MA 65 Kindness Is The Best Room In The House

So,

Before making a start on your meditation,

Make sure you have adopted a posture that is stable,

Comfortable and at ease.

If you're sitting in a chair,

Then let your feet rest flat on the floor.

If you're sitting on a cushion on the floor,

Sit upright with a sense of dignity and graciousness,

Like a Buddha under your own tree of enlightenment.

Let your hands rest easily,

Allow your eyes to close gently,

At first sense your own body in the here and now,

And consciously soften any obvious tension.

Let the eyes and face become soft.

Let the jaw loosen.

If you like,

You can roll your head in a circle to release any tension in your neck,

To let it find simple,

Upright voice.

Let your shoulders drop,

And your arms and hands rest easily.

Feel contact through your thighs,

Legs,

Feet to your seat on the earth,

And notice how completely the earth supports you,

And how you can let go and sit on the earth with presence and dignity,

Fully supported.

Let the belly be soft and the breath natural,

And let the heart be soft as well,

To receive whatever arises with a spirit of kindness and compassion.

Now with this embodied presence,

Bring your attention to feel the sensations of your breathing.

Take a few deep breaths,

Take as long as you need to scan down through the whole of your body,

Making sure each and every muscle is as relaxed as possible,

All the way from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes,

And relaxing all the muscles in between.

Release any further tension,

Until it feels as if your whole body has melted away into the atmosphere around you.

Put aside any worries or concerns in your mind,

Any thoughts of the past or the future,

Remaining as much as possible in the present moment,

With the here and now.

And to relax your awareness further,

Conjure up a relaxed,

Joyful and happy state of mind.

When you're ready,

You can let your attention come to rest somewhere within this empty space of your body,

And reconnect with the sense of peace inside yourself,

By bringing the focus of your attention gently down to a place inside you,

Somewhere around the level of your solar plexus or diaphragm,

And anchoring the mind in place,

Either reconnecting with the peaceful feeling there,

Or picturing inner brightness.

Feeling like a full moon,

A twinkling star,

Or a sparkling diamond.

If your mind wanders,

Just bring it back to the inner object.

Sense where you feel your center most easily,

Allowing your attention to rest on the center.

Let your centering be natural,

And feel the sensations arising at your center.

Relax your mind and sense the center.

If your attention is soft and careful,

Your center will also feel soft,

And you'll be aware of even the slightest phenomena at the center,

While allowing the mind to become quiet,

No more than a whisper in the background.

But mostly we just feel the center,

Rest in it,

Return to it,

Again and again,

This center.

If the object disappears,

You can conjure up a new one.

If the object changes,

Just follow it in its new form.

If thoughts bother you,

Simply ignore them,

Or run interference by imagining you hear the sound of that traditional mantra,

Repeated silently in the mind,

With the words sammārahāṅg over and over again,

Coming up from the center of the body,

Until the thoughts are pacified.

So continue with your meditation,

Focusing inwardly,

Lightly and gently,

For a few more moments now in silence.

After a while,

Your attention will most likely wander,

Which is perfectly natural.

Whenever you notice this,

No matter how long or short it's been,

Simply bring the attention back to the center,

No judgment,

Just a gentle return,

Like training the puppy,

Sit,

Stay,

And then the puppy goes away.

But we bring the puppy gently back to this center,

This moment,

Again and again.

Entering and sustaining meditation practice in this way is one of the most beautiful ways to remind ourselves that wakefulness,

Love,

And ease are here within us.

When we listen,

We remember who we are.

Our own true ease and love has the chance to manifest.

In the busyness,

Complexity,

And stress of our lives,

A regular sitting meditation practice is enormously helpful.

It reconnects us with the stillness inside.

It centers us.

It brings us a sense of ease.

As we sit in meditation,

It allows the inner wisdom of the body and heart to show itself.

It allows us to live our life from a deeper understanding.

Similarly,

Mindfulness is a quality of presence and ease.

It is a wakefulness that knows what's here.

Mindfulness comes together with implicit kindness and spaciousness.

Recognizing what arises without judging.

Mindfulness recognizes it all and rests in a kind and spacious heart.

So sitting with the graciousness,

Ease,

And kindness,

Something that if we can practice a little daily,

Will become a way to return to ourselves,

To center ourselves,

To connect with our heart.

It can become like bathing or cleansing,

Calming our heart and mind,

Until we come to time for some loving-kindness meditation.

