The practice that we're going to do is already a loving kindness practice.
It's a variation on the theme of loving kindness,
But it emphasizes this idea of cognitive intelligence,
Intelligence with regards to desires very strongly.
And we will be using our imagination in it a little bit.
So,
That's just me front-loading it.
But the first thing we do in the actual practice is returning to the body.
And so,
If you feel more comfortable meditating with your eyes closed,
That's fine for this practice.
It's still pretty activating.
If you prefer to keep them open or partially hooded,
Also very good.
And then taking a few moments to extend or elongate our spine,
If that's available to us.
Relaxing our shoulders,
Our hands,
Finding a certain level of stability in the body.
And once again,
Allowing the breath to flow naturally.
And then resting with the sensations of breathing as they move throughout the body.
This can be referred to as tactile waves,
Washing away activity,
Tension,
Agitation,
But also washing away laxity,
Sleepiness,
Dullness.
With these tactile waves running through the body,
With us attending to them,
The body arrives at a greater and greater degree of stillness that is not maintained through tension.
It arises through ease and relaxation.
On the level of our speech,
We're diving more and more deeply into silence.
And our mind is becoming more and more spacious,
Less clogged with rumination and obsessive thoughts.
We allow the body to continue relaxing like that,
Finding greater degrees of ease with each new natural exhalation.
And on the level of our mind,
We're going to go through a little quest in which we find answers to four interconnected questions.
And the answer to each is a vision or a general idea of sorts.
Not necessarily sentences and lists and so forth,
Just a general idea.
And the first question here is very personal.
For me personally,
What would genuine well-being,
Genuine flourishing look like?
What's the general well-being that I want to eventually achieve?
So we ask ourselves or we ask our mind that question,
And we allow a certain vision or general idea to emerge,
Factoring in the concept of genuine well-being,
Eudaimonic well-being,
Not just outer prosperity.
And once a certain vision has arisen,
We respond to it with an aspiration of loving kindness,
Which in this case is simply the wish,
May it be so.
May I find this genuine well-being.
And then as we continue breathing naturally,
We use or we can use,
If we want,
The exhalation to breathe life into this aspiration,
To breathe life into this vision,
Imagining that it's becoming more and more clearly manifest in our outer reality.
May it be so.
Still breathing naturally,
Still breathing life into this aspiration,
Wishing for ourselves to find genuine well-being.
Out of that comes the second question that we allow ourselves to explore,
Finding a certain vision there.
And the question is this,
To realize this genuine well-being,
What types of support and resources do I need from the world around me?
From other people,
From communities,
From the world in general,
What types of support and resources do I need?
And then responding to that,
Once again with the aspiration,
May it be so.
May I receive these types of support and be able to accept them.
And once again,
If we wish,
We can use the breath,
This time thinking that we're bringing in these types of support with each natural inhalation.
Then the third question,
In order to realize this genuine well-being,
How do I need to change,
To evolve,
To transform?
Not in terms of rejecting myself and who I am,
But in terms of changing habits,
Strengthening positive patterns and so forth,
Or letting go of something.
How do I need to evolve to arrive at this genuine well-being?
Once again,
Allowing for a certain vision to emerge,
A general understanding,
And responding to that with a wish of loving kindness,
May it be so.
May I undergo that transformation step by step,
Slowly,
Slowly.
And we can use the breath and the imagination to envision transforming breath by breath,
Shedding what we need to release,
Strengthening what needs to be strengthened.
And finally,
The fourth question.
In this vision of genuine well-being,
What gifts or what gift can I offer to the world around me and other beings?
Once again,
A general idea or general vision arises,
And we respond to it with,
May it be so.
May I indeed share this gift with the world.
We can imagine that with the exhalation we're extending that gift to all beings,
To transform their experience and the systems in which they abide.
We then release the aspirations,
The images,
The thoughts,
To just rest with the breath for a little while,
The breath as it manifests through sensations in the body.
And then we introduce some movement to the body by rocking back and forth,
Moving our fingers,
Smiling,
Stretching,
And slowly concluding the practice.
