And with your eyes closed,
As usual,
Gently bringing mindful and kind awareness.
This magical kindfulness that Ajahn Brahm coined,
Or the word that he used to describe mindfulness and kindness working hand in hand,
Bringing that to your body as you spread mindful awareness from head to toe.
Receiving any sensations you experience along the way without looking for anything pleasant or unpleasant,
Anything special,
Or even any expectation.
But you'll experience sensations everywhere.
Just whatever comes to your awareness right now,
Meet it with kindness and care.
And you may still adjust your position like I just did myself.
If you find that it would be kinder to your body to be adjust.
Now perhaps taking a few slightly deeper breaths,
Enjoying the in-breath and relaxing with a slightly longer deeper out-breath,
Helping everything settle down.
And as you become aware of your body and the feelings in the body,
You may also start to feel connected to your emotional world.
The two are so intimidated.
Perhaps noticing any sickness in the body or feeling a mental sense of your own fragility,
Informerability in this human form.
Perhaps you're feeling rather frazzled after a busy day or maybe a restless night.
Perhaps due to the noise that you're experiencing in the building works someone here has shared.
Perhaps just an honor,
Maybe not possible to explain sadness,
Maybe a sense of heaviness or despair.
Just meeting that with kind,
Loving awareness.
And offering yourself compassion,
The wish for freedom,
From all kinds of suffering both physical and emotional as well.
Experimenting with phrases that work for you,
Repeating them inwardly and listening to the resonance of those phrases in your heart,
Your mind,
Staying connected with your body,
Not necessarily staying with anything that feels particularly uncomfortable,
But also noticing any place in the body or mind that feels a little bit ill,
Swollen,
Relaxed.
May I be free from all suffering,
And really imagine that freedom,
That wish coming true.
May I be free from worry and doubt.
May all obstacles,
My spiritual path be removed.
Just happy to repeat these phrases without any demands at all,
Trusting in the power of these intentions to gradually guide the mind towards that release.
Welcome any sensations,
Any emotions that may arise,
Or may you welcome a child who was hurting inside.
And by wishing ourselves freedom from suffering,
We're not wishing the suffering away,
We're learning to meet it and care for it,
Allowing any emotion to simply arise,
Be felt,
And be cared for as it passes through.
Thank you.
You you you Losing touch with your own body,
Maintaining this kind awareness towards yourself.
If you wish you can bring someone else into the field of compassion by imagining them sitting next to or in front of you,
Someone you care for and whom you know as their own suffering,
Their own hardships to bear.
I can't think of anyone who doesn't,
But there may be someone in particular that comes to mind.
So bring them into this field of compassion,
Imagining that you're holding their hand or walking into their eyes,
Or walking into their eyes,
Perhaps just sitting by their side.
See how those phrases wish to express themselves towards this person who's dear to you,
Staying connected to your felt experience,
Embodied,
Grounded,
And also maintaining this connection to the person you're generating compassion toward,
Picturing them free from suffering,
Bringing that sense of possibility and hope.
So may you be fully free from suffering,
Complete me at ease and at peace.
So so so enjoying the experience of sharing compassion without any demand at all.
So so so if you wish you can continue with the loved person or yourself or if you'd like to we can try to undermine the person who we don't know very well at all.
This is similar to the person we have neutral feelings towards when we practice love and kindness but here we're recognizing not only this person's wish for happiness but also that they too suffer in ways that perhaps are less known to us but in ways that most likely we share.
It might be the person who delivered groceries to a person who works in the same environment who never really have a chance to meet,
Get to know,
It could even be someone you heard about in the newspaper,
Someone whom you don't have any investment with,
A person who perhaps never really gave a second thought.
Connecting to this person's humanity,
The fact that they suffer,
And your own wish that they be free.
So so so so so just free allowing the image or sense of this person to fade,
Stay in connected to your own experience,
To your compassionate thoughts.
And if you wish,
Bringing to mind the person who you find difficult,
Perhaps not a person too close to you,
Perhaps someone in the greater circle or in the outside world,
Perhaps someone inflicting harm on others,
Someone whose intentions are hard to understand.
Recognising that this person also suffers greatly.
Finding those compassionate wishes that they be free.
Allowing your heart to respond as it will,
Without judgment,
With assistance,
Again and again wishing that even this disliked person,
Perhaps someone you regard as an enemy,
If you're suffering,
From sorrow and despair,
Really picturing this happening as this person's suffering fades away and ceases.
Bringing him more peace and harmony into this world.
Where the liver,
If pain is deep or you know that you're vegetarian,
Helps to3 Knowing that if things get difficult,
Bringing compassion to the disliked person,
You can always turn back to yourself.
Wishing yourself freedom,
More affliction,
More despair.
Wishing yourself freedom,
More affliction,
More despair.
And now gently letting this perception fade away and bringing your awareness,
Allowing this compassion to grow and spread towards all people in this room,
This virtual zoom down the hall.
People who may be dear to you,
People you don't know that well at all.
People who understand what they suffer and that sincerely wish to be free.
May we all be free from all kinds of pain,
Physical and mental.
May we be free from anxiety,
Depression or despair.
May we all continue walking on this path of dumb life without any obstacles.
Free from the hindrances of doubt,
Restlessness,
Sleepiness,
Ill will and sense desire.
May all obstacles dissolve and may we all experience the highest bliss.
Supporting one another through the difficult times as well.
Rejoicing in one another's success.
This compassion spreads even further than this room.
Towards wherever each one of us is now living and to the areas around us and beyond,
To all beings everywhere,
Recognizing that no matter whether rich or poor,
Whether healthy or sick,
Whether beings seem happy or are very obviously suffering,
All of us experience difficulties,
Disappointments,
And pain in life.
May all beings,
All human beings be free from suffering.
May all those in countries where there's famine or war,
May they be safe,
May they be protected,
May they be well.
May all suffering caused by the climate crisis,
By leaders with evil intentions,
By all kinds of oppression,
Whatever the cause,
May all beings be free.
May all violence abate.
Imagine a world just for a moment where all beings,
All societies,
All countries live in peace,
Where all beings have enough to eat to sustain themselves,
Even to thrive.
May all beings come in contact with these wonderful liberating teachings of the Dhamma,
The universal teachings that apply to each and every one of us,
Leading to insight into suffering and its cause,
Its deeper cause inside the mind.
Our compassion extends also to animals and sex,
Birds,
Creatures of the waters,
Of the seas,
Of the seas things,
All beings everywhere,
Whether human or non-human,
Animal or diverse,
Celestial beings,
All beings who breathe,
May they be free from oppression,
Free from suffering.
May they live without fear.
Imagine holding the whole world in your heart.
This beautiful blue and green globe that we call the planet Earth.
Imagine that sense of peace,
Safety,
Over the whole world as though the world were cloaked in white.
And gently staying also connected to your body.
Perhaps to the area around the heart.
As I chant the final blessing.
Peace and harmony to all.
My way.