So reconnecting with the inner experience we've built up so far,

We continue to maintain our awareness at the center of the body,

Whether it be a sense of illumination on the inside or a feeling of well-being or inner images.

We place our mind gently at the center of this inner experience,

So gently that it seems to melt away,

Almost like the touch of a warm fingertip on newly fallen snow,

Melting away at the point of contact,

With solid becoming liquid and liquid becoming vapor,

Expanding outwards,

Allowing us to expand the benefits of our meditation in a way that's known as a loving-kindness practice.

Loving-kindness meditation is an ancient and wonderful practice,

With the potential to open our hearts and transform our life.

We plant the seed of loving wishes over and over,

That they may grow and sprout in ourselves and our lives.

The evocation of loving-kindness is what matters,

As an antidote to fear,

Anger,

Confusion or a closed heart.

The Sufi poet Hafiz once wrote that fear is the cheapest room in the house,

And he'd rather that everyone lived in better conditions.

Accordingly,

Loving-kindness meditation opens the doors and windows of the heart.

Like water on a stone,

Sometimes the droplets of loving-kindness,

Even in the places of greatest difficulty,

Begin to wear away the closedness,

The hardness of the heart.

They begin to nourish that sweet current of love that exists here inside each one of us,

By gradually nurturing loving intentions of the heart.

In loving-kindness,

We often deploy positive affirmations,

And we can modify these phrases in any way we need,

So they speak from our own heart.

Traditionally,

We start with ourselves,

Because without loving yourself,

It's almost impossible to truly love others.

Sometimes this is difficult for people.

Our possible sense of unworthiness may make it difficult to offer love to ourselves.

And yet there is not a single being in the cosmos more worthy of loving-kindness than the one right here,

Ourselves.

At first,

This meditation may feel contrived or awkward.

It can even bring up its opposite,

Feelings of irritation and anger.

As this happens,

It's especially important to be patient and kind toward yourself.

Allow whatever arises to be held in the spirit of loving-kindness and affection.

Resting at ease,

We pick up from the inner experience at our center.

As we bring to mind the simple phrases,

May I be filled with loving-kindness.

May I be well in body and mind.

May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.

And may I be truly happy and free.

And as we recollect these phrases,

We infuse ourselves,

Our life,

With the spirit of loving-kindness,

Allowing the feeling to permeate body and mind.

And now we can expand our inner experience further outwards,

Beyond ourselves,

Toward a group of people who we already love a lot.

With the same simple phrases as we imagine this group,

Holding their image at our center,

While permeating them with feelings of loving-kindness,

And the intention that,

May these loved ones be well in body and mind.

May they be filled with loving-kindness.

May they be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May they be truly happy and free.

As we continue with loving-kindness meditation,

We can gradually begin to include others,

Friends,

Neighbors,

People everywhere.

With a feeling for all the people around us,

We let the heart of loving-kindness open with the affirmation,

May all these neighbors be well in body and mind.

May they be filled with loving-kindness.

May they be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May they be truly happy and free.

When the heart naturally opens with loving-kindness,

Then in time,

You can even bring in those who are difficult for you.

Additionally,

They say,

Even eventually,

To include our enemies.

So as we bring in the difficult people,

We'll feel the natural tendency of the heart to close,

To armor itself,

And the suffering of closing the heart.

Finally,

We'll sense that in the end,

It's not worth it to live with a closed heart.

And even those who are difficult may be reached by our loving-kindness.

May even these difficult people be well in body and mind.

May they be filled with loving-kindness.

May they be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May they be truly happy and free.

We let the feeling of loving-kindness and the openness of the heart spread further now,

As if the loving-kindness of the heart could extend in every direction,

Around the whole of the earth and beyond,

Toward beings far and near,

Young and old,

Human and animal,

Seen and unseen.

We let the heart radiate loving-kindness in every direction,

To touch and hold beings in every form.

As we feel the sense of loving-kindness grow and expand,

We can offer the simple phrases and intentions,

May all beings everywhere be well in body and mind.

May they be filled with loving-kindness.

May they be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May they be truly happy and free.

So we continue spreading the loving-kindness to friends,

Community members,

Beings far and near,

Perfecting this practice of loving-kindness and the planting of the seeds of good intentions as part of our meditation,

And as part of the way we move through the world with a loving heart in all we do,

And in all we encounter,

Opening up the heart to flow more easily for the last few moments of our practice together.