Hello and welcome to this building the Compassionate Heart Practice with Christine Lustick.
The Compassionate Heart Practice is awareness,
Our ability to meet each human experience with warmth and care.
Compassion is not an emotion,
It's a motivation.
We aren't practicing feeling any specific emotions,
Instead we just hold the motivation to notice the natural movement of our heart as we navigate the natural suffering that comes with life.
And watch that suffering coexist with lightness and good.
As we move through the meditation,
Some experiences can be overwhelming or heavy.
Remember you can always open your eyes or redirect your attention skillfully to something else in the present moment.
Perhaps sound the warmth of our hands on our legs or the weight of our feet on the floor.
I invite us to settle into meditation.
Allow yourself to take your chosen posture.
First settling the body slowly,
Adjusting what needs to be adjusted,
Assuring you feel balanced and alert but not uncomfortable or painful.
As the body slowly moves into stillness,
Beginning to sense into the breath,
Feeling the movement of the breath as it flows in and expands the body and flows out,
Softening the body.
Taking a few quiet moments to settle,
Following the breath in and out.
These beginning moments tell us where our mind is today,
If it's easily settling or if it's busy.
We take in that information with curiosity.
It lets us know how much alertness we'll need to stay,
To return when distracted and resettle each time,
Connecting to the next breath.
I invite us to begin our compassionate heart meditation by noticing the sensations of the body with as much curiosity and kindness as possible.
You might notice tingling and white,
Tightness or ease.
Just checking in.
And gently settling into the heart center and noticing any current emotions,
Any thoughts,
Emotions.
Emotions may range today from fear to love,
Anger to joy,
And anything in between.
Just notice where we are.
Finding ourselves to open our heart to and accept any emotion as part of our experience.
One more time.
Now I invite us to settle lightly,
Holding any troubling experiences we've had recently.
There may be fear or anxiety,
Guilt or frustration,
Worry or sadness.
It may have to do with something personal,
Or even the state of the world.
Fear for health for ourselves or others,
Worry about climate change,
Or just concern over our careers or home or loved ones.
Not getting caught in the story,
We just allow whatever that is to settle into the heart a little bit,
To feel it.
I invite us to silently,
Gently repeat in our mind,
May I be free from suffering.
May I be free from suffering.
Breathing in and out this light wish for yourself.
May I be free from suffering.
And even more importantly,
May I hold this very human suffering with kindness and ease.
May I hold my pain and suffering with kindness and ease.
Gently letting this phrase flow silently in and out with the breath.
May I hold my pain and suffering with kindness and ease.
May I hold my pain and suffering with kindness and ease.
Inviting yourself to settle into the feeling of compassion in the heart.
It may be tender or caring,
A feeling of warmth or openness.
We just notice what that feeling is for us.
And if we find obstacles of numbness,
Hardness,
Contraction.
Inviting ourselves to feel tenderness for those obstacles so carefully built up over time.
Breathing in and out with that feeling.
It's hard to feel that kindness and caring for ourselves that can be natural,
Normal.
May you support us to simply place a hand on the heart or to just have the intention to face it.
Inviting us to expand in the final minutes of the meditation.
Breathing in any kindness for ourself,
Any caring.
And on the exhale,
Breathing out kindness and caring for all beings.
Breathing in the sense of warmth in the heart for ourselves.
Out that sense of warmth for all beings.
Breathing in the sense of warmth for all beings.
Gently returning one more time to the present moment.
The weight of your body right here.
The movement of the breath in and out.
And as you take in the sounds of the bell,
Allowing it to flow through you.
And when you can no longer hear it,
Wiggling your fingers and toes and in your own time,
Opening your eyes.
