Hello,
My name is Paul McCann and I would like to welcome you to today's heart meditation.
Today's meditation will nourish your heart energy,
Which is the seed of your compassion.
We're all great at providing the much needed help and energy to the people around us and this can lead to empathy fatigue if we don't nurture and nourish ourselves regularly.
So in this meditation,
We will nourish our heart energy and connect to the ocean of compassion that resides there for us.
We go quite deep here so please be somewhere where you won't be disturbed and go gently and softly with yourself.
So begin by settling into your space.
See if you can get yourself completely comfortable.
Turning your phones to silent and moving them out of the way.
You can be lying down or seated.
If you're lying down,
You might like to have bolsters under your knees and your head.
Grab a cozy blanket to put over you.
Have the temperature in the room just right for you.
And as you settle in and begin to feel yourself against the chair or the cushion or the floor,
Feeling the connection points and fully allowing the weight of your body to be supported by what's underneath you.
And gently moving your focus to your breath.
So as you breathe in through your nose,
Notice the temperature of the air as it passes your nostrils.
Colder on the way in and warmer on the way out.
Noticing the rise and fall of your chest or your belly as you breathe.
And when your mind wanders away as it will,
Just gently redirect it back to your breath.
Or you could focus more on the words that I'm speaking.
So no judgment at all,
Just recalling your mind back again and again.
Now as a way of leading in,
We'll begin with what is called in the Buddhist traditions,
A smile down.
This will connect you with your natural openness and receptivity.
So this starts with imagining the sky.
So sense that great openness expanding in all directions.
And in that sky,
Sense the curve and the spirit of a smile completely filling that sky.
So as much as possible,
Visualize and sense that openness and expansion of the sky filling your mind and that curve of a smile spreading through.
Now with this sense of openness and expansiveness and availability of possibility,
That that curve of a smile spread into your eyes.
Sense the corners of your eyes uplifting a little bit.
Softening through your eyes and your brow,
Relaxing down through your face,
Relaxing your jaw and just sensing a slight smile at your mouth.
See if you can sense the inside of your mouth smiling.
So your eyes are smiling,
Your mouth.
Now feel down to your throat as you breathe in and out.
Sense right there that same curve and openness of a smile.
And then imagine that you can smile down into your heart.
Sense the curve of a smile spreading through the heart and chest area.
Sense it emerging,
The smile emerging from the inside out.
And there's a natural openness that occurs.
And that doesn't cover over what's happening for you,
But rather it makes room for it.
So your eyes are smiling and your mouth,
Your throat and your heart.
And now see if you can loosen down into your belly a little bit and feel the breath received deep in your torso.
Taking a nice breath right down to the depths of your torso.
And imagining and sensing that same smile spreading through your belly.
Now sensing that openness and ease spread down into your hips and down into your legs all the way down to your feet.
Breathing in and allowing that smile and ease and openness to spread all the way through your body.
And now come back to your chest area.
And just sensing that space that's now opened up can allow you to sense whatever might be tense or tied in your body.
So as we move through this meditation,
We'll be using the RAIN technique.
RAIN stands for Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate and Nurture.
So recognizing what you feel is the first step of RAIN.
So as you're resting now in this sense of openness and receptivity,
The RAIN of compassion begins with just sensing in your life whatever issues or situations are activating you.
Whatever is drawing your attention in your life.
Where there might be some struggle or suffering.
So this can be the place that you bring this meditation to today.
So you might just take a few moments and just sense what naturally comes to you.
Some difficult situation.
Some place where you might feel contraction.
Where you might feel caught in fear.
Maybe there's some sense of grief or anger,
Hurt.
Whatever you sense wants your attention.
This might be a situation in your life that involves another person.
A conflict.
It might be a situation at work,
Something to do with your health.
So as you let yourself settle on something to work with,
You might like to let the situation be front and center in your attention.
So this is an invitation to actually let the story be there.
Let the triggers be there.
If it's another person involved,
You might see the person's face or hear the conversation or the words that might set you off.
So once you've recognized this struggle,
This suffering,
Accept it.
Accept it by saying,
Okay,
This is part of my life experience right now.
So honestly acknowledge that this is part of your life right now.
And just see if this pause right now can be part of just allowing it to be there.
A willingness not to try to get rid of anything or change anything right now.
The beginning of RAIN is just recognizing and agreeing to be with whatever's going on with you.
There's a Buddhist teacher called Ajahn Sumedho who puts it this way.
He says,
When these circumstances arise and we sense what's triggered,
If we can just say it's like this.
It's just like this.
That's the beginning of a healing presence.
So for now,
Just to recognize and allow what's there to be there.
And then with the quality of interest and kindness,
We begin to investigate.
So we might sense first up what is really being triggered here or what's really going on inside you right now.
What's it like?
Perhaps you're noting an emotion of anger or fear or hurt,
Or maybe there's a swirl of thoughts about a situation.
So just notice what it's like without judgment,
Without trying to fix it.
So as you investigate what it's like inside you right now,
It might be helpful for you to place your hand on your heart as a way of reminding yourself of this investigation with kindness.
Or you can place your hand wherever it feels right,
Wherever it's drawing your attention.
I'll make some suggestions on how you might investigate,
But feel free to go down whatever track feels most alive for you.
For some people just sensing,
What am I believing?
What am I believing is going on?
Am I believing that I'm failing?
Am I believing that another person doesn't really care about me?
