Welcome to meditation number 13 for mindful growth.
This is the Just Like Me meditation.
This meditation will help us to see and feel a sense of commonality and interconnectedness with others,
And it is the foundation for building empathy and compassion.
To get started,
Make sure you have a comfortable meditation posture.
Straight back,
Eyes gently closed,
And resting in your lap with thumbs touching.
And then we can immediately try to settle our mental awareness on the sensation of our breath.
Just feeling the sensation as we breathe in and out.
All of the sensations that tell us that we're breathing.
And then moving our attention into our body.
Briefly scanning through from the soles of our feet,
Through the crown of our head.
Just taking some time to connect with our body.
And then moving that awareness and focusing it on the center of our chest.
And we can begin the actual meditation.
First we bring to mind or visualize all of the people closest to us in our lives.
Family,
Friends,
And so forth.
And we contemplate that these people have a body and a mind just like me.
They have feelings,
Emotions,
And thoughts just like me.
They have been sad,
Disappointed,
Angry,
Hurt,
Or confused just like me.
These people have experienced physical and emotional pain and suffering just like me.
These people wish to be free from pain and suffering just like me.
They wish to be safe,
Healthy,
And loved just like me.
And they all wish to be happy just like me.
Now we can imagine the extended circle of people in your life.
All the people you have even the slightest connection with.
People you may even consider to be strangers.
And even though we may not know them well,
We can still say with certainty that all of these people have a body and mind just like me.
They have feelings,
Emotions,
And thoughts just like me.
They have been sad,
Disappointed,
Angry,
Hurt,
Or confused just like me.
They have experienced physical and emotional pain just like me.
And they wish to be free from pain and suffering just like me.
And they wish to be safe,
Happy,
And loved just like me.
They all wish to be happy just like me.
Holding the sense of connection and commonality with all of these people in your life.
And if we wish,
Bringing to mind a difficult person in our life.
Maybe someone who we're just temporarily having a hard time with.
You can remember that this person has a body and mind just like me.
They have feelings,
Emotions,
And thoughts just like me.
They have been sad,
Disappointed,
Angry,
Hurt,
Or confused just like me.
They experience physical and emotional pain and suffering just like me.
This person wishes to be free from suffering just like me.
They wish to be safe,
Healthy,
And loved just like me.
They wish to be happy just like me.
Just seeing if we can hold this view of commonality.
Despite any differences or difficulties we may be having now.
And then finally we can imagine that we are surrounded by all living beings.
We can think all of these beings have a body and mind.
They all have feelings just like me.
They all experience difficulties,
Pain,
And suffering just like me.
They all wish to be free from pain and suffering just like me.
They all wish to be safe,
Healthy,
And loved just like me.
They all wish to be happy just like me.
And we have this feeling of commonality or interconnectedness with all these living beings.
Or at least those closest to us.
Wherever we are today.
We simply try to now hold this feeling in placement meditation.
Turning to our contemplation if we need to.
Regenerate that feeling.
Thinking simply that all of these living beings wish to be happy and free from suffering just like me.
Trying to hold this feeling for the final two minutes of our meditation.
Brainer.
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