Loving Kindness & Compassion For Ukraine

The current war in Ukraine is heartbreaking and seeing the suffering on the news can feel overwhelming. In this meditation, you'll be guided in bringing loving-kindness to suffering. This opens us to a feeling of compassion. After connecting with this feeling of compassion the meditation then moves into a Tonglen practice from the Tibetan tradition where you imagine breathing in the suffering of others as black smoke and then sending a healing white light from your body as you breathe out.

Transcript

The meditation we're going to do now is a combination of two traditions.

So there's the Theravada tradition of loving kindness meditation.

And within the loving kindness practice,

Family,

There is also a compassion practice.

It's said that when that the heart's wish for happiness,

One's own happiness or the happiness of another meets suffering,

It takes on the flavor of compassion.

And another way we can explore this flavor of compassion is through the Tonglen practice from the Tibetan tradition.

We're going to start then with a loving kindness format where we connect with a sense of nurture and well-wishing for ourselves to connect with that sense of the heart,

The heart's wish for happiness.

We're going to have a nurturing person to give us a sense of well-being,

Of connecting to someone in this world who gives us a sense of ease and reassurance.

And then we're going to turn our attention,

Turn this attention of our heart to someone we know who is suffering.

So not an abstract person but someone in our life,

Maybe there's someone we know who is ill or has some financial challenges or is unhappy.

And then start to see what happens when that heart of loving kindness meets suffering.

What happens when that that desire of our heart for another to be happy meets suffering and another.

And the idea of the compassion practice of Karuna Bhavna is not that we then start to feel despondent down or unhappy but that there's this sort of gentle resonance in our heart with another that recognizes here is suffering and I'm with you.

I'm with you as you suffer and I wish you well.

We know that we can't take their suffering away,

We know we can't rescue them but we can be present with them and let them know I know I'm here and I know what you're feeling.

So compassion is this feeling with the other,

Recognizing our own suffering and what it's like to suffer and then being able to be present with the other.

And then once we've really tuned in to this other person who's suffering and it sort of gives that flavor of compassion we're then going to move into the the tonglen practice,

The Tibetan practice of giving and receiving.

And in this practice we imaginatively look at somewhere in the world where we know there is suffering.

It may be a group of people,

It may be a situation.

So in this instance I would invite you if you wish to to consider Ukraine,

Not just the people of Ukraine but there's also the Russian soldiers who many of whom were conscripts and they didn't even know they were going there and even the generals and even the people who are planning this war you know they may feel they have an agenda or they have a purpose but they too are bringing suffering to themselves.

From a Buddhist perspective there's karma,

You may or you may not believe in karma but from a Buddhist perspective actions have consequences and whenever we act out of hatred then we will inherit the the consequence of that at some point later.

