We begin the actual practice by allowing our breath to move naturally and allowing each exhalation to remove greater and greater degrees of tension along with all the types of deliberate movement.
Physical movement,
The movements of our speech,
Especially our inner speech,
Our inner dialogue or monologue,
And the compulsive movements of our mind,
Where we generate thoughts and grasp onto them.
We generate desires and grasp onto them.
We follow them right now.
So,
Releasing everything so deeply,
We arrive at a fusion,
A union of stillness,
Silence,
And spaciousness.
And within that spaciousness,
We generate a positive motivation for this practice,
Bringing to mind our highest contemplative aspirations and strengthening our resolve to realize those.
And with that,
To establish the foundational visualization for this practice,
Imagining our own basic goodness,
Our own true potential,
The seeds of our positive qualities,
Along with the spaciousness of the mind itself,
Or the fully present positive qualities,
If we're following that model,
The model of discovery,
As an orb of light which we can position for more stability in our navel center.
In the center of our body,
Just below our navel,
A glowing,
Warm,
Blissful orb,
Which is merely a symbol of our basic goodness,
Our deeper wisdom,
Our deeper compassion.
And that in itself is a source of joy,
Simply knowing that we possess that positive potential.
So,
Holding our awareness on this orb of basic goodness and finding delight in the fact of knowing,
Knowing,
Yes,
I do have those seeds of positive qualities.
My mind is indeed spacious when waves of disturbing mental states settle down.
While finding delight in that,
We also allow the energy of wind coming from that basic goodness to fan all the other types of joy and virtue that we possess.
Outer hedonic joys,
Inner eudaimonic types of well-being,
Positive mental states that are in their nature delightful.
How wonderful may the joy grow!
Strengthening with this imaginary wind and the wish,
Of course,
Everything that needs to be strengthened,
Everything that is wholesome,
Good-natured,
And pleasurable.
And then expanding that,
Thinking of all the beings in close physical proximity to us,
In the same building,
Sitting around us,
In the same area.
Or maybe thinking of beings within our community of practice or other types of communities that we belong to.
And in attending to all these beings on the basis of the foundational quality of care,
Tender non-indifference,
Seeing that within their field of experiences there's always that joy,
There's always that virtue,
And beyond that there's also that same basic goodness,
That same potential.
And so we can think of that as each being also possessing this orb of radiant,
Warm,
Blissful energy within them as a symbol,
Along with all the dancing sparks of joy,
All the dancing flames of joy.
And the wind of our delight and our aspiration for this joy to grow fans these flames.
How wonderful may the joy grow!
May it keep growing until the true nature of every being is revealed.
So we can rest with that thought,
With that visualization of the wind of empathetic joy and rejoicing,
Fanning those flames,
Including the flame of basic goodness.
And we can also use our breath as an aid,
Not forcing it,
But using each natural exhalation to just add a little bit of energy to that,
To that process of fanning,
As if we were gently blowing on that flame to strengthen it.
And so we're now holding our awareness on all the beings in the same community,
Or in the same area,
Or in the same building,
With this mode of perception,
And then opening it up boundlessly.
Each and every being throughout space and time,
With no one excluded,
Holding all beings in our awareness,
Recognizing that they all have joys,
They all have delightful experiences of different kinds,
They all have at least some seeds of virtuous qualities,
And,
Most likely,
That's our working hypothesis,
They all have that basic goodness.
How wonderful!
May the joy grow,
Until the true nature of every being is fully revealed.
And then as we rest in this wish and this aspiration,
Imagining the same wind fanning all these wholesome,
Virtuous,
Beautiful flames.
So our awareness temporarily merges with the interdependent network of goodness,
All the goodness there is.
And in resting with that network,
We're strengthening it with our cognitive energy,
With our desire of may it keep growing,
But also with a delighted attitude of how wonderful.
And then releasing the visualization,
The attitude,
The feeling,
The aspiration to simply rest in spaciousness without a particular reference point.
Out of that spaciousness arises the dedication of energy,
The dedication of positive force or merit,
Where we direct all the energy created by our practice to our highest aspirations and goals,
To the well-being for all who live,
To their freedom from suffering,
And to their true nature being truly revealed.
And then we bring our awareness back to the body to ground ourselves there,
Noticing the sensations,
The process of breathing,
Noticing the ground that's holding us,
And then to conclude the practice,
Gently introducing some movement.
