Welcome to day 17 of Mindfulness with the Moon.
Today we are going to expand on the Brahma
Viharas and talk about the second one which is compassion or in the Pali language Karuna.
We are in the full moon phase where we are flowering into the fullness of who we are meant
to be in this lifetime,
Who we are meant to be in this moment.
So where do we start with
this word compassion?
Let's take a few deep breaths with this word.
Allow yourself to find
a comfortable position to listen to the next several minutes of this Dharma talk,
Almost as if you're dropping into the meditation right now.
So where do we start with this word compassion?
Well in this course what we're going to do is
start where it's easy.
Start with the small things and pause.
What in your life is asking for tenderness and compassion right now?
The small things in your life that are asking for tenderness.
It doesn't have to be so big,
So grand.
It's that which allows the tenderness to be born in us
again and again,
To flower,
To be reborn.
So compassion literally means to suffer together.
It's this feeling that arises
when we encounter suffering and we feel motivation to relieve it.
So empathy is known as the precursor and it refers to our ability to take the perspective
of another,
To feel the emotions similar to what another is experiencing.
But compassion
is when that experience includes the desire to help.
Mindfulness is that non-judgmental awareness that is always there for us to some degree.
And when we are practicing it more and more,
This mindfulness gives rise to compassion.
It's the noticing and feeling our sensitivity that allows for us to feel this sense of
what another is feeling and then to care and to respond from that caring place.
Tara Brach shares about research quite often in her lectures and in her compassion talk,
She shares about some research about the biological basis of compassion,
Where we are
finding that compassion is considered to be a key adaptive strategy in our human body.
So it's really important what enables us to rise above our self-interest
and give us a sense of belonging to this whole interconnected web of life.
So it's really about waking up to our evolutionary
sense of togetherness and our bodies,
Waking up to our bodies.
And when we feel good,
It's an evolutionary strategy to prompt us to continue in that direction.
So when we act out
of compassion,
It feels good.
And the pleasure centers of the brain lights up and it's a good
good.
And the pleasure centers of the brain lights up in the prefrontal cortex
and oxytocin starts flooding in,
Which is the bonding hormone promoting togetherness.
So we're encouraged evolutionarily to keep evolving in the direction of compassion.
And guess what?
Something so amazing about compassion is that it can be cultivated.
My hands are like pumping in the air right now,
Like,
Yes,
We can grow this.
We can grow this.
There's more interesting research that Tara brings our attention to
showing that our brains have neuroplasticity,
Right?
That means that they can change and they
can grow.
And so in contrast to negative emotions,
Positive emotions are actually more plastic.
More of our brains can start to grow around these positive emotions.
So in other words,
These positive and negative emotions are less determined by DNA and they're actually
more easily cultivated when we practice.
So we're born with this capacity to be mindful
and compassionate.
And it's biologically based that we can actually use our attention
to create more and more of those feelings.
And then when we feel more and more of those feelings,
Then it leads to this shift from
seeing ourselves as separate to then seeing ourselves as belonging to this life,
To belonging
to this world,
To being a part of this web of human beings,
To be a part of this web of all
beings.
The cultivation of compassion really allows for us to see the realness of each other.
When we look,
We are able to wake up out of these projections and fear that come from our
survival part of the brain called the limbic system,
Which is activated when we're feeling
threatened.
So what does this mean for our life?
Well,
It's just not to condemn the fact
that we get caught in fear.
It's fine.
Fear can be really healthy,
But it's to notice
when we're stressed,
When we're anxious,
When we're in story,
What happens in our relationships
and how do we actually train ourselves to cultivate more compassion in those triggered times.
So there's two things we can do.
The first is be willing to turn towards the suffering,
The suffering,
To be touched by the suffering.
And it's a reversal of our wiring.
When we get close to something unpleasant,
Typically our response is to turn away,
To push away,
To run away.
So we're deconditioning that where we actually are
intentionally stepping towards the suffering and just saying,
This is suffering.
May I be with it?
May I be touched by this?
And then the second step is to respond with kindness and care.
Really responding with love,
Responding with a prayer to relieve the suffering,
Responding by holding our own hands,
Saying,
You got this.
So there's this turning towards the self.
There's turning towards even others,
Right?
Someone special in our life gets sick.
A parent is sent to a nursing home.
A teenager is yelling with anger.
A baby will not stop crying,
Right?
We feel lost.
We feel disconnected.
So turn towards the suffering
in those moments and be touched by life and then offer care.
Tara Brach reminds us that this care
is the breath out,
The exhale.
Let's begin our meditation.
You'll hear three bells to begin and three bells to close as we practice compassion,
As we practice karuna.
Taking a few slow,
Deep,
Grounding breaths.
Noticing how you're feeling today,
How this full moon phase is having an impact on your life.
And with care,
Putting yourself in a position that is most serving
for this meditation practice for you today.
Taking a few slow,
Long breaths.
Perhaps you can start by asking yourself,
Where does it hurt?
Where does it hurt?
What do you feel?
And offering kindness and care there.
Noticing what it's like to drop inside and to be with yourself.
Noticing how your heart feels.
Noticing what it's like to flower,
What it's like to blossom,
What it's like to grow.
What it's like to be in this full moon.
Here's a quote by Jack Kornfield.
He says,
There's a kind of idea in our culture that suffering is wrong.
That we as humans shouldn't suffer or that death is a mistake.
When in fact,
This is human incarnation.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's not.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
And sometimes,
It's the suffering more than anything that wakes us up.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
In the quiet time,
Keep your heart open.
Thich Nhat Hanh said,
Since I was a young man,
I've tried to understand the nature of compassion.
I've tried to understand the nature of compassion.
But what little compassion I've learned
But what little compassion I've learned
has not come from the form of understanding,
Has not come from the form of understanding,
But simply from my actual experience of suffering.
But simply from my actual experience of suffering.
It's not that something is wrong with life.
It's not that something is wrong with life.
Suffering is a part of who we are,
Suffering is a part of who we are,
Coupled with compassion.
Can you hold yourself with tenderness
Can you hold yourself with tenderness
about life itself?
All of the mixtures
All of the mixtures
of suffering and compassion.
Noticing your breath.
Noticing your breath.
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See you tomorrow.
