is very easy to thank.
The second person,
You know,
You can thank them.
The third person feels very difficult to thank.
But understand that they were fuel for your practice today.
That without that interaction that you had with them,
You would not have had this exact opportunity to develop compassion.
Thank you for participating with an open heart and open mind.
Hopefully this sheds some light and you'll be able to take it into your daily life and practice on your own time.
Have a great day.
Goodbye.
