Resting In Spaciousness, Tenderness & Kindness

This guided practice takes us through the three stages of spacious rest, tender awareness towards our body-mind complex, and proper loving-kindness for ourselves, generated through benevolent thoughts and supportive imagery. This meditation can be used when we need a little extra self-care or as a part of our gradual training in loving-kindness.

Transcript

In order to begin this meditation on loving-kindness,

We first settle our body,

Speech,

And mind in their natural state,

Finding a comfortable stationary position,

And gradually relaxing our body,

Releasing physical tension,

And accessing the states of natural physical stillness to whatever degree that is available to us,

Allowing our body to breathe naturally without any control from our side,

And gently bringing our awareness to the physical sensations in the somatic field of the body,

And then,

Simply put,

Releasing all voluntary physical activity with each out-breath,

Approaching stillness,

Resting like a mountain.

In this experience of stillness,

Also letting go of our mental stories and elaborations as much as we can,

Releasing our narrative,

Our narration with each out-breath,

Approaching silence as we allow our breath to move naturally,

And gradually let go of all mental stories,

Also allowing our mind to rest in an effortless state of spaciousness,

Not identifying ourselves with any of the mental appearances that arise,

Our thoughts,

Images,

Wishes,

Emotions,

Memories.

Simply not being interested in them,

Not being invested in them,

And thus resting in spaciousness.

Then generating a positive,

Vast motivation for this practice,

Thinking of our highest aspirations and also our immediate needs,

For example,

Self-soothing,

Finding greater emotional balance,

And so forth,

And so aspiring for all of that,

Orienting our practice towards those goals,

And with that as a foundation,

For a short while,

Bringing our awareness to our body and mind,

To ourselves as a person,

And being aware of ourselves,

Being aware of our body and mind with a sense of tenderness,

Gentleness,

Care.

Observing our body and mind,

As this changing flow of experience,

With a sense of appreciation.

How wonderful that I exist,

That this body exists,

That this mind exists.

How wonderful that there is this flow of experience.

So just being aware of the body and mind with a sense of appreciation and gentleness.

Almost as if we were holding a precious baby,

Or a kitten,

Or a puppy.

Except in this case,

We're holding ourselves in this gentle awareness.

And then to progress from tenderness towards full-fledged loving-kindness for ourselves,

Generating a wish.

May I be happy.

Being aware of our body and mind with an aspiration.

May I be happy and have the causes of happiness.

Or,

May I be well and happy.

Experience both outer and inner well-being.

As we hold ourselves in this gentle awareness,

We're strongly generating the aspiration,

Allowing it to unfold in our mind,

And pervade the object of our attention,

Ourselves as a person.

May I be happy and have the causes of happiness.

May I be well and happy.

Whichever one we're using.

Allowing it to arise strongly,

And to flow uninterruptedly.

And coming back to this aspiration every time we get lost.

Bringing this aspiration to ourselves over and over again.

May I be well and happy.

Allowing this aspiration to pervade our body and mind.

Holding ourselves in this gentle,

Affectionate awareness with this strong wish that is loving-kindness itself.

Loving-kindness expressed as a verbal thought.

And so also breathing life into this aspiration with each natural out-breath.

Strengthening it.

Almost as if we were nudging ourselves gently towards this greater happiness and well-being.

Guiding the flow of our body and mind towards this meaningful aspiration.

And then to strengthen this experience of both tenderness and loving-kindness,

We can imagine ourselves being surrounded by a circle of supporting beings,

Beings that embody loving-kindness,

Compassion,

And other noble qualities.

And among those beings,

We can imagine our friends,

Our relatives,

Certainly our spiritual teachers,

But also even historical figures,

Or even imaginary characters,

Fictional characters of different kinds.

Basically anybody that for us truly embodies tenderness,

Affection,

And genuine love.

So we imagine those beings surrounding us and observing us closely.

And we imagine that from them this aspiration of loving-kindness freely flows towards us.

As we generate loving-kindness for ourselves,

They are expressing the same wishes for us.

May you be well and happy.

May you be happy and have the causes of happiness.

They are also holding ourselves in tenderness and affection.

And so with this added component,

We are doing exactly the same.

We are resting in the aspiration of loving-kindness for ourselves,

Just sensing this support around us,

Knowing that we're never truly alone because there's always somebody in this world,

There's always someone in this world practicing loving-kindness and sending it to all beings universally,

Including ourselves.

And so with all of this support,

Real and imaginary,

May I be well and happy,

Or may I be happy and have the causes of happiness.

Maintaining the flow.

Thank you.

Resting in this experience for a little bit more,

Being gentle with ourselves and yet generating the aspiration over and over again when we see it fading.

Thank you.

And then we can imagine that the beings around us are melting into light and this light is being absorbed into our body and mind,

Essentially granting us the same energy of loving-kindness,

Affection,

Support.

And so as we receive this support,

For a short while we can imagine ourselves truly experiencing greater well-being,

True genuine happiness,

Imagining what it would feel like to truly have that happiness and well-being.

And then releasing all thoughts,

Aspirations and images,

And for a short while simply resting in the uninterrupted flow of awareness.

The clarity of our awareness.

With no interest for any specific objects,

Just resting clearly and openly.

And then mentally dedicating all the energy of this practice towards our highest aspirations and the goals with which we began.

And then to conclude the practice,

Gently and slowly bringing our awareness to the world around us and ending this meditation.

Reviews

Gorgeous, I needed that. Bless you.

Loved the settling into the natural state, developing the aspiration for well-being as well as wellness, visualizing others with the same aspiration for me and themselves, and finally expanding the circle to include all sentient beings. Thank you.

This was excellent…so direct! Thank you 🙏🏽

Excellent and accessible guidance, as always. Thank you.

I so appreciated the timing of instruction, the time to be present. Super grounding—thank you.

I have been following Michael Lobsang Tenpa for some time and I love his meditation instructions, I find them very clear and helpful to practise.

Great meditation. Really helped with embodiment of loving kindness.

Soothing, uplifting and energizing. Thank you for this lovely experience 🙏

Perfect. I couldn't seem to settle my mind so a little guidance helped. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉

🌟⭐️✨

Thank you

Clean, clear, gentle compassion

Very motivating to continue this spacious awareness and lovingkindness practice. Thank you!

I love working with these teacher. He brings me so much peace.

What love and compassion flowed out with this practice. There’s a lot in this to bring into my daily life and my connection to those around me. Thank you for such a robust meditation!

Loved this tender meditation. Literally helped to release physical tension and ruminating mind and experience spaciousness. Thank you 🙏🏻