For this meditation.
I want to take you on an exploration that hopefully leads you to experience empathy for yourself as an organism.
But before we go into that,
First let's get comfortable and easy in our meditation posture.
So if you know what to do then go ahead and set yourself up.
And if you would like some guidance I will suggest that you sit up straight without leaning your back if you can.
And have a certain subtle firmness in your spine.
And if you can tuck it a little bit into your body so that your chest gets a bit propped up.
This gives you a bit more focus.
And don't do it like a soldier let's say.
But have a kind of a softness to your posture as well.
So a relaxed,
Alert,
Straight,
Easy posture.
And then just allow yourself,
However much is available to you,
To relax.
Really get comfortable in your skin as much as possible.
And without changing it,
See if you can find your breath.
Just begin by noticing the sensations.
Whatever is noticeable to you about your breathing.
Maybe you can notice certain expansion,
Certain lightness when you are connected to your breath.
And I want to invite you to find enjoyment in the sensation of breathing.
And if you can't,
Then that's okay of course.
That's an invitation for accepting whatever you find.
So allow the skin on your face to become very soft.
There's no need for any kind of pleasant facial expression.
No need to behave in any way.
Just really allow yourself to let go to gravity.
To give in to gravity.
Let your shoulders fall down.
It helps to do that on an out-breath.
And what I want to invite you to do now,
Is to make a connection to yourself as a living breathing organism.
Who or what is actually breathing right now?
Of course we all have our stories about who we are.
Our autobiography.
And very typically what we think about ourselves is accompanied by a certain story of what we deserve.
Or what is righteous.
What is right and wrong.
And I want us to see that there's actually an organism beneath all those stories.
That in a way has nothing to do with them.
That in a way we're also just mammals on this planet.
And as organisms,
As living beings,
There is no need to deserve meeting our needs.
There are just needs that we have.
That we can connect to.
And when we connect to those needs,
Without thinking about do we deserve to have them met from this layer of being a good husband,
Being a good employee,
Being a good son,
Etc.
Etc.
Because that's where the complication happens.
And we might think we don't deserve to have our needs met.
So to just look beneath and see simply this organism that simply has those needs and wants them to be met.
So you can think of need for safety,
Need for connection,
Need for exploration,
Need for community.
There are these needs that we all have.
And this is the level I want us to connect to.
I want us to see that without the story layer we can plainly see the need in front of us,
Inside of us.
And to act upon those needs.
That's the essence of self-compassion.
So rather than conceptualizing about it,
I want to invite us to actually make contact with this animal that we are.
And I'm not saying we're just animals.
I just want us to relate to that aspect of ourself that is animalistic,
That is an organism.
So how to reach out to this being?
Well one thing we can do is to follow the breath that we're already connected with.
And use it as a guide further into our bodies.
So we started with the sensations of the breath.
What other sensations are you feeling in your body right now?
And can you make contact with it through feeling and not necessarily through the mind?
If you would see an animal in the forest that you wanted to reach out to,
How would you approach it?
What attitude would you have towards it?
Probably if you wanted it to come closer,
You would have a certain slowness about your way.
A certain gentleness,
A patience and a listening and a looking.
So can you have this kind of curiosity,
This gentle kind curiosity towards the being that you are underneath all your stories,
Underneath all your deserving,
Underneath the punishment and reward thinking that we have.
Who is it?
What is it that is breathing there?
Don't answer the question but have this kind of curiosity.
And of course we don't just have a body that we live in,
We are also more specifically,
Additionally,
Living inside a brain.
And this can be another layer of empathy because for some of us our brain is quite different than that of others.
There are all kinds of labels we can put on it but suffice it to say that the brains that our minds operate through can highly diversify the way we are in reality,
We are with each other,
We perceive ourselves and our surroundings.
So this peculiar organ as well,
If we take a mindful stance towards it,
Can be a gateway towards compassion for ourselves and for others.
What brain do you live in and what kind of a body does that brain live in?
So this is what I call empathy for the anonymous organism.
And if you're anything like me it can be a huge relief to find a way through or underneath this judgmental mind that can stop us from showing compassion to ourselves.
And underneath this story layer we find a living breathing organism that has needs.
And I'd like to end with an invitation that you can ask the organism that you are,
That you inhabit,
That maybe you don't have a body but you're living through one right now.
And as a sign of compassion you can ask yourself,
You can ask rather your body,
You can ask the organism that is breathing right now,
What do you need?
