Cultivating The Boundless Qualities Of The Heart

In this meditation we continue to grow the heart of kindness. To do so, we begin where it is often easiest, by extending our heart to our loved ones and close friends, which becomes the foundation for a loving heart toward all life. Contrary to the philosophy that if it's hard it must be good and effective, in this practice we grow the heart by starting in the easiest way possible. So in this meditation we will begin extending kindness to a loved one and a friend as a way to support the heart opening. In later meditations we will learn to extend this in ever widening circles.

In this practice we will explore how by seeming similarities between ourselves and others we can cultivate the heart connecting practice of empathy. Empathy is one of the causes for sensing connection and commonality between all of us. Having developed kindness towards loved ones and friends in the preceding meditation, here we will take that warm heartedness and sense our connection with a much wider range of people. When that empathic heart meets someone who is in pain, it provides the foundation for compassion.

In this Loving Kindness meditation you will learn how to cultivate a loving heart towards all strangers in the world wherever you may meet them. In the last meditation, we cultivated empathy to a range of people including strangers. Here we will begin the stretching of the heart to not just feel empathy for people we don't know so well or don't know at all, but also generate a sense of warmth and kindness toward them. Developing this capacity for warmth and kindness to even strangers is important for cultivating a heart of love and compassion as we are doing in this series.

In this practice we will learn to extend our heart to even those people we find difficult or challenging and learn to free ourselves from the pain of a closed heart. As a continuation of earlier practices that help open the heart in ever widening circles, in this meditation we will extend the heart from wishing kindness to strangers to include those we are challenged by or whom we find difficult in some way. While this practice may sometimes feel difficult or intimidating, trust that over time, you are planting seeds of kindness to yourself and others that will allow the heart to release much of the pain around challenging people and allow you greater skill to navigate being with difficult people in the future.

This practice provides the key to a peaceful heart, which is the ability to let go of past hurts and grievances and to cultivate the kind heart of forgiveness. In the previous meditations we have gradually opened the heart to wider ranges of people. In this practice we continue that movement by looking at the ways that the heart becomes closed and how we can invite it to release through forgiveness. With practice and patience it is possible to open the heart and release much of the pain surrounding the past, and in so doing, further cultivating the love and compassion we are growing in this series.

In this practice you develop the compassionate heart, a practice that allows you to turn towards the pain of others and the world with love, courage and a caring responsiveness. In the previous two meditations we were supporting the heart to open even amidst painful relationships and to let go. In this practice we continue to grow the heart's capacity by cultivating the tender hearted quality of compassion that meets and responds to the pain of the world. This tender hearted response to suffering gives us the ability to face the distress of others and hold them with the kind, courageous presence we have been developing throughout this series of practices.

In this Appreciative Joy meditation you learn to cultivate a beautiful facet of the heart that is able to celebrate the happiness and success of others. Building on the last meditation, where we turned towards the pain of others, in this practice we balance that by turning toward people's joys and success and by doing so uplift our own well being. As the heart grows and becomes more sensitive and attuned to the pain of the world, it is essential we learn how to balance the heavier more painful experience of life, with taking in the goodness, beauty and joy that is also here, so we can live with a balanced heart, that is both nourished and buoyant.

In this meditation you will learn how to cultivate a boundless loving heart towards all life - all beings, all peoples, all creatures everywhere. In the last meditation, we cultivated the heart of joy. This practice builds on all of the meditations we have practiced in this series and we make the intention to open the breadth of heart and extend our love to all living beings everywhere. The practice of generating love for all living beings gives us a taste of what it would be to live with a boundless heart, where no one or no being is an interruption or obstacle to that flow. We all have this capacity and it begins step by step by cultivating our hearts and seeing how over time we can come to radiate such a boundless love to all life everywhere.