Ukraine Compassion Meditation

Dear friend,

If you're listening to this,

Perhaps your heart is feeling the pain of what's happening in the world.

Perhaps your heart seeks a constructive outlet for your compassion.

The following meditation is to activate the healing power of your compassion.

Prayer and meditation are not a replacement for action,

Just the opposite.

By centering in stillness,

By coming home to your true essence,

You open a door to wisdom.

From this quiet place,

The responses you need in the world arise on their own.

You can trust action that comes from this still,

Quiet place.

As a human being,

Compassion is your superpower.

It's the core of who you are.

Compassion not pity.

Pity sees the affliction.

Compassion sees the human being beneath it.

And so in this meditation,

We join to activate the power of our sacred hearts.

Let's begin.

Find a posture that feels comfortable to you where you can be still for a few minutes at ease in your body.

With your spine straight and your heart area open,

A regal,

Majestic posture at ease.

Bringing your attention to your breath.

Taking two or three full,

Complete breaths,

Filling up your lungs.

Deep full inhalations and long,

Slow,

Relaxed exhalations.

Letting go of anything you've been carrying from this day.

You might notice the little pause at the top of the inhalation and at the bottom of the exhalation.

And for a moment,

Let yourself drop into that stillness,

Just noticing it for a beat.

And then letting your breath settle into its own natural rhythm,

Not trying to control anything.

Just letting your whole body breathe.

And bringing your attention now to your heart area.

Feeling the energy around your heart.

You might first notice the energy at the front of your heart where your feelings go out into the world.

And then noticing the quiet space at the back of your heart,

That deep,

Quiet place at the back of your heart.

The core of your being.

Like a secret innermost chamber where nothing is ever disturbed,

Where your wholeness resides and touching into that place.

And feeling the warmth and the radiance of that heart space,

Call to mind a face or a voice that you may have seen in the news,

Someone from the part of the world your heart is feeling now.

And if no one in particular comes to mind,

Just call up the situation and imagine a person in that situation,

A particular human being.

Evoke them in your mind with as much detail as you can.

See the expression on their face,

Hear the emotion in their voice.

And through their eyes,

Look around at the surroundings.

Learning 360 degrees to see what's around you there.

Let your imagination see what this person sees,

To hear what they hear,

To smell what they smell.

Letting your minds mingle.

All the while staying grounded in the back of your heart,

That safe place.

The place of your wisdom,

That calm,

Quiet place.

And holding this person in your awareness,

Release any labels you may have for them.

Refugee,

Soldier,

Mother,

Child,

Nurse.

Release any storyline you may have about this person and just experience them as a fellow human being.

Feel their wish to be safe and join it with your own wish to be safe in your life.

Feel their wish to be free of fear and join it with your own wish to be free of fear.

Feel their wish for relief,

For home,

For basic comforts and join them with your own longing for these things,

Your appreciation for them.

Feel this person's fear for the safety of their loved ones and join it with your own wish that your loved ones be safe and happy and free.

Reach their space and time to stand with this person.

All the while staying grounded in your heart.

If at any time you feel overwhelmed by the situation they're in,

Just take a step back,

Root more deeply into your own heart space.

Feel how you here listening to this right now are safe.

You are safe and offering your love to this person.

Stay grounded in your heart.

Be the stability,

The groundedness that perhaps this person cannot feel at this moment in their lives.

Breathe in their fear or sorrow and with the beautiful alchemy of your heart,

Transform it into whatever they need right now.

Safety,

Calmness,

Clarity,

Strength.

Be an open channel,

Clean and smooth so that the energy of their situation does not lodge within you but is transformed by the power of your compassion,

By the alchemy of your love into soothing relief.

And so with love in your heart and a wish for their safety,

Breathe in the fiery heat of turmoil that surrounds them and breathe out cool,

Soothing light like the tranquility of moonlight.

For the calm steadiness this person needs to navigate the moment at hand.

Be their angel,

Assist their angels,

Help them navigate the passage they're going through.

In a relaxed and comfortable way,

At your own pace,

Do this several times.

Breathing in their suffering,

Breathing out relief.

Breathing in their confusion,

Breathing out clarity.

Breathing in their fear,

Breathing out deep calm.

Breathing in tightness and contraction,

Breathing out expansiveness and compassion.

Finding this person compassion for themselves,

Compassion for everyone around them.

And without denying the direness of their situation,

Their genuine need for help,

See through their suffering to the wholeness and completeness at the core of their being.

See that place at the back of their heart,

The center of their being that can never be harmed.

As a supportive presence,

Picture this person on the other side of the situation at hand,

The other side of the turmoil.

Envisioning them whole and complete,

Picture a future of calm and safety that perhaps they in this moment of trial cannot imagine for themselves.

Picture it for them.

Hold them in safety.

Now expand your awareness to include all those around this person in the room with them,

In their town,

In the whole country.

Let go of labels,

Victim,

Aggressor.

Simply feel the humanity of each person.

Notice the grip of collective fear,

The suffering.

And again,

Breathe in the fiery heat of their situation and breathe out the calming coolness of peace.

Let the powerful alchemy of your heart do its work.

Feel your heart expand in this process.

Notice how big your heart is,

How effortless this love.

It's what your heart wants to do.

And holding these people in tender,

Intimate awareness,

Picture a future of peace for them.

Picture their livelihoods restored,

Their relationships restored and deepened.

Picture a healing balm saturating the hearts of all those who are mourning.

Letting the healing light of love pour down on the whole landscape.

Let us take this moment of crisis to step into our humanity more fully,

To become the humans we want to evolve into.

Prayer does not replace action.

It readies us for it.

Today,

When compassion stirs your heart in your own life,

You will know how to respond.

May all those affected by conflict and violence and disaster find safety.

May they find the immediate help they need.

May they access their inner strength and wisdom.

May they have compassion for themselves and all of those around them.

May the world have compassion for them.

May their futures open out to peace and well-being.

May we continue to hold each other in our hearts until all are healed.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be at peace.

May all beings be free.