Am I believing that I'm broken?
Am I believing I'm unlovable?
These are just some of the core beliefs that are often sitting there,
But don't dig into these beliefs too much now.
That can become very mental,
But just sense if one's right there and then go right into the body and sense how does this live in your body?
What's it like inside your body?
So scanning through,
Feel through your throat or your chest,
Your belly.
These are the most common areas where you can get a felt sense of your experience.
What are you believing?
And what's it like inside your body?
So sense the worst part of this.
What's the worst part of this for you?
What are you really afraid of?
So just letting that,
That sense of the worst part be really felt.
Sometimes letting the face express the feelings gets you more in touch.
You could try that and then come back to fully being in your body again.
So can you sense where the most reactive part of you is,
Where it's living in your body?
See if it's possible to go right inside the part of you that's most reactive,
That's most hurt,
Most afraid,
Angry and look at the world through its eyes.
Feel it and sense what is this part most wanting?
What is this part most needing?
Sometimes the part might say it in words or it might be an image or just a felt sense.
Keep breathing and sense the possibility now of widening out your attention so that you're floating larger than just that part.
So that you're occupying as much space as you can imagine.
And now listen to and feel from the highest most awake part of your own being to this suffering part.
What does this part most need?
Is it possible to recognize this part is suffering in just a very pure way?
And offer in some way what this part most needs in this moment.
This is the end of RAIN to nourish and nurture.
For some you might change your touch a little bit if you're touching yourself on your body somewhere.
If you are,
Just make sure your touch is tender and light.
Maybe you can communicate to this part through your touch.
So what are the words or the touch or the message,
The image that this part most needs from you?
What will most meet the needs of this part of you?
What would be most healing and freeing?
It might be something like,
I care about this suffering.
Or I'm sorry.
Or I love you.
So just experiment to see what could be offered through touch or word or an image.
If you find it difficult to sense yourself offering from your highest self to this part,
Imagine that around you is the awakened heart mind of the Buddha.
Or some being that you truly trust,
A mother,
Grandmother,
Father,
A child,
Some pure,
Wise,
Compassionate being and sense what that being might be able to offer you to express to this place in you that would be most healing.
Swami Kripalvananda says,
Break your heart no longer.
Each time you judge yourself,
You break your heart.
You pull away from the love that is the wellspring of your vitality.
But now the time has come,
Your time to live and trust the goodness that you are.
Your true essence is pure awareness,
Aliveness,
Love.
Let no one,
No idea obscure this truth.
If one comes,
Forgive it for its unknowing.
Just let go and breathe into the goodness that you are.
So explore what it means to truly offer loving presence to this life within you.
You might imagine that loving presence as an embrace,
As if you are holding a child or maybe bathing in a warm golden light.
Whatever connects you with that sense of cherishing this life right here.
So the heart of Buddhist practice is compassion.
And the heart of compassion is compassion to the life that's right here.
And there's a natural widening that unfolds when we open our heart in this way.
So we'll explore that widening out now by inviting to mind someone in your life that you care about and that might be having a hard time.
So this is a beautiful opportunity to bring your healing energy and your consciousness to someone you care about.
And in the same way that you had a situation in your life that you just recognized and allowed,
Just sense the circumstances of this person's life.
The circumstances that might be causing difficulty and just acknowledge them.
Just recognize and allow what might be true for this person right now.
And you're just letting it be.
And in this space of just letting it be,
You can begin to bring this person close into your awareness.
Imagine that person right here so you could sense their presence and see what's really going on more closely.
And then we begin the investigation with kindness.
So if you could look through their eyes at the world,
Feel with their body and their heart,
What would be the worst part that's going on for them?
What could be the fear or the doubt that they're living with?
Maybe there's some hurt or some pain,
Just sense what it might be like.
And we can use our breath to help with this.
So you might like to breathe in and feel that you're allowing yourself to be touched by this person's suffering.
Then on the out breath,
You're letting that suffering and pain be held in the vastness of loving presence.
So it's not a self that's holding that suffering right now,
But you're just letting yourself be touched,
Truly touched,
And you're letting it be held in the space of awareness.
So as you breathe for this person and touch the suffering,
Sense what this person most needs.
What at the very core of their suffering is most needed?
Perhaps it's to feel loved,
To be seen,
To feel held.
So continue to breathe for this person and sense them in your heart and sense that you could offer the wisdom,
The love,
And the presence that's most needed.
Now let's widen out even further to sense that you could breathe for all beings that are struggling,
Yourself included and all beings everywhere,
That you're breathing in and letting yourself be touched by the truth of suffering.
And you're breathing out and sensing that this suffering is held in a boundless presence,
A boundless ocean of compassion.
So now let's relax any focus on your in or out breath or any concept or idea and just sense that you can merge with this vastness,
That this ocean of compassionate presence is your own heart essence.
So resting in this and in these moments of silence,
Letting whatever arises be touched with the heart of compassion.
I will read from the radiant sutras.
There is a place in the heart where everything meets.
Go there if you want to find me,
Mind,
Senses,
Soul,
Eternity,
All are there.
Are you there?
Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart.
Give yourself to it with total abandon.
That ecstasy is there and the steady regal sense of resting in a perfect spot.
Once you know the way,
The nature of attention will call you to return again and again and be saturated with knowing I belong here.
I am at home here.
Don't go anywhere.
You you you you you you you you you you