So from that perspective as you bring compassion to people you can recognize that everyone involved in this even the people who may think they're going to win who are the aggressors you know they too are involved in suffering and you visualize all of that suffering even from a psychological level you could say what makes someone behave in this way and if you connect in that way you can sort of reflect well you know what sort of suffering does it have to be in someone's life that they they behave in this way and you see it as a black smoke a black smoke that you can breathe in or a sort of thick tar and you imagine that you're breathing that into your heart and it meets the good intention within your heart and it meets that loving kindness and gets transformed by that and then becomes this energy of compassion of goodwill and so as you breathe out you imagine that there's this white light like moonlight radiating out from every cell of your body and you're sending it to to where there is suffering so it's breathing in imagining you're breathing in the suffering as this sort of black smoke you tar thick air and you breathe out this clear luminous white gentle white light like moonlight radiating out of your body and so we do that for a while and then we'll bring the practice to a close so settling into whatever is going to be a supportive posture for you whether you're sitting or lying down lifting the breastbone and the chest and the spine lifting the breastbone a little allowing the shoulders to roll back and down lengthening the back of your neck and tucking the chin in so you have a sense of sitting still tall and strong like a mountain if you have your eyes open letting them rest on one point ahead of you and slightly below eye level or closing your eyes and as you sit here letting your attention drop down into the soft animal of your body feeling the weight of your body now as you sit here and the contact with whatever is holding and supporting you becoming aware of the breath moving your body in the belly and the chest and bringing your attention into the heart chakra in the center of your chest in this area of the breastbone starting to tune in to any sensations here in the heart chakra as you breathe so and as you are here in the heart center imagining yourself in a place that feels nurturing and supportive maybe a place of your imagination or a place you remember from having visited on a holiday or a favorite place that you had as a child to go to seeing if you can visualize it and if your visual faculty isn't so strong it may be that you feel it through your senses or you describe it to yourself by simply naming it thinking about this place feeling how it was to be in this nurturing place or if it's a place of your imagination simply enjoying being in this beautiful calm nurturing place where you feel safe so inviting into this nurturing place someone you know who is themselves nurturing supportive kind this might be a guide or a mentor if you're in touch with a spiritual teacher maybe a therapist or a good friend someone that is always there if you need to turn to them it may be a relative that you have an easy and uncomplicated relationship with or even a pet or an animal feeling this being as they join you feeling that sense of ease and comfort that they bring noticing how it feels in your heart to have them here with you making a wish for them from your heart as you breathe in saying their name in the heart as you breathe out making the wish may you be happy breathing in saying their name and breathing out making the wish may you be happy so recognizing that this is a core human desire simply to be happy and as you breathe in saying their name and as you breathe out making the wish in your heart may you be healthy and well may you be healthy and well so breathing in saying their name and breathing out making the wish may you be content and at ease and may you be content and at ease now recognizing that you can bring this same attitude to yourself now the Buddha said before we can give to others we need to have a heart full of loving kindness otherwise it's like trying to give with an empty hand when we have a heart full of loving kindness it's as if our hand is full of gold coins and we have plenty to share so before we turn to look at the suffering of others first resourcing ourselves and so as you sense this nurturing person with you feeling feeling that comfort and support some comfort and support that they offer perhaps seeing them smile and then bringing this attention to yourself and as you breathe in making the wish may I be happy and if it supports this process you may also want to bring your hands to your body just seeing how your body wants to be held right now maybe a hand on the heart and the belly or around the shoulders and just breathing in this wish may I be happy the shoulders and just breathing in this wish may I be happy breathing that wish into anywhere in you that doesn't feel happy and holding that may I be happy breathing in the wish may I be healthy and well may I be healthy and well you may I be content and at ease may I be content and at ease so feeling that nurturing person there feeling that kindness that you're bringing to yourself the wish may I be happy healthy and well and now bringing this heart of love and kindness to meet suffering it might be suffering in yourself if you have something here right now but it can also be a friend that you have who you know in some way is suffering financial or health anxiety and worry so many reasons someone might be suffering and turning this attention of your heart to the suffering of another to your friend unless you have something really strong that's happening for you right now in which case you can bring it to that and just acknowledging as you meet this that this is suffering I recognize right now that you are suffering and it is painful and I wish you well and I wish you well I wish that you be free from all suffering having that sense of how it is to be with the other in their suffering not superior to them not overwhelmed by it not trying to solve it simply acknowledging I'm here with you and I recognize right now my friend that you are suffering that you are suffering and I wish that you'd be free from suffering seeing if you can have this process more in the heart rather than as a thought in the head feeling it in your chest and if at any point in this practice you start to feel overwhelmed overwhelmed by sadness or despondency then we've come out of compassion and at that point you need to come back to loving kindness and loving kindness for yourself reconnecting with the nurturing person so this feeling of compassion should just be a gentle heartbeat with the other as they suffer the other as they suffer not a feeling of being overwhelmed or saddened we may feel sadness but not going into being sad wishing this person well wishing your friend well starting to get that flavor of feeling with the other as they suffer and letting them know that I'm here I'm with you and I know that this hurts and I wish you well you remembering this is a practice as with all of our practices we're not looking at getting it right and we may need to keep exploring how to engage with it you may at times fall away from it or feel we can't connect with it and then we keep exploring so now turning that vision of your heart out into the world and starting to look at somewhere where you know there is suffering now maybe there's somewhere close to home to you that feels more immediate where you know there is suffering right now in in the world and with our current situation we have what is happening in the Ukraine and so for some of us we may want to turn our attention there rather than this feeling of incompetence or overwhelm seeing what happens when we turn our attention and simply become present to the fact that here is suffering here is loss here is sadness and anger and being present to that with your heart imagining that suffering as a thick black smoke and as you breathe in taking that black smoke into the calm cave of your heart where it meets the good intention of your heart the intention to practice with loving kindness and compassion and as it meets this good intention it is transformed and as it meets this good intention it is transformed it is met and held and as you breathe out that transformed energy you breathe it out as a gentle white light maybe imagining it's as if every cell of your body is radiating moonlight as you breathe in acknowledging there is suffering this is suffering maybe you see scenes that you had witnessed in the news or you simply imagine the people right now and the circumstances they are in and recognize this is suffering letting your heart meet it with kindness with kindness as you breathe out imagining that this white light radiates out from your body from every pore from every cell like moonlight aging in the suffering breathing out goodwill the wish may all beings or may these beings that you are focusing on may you be free from suffering and so we'll have a few minutes of silence as you stay with that process so if you don't easily visualize then sensing how it would be just sensing those people around you who are suffering and breathing that in or naming it simply saying to yourself here is suffering and as you breathe out may there be freedom from suffering so keep breathing into the heart chakras at the center of the chest so this doesn't shift into your head so so breathing in that black smoke remembering it's more really about creating this intention you're not really taking this energy into yourself it can't land or touch you but you're having that intention that i breathe in with compassion i breathe that suffering in and i breathe out with compassion i breathe out the wish may you be free from suffering so you you you widening your gaze across the entire world and recognizing that as joyful and as beautiful as this world is there is also suffering there is loss lamentation and pain and as you breathe in having that sense that you breathe that energy in as black smoke and you breathe out emanating white light from your body light from your body the wish may all beings be free from suffering so now as you breathe in preparing to bring the practice to a close as you breathe out feeling the weight of your body and the contact with the floor as you continue to breathe noticing how you feel at the end of the practice noticing the sounds around you the weight of your body and then bringing some movement into the fingers and toes taking a deep breath in and breathing out slowly opening your eyes so

Reviews

The guidance was excellent. I needed his description of what compassion is because I usually resonate with the suffering and feel it myself. This was a light bulb moment for me. The instruction to switch back to lovingkindness if I slipped out of that peaceful heart space was also important for me to hear. Thank you for that and for the practice for Ukraine which I feel deeply concerned about, and for my friend who is uprooted from Ukraine due to the war.