Welcome to meditation.
For this meditation,
Get your body really comfortable.
Make sure that you feel safe where you are,
As safe as you can.
And throughout this meditation,
If you need to let your body move,
You can.
Again,
This is not a stoic meditation.
This is a meditation where we're really going to use the energies in our body,
The energy of our heart,
The energies of our emotions,
The energy of love.
So,
Begin by taking some deeper breaths,
In and out through the nose,
Just to bring your attention inward.
But then we're going to bring your attention into your feeling body,
And just notice whatever you're feeling in this moment.
Notice whatever you're feeling right now.
And give some breaths of release,
So you can breathe in through your nose.
But when you breathe out,
Breathe out through your mouth and let there be a sound.
I'm making the sound right now,
Like rubbing my nose,
So you can just edit that out.
So,
Breathe in through your nose,
But breathe out through your mouth with a sigh,
Or a sound,
Or whatever is there.
You might need to shake your body a little bit to get it out.
If it's loud,
And you're in a place where you can't be loud,
You can just do it into a pillow or a blanket.
We're going to begin by focusing on love,
And activating what I call the love muscle,
By considering something,
Someone,
Someplace that you really love in an uncomplicated way.
Maybe it's a pet,
Or a grandparent,
Or a beloved place,
But it's uncomplicated,
But man,
You really love it.
You're remembering it with your mind,
But the key here is to spark that energy in your feeling heart,
And really see how deeply you can feel it.
You don't have to keep thinking about the catalyst,
The person,
Place,
Thing,
Unless you need to,
To feel the energy,
But you're really just trying to feel that love,
And see how hard you can feel it,
How deep you can feel it.
Feel it in your body,
Let it rock you a little bit,
And breathe into it,
And see if you can make it really,
Really strong.
So it's not a mental idea,
I love this person,
I love this place,
It's not a mental thing,
You use the memory,
You use the thought,
But you're focusing on the actual feeling.
Don't move on with this meditation until you get this part.
It's like you want to like,
Mmm,
Like feel it,
Like it'll move your body,
It'll move your face,
It's not a stoic meditation.
You want it to really,
Really,
Really feel that juice,
That rasa of love,
Right in your middle heart,
And breathe into it,
And keep it open,
But understand that at this point in the meditation,
We're going to shift.
I want you to consider now what really breaks your heart,
It might be something personal,
You could do this with something very personal,
But I want to encourage you to go beyond the personal,
And consider what breaks your heart in this world we live in,
There's no lack of opportunities to have your heart broken,
And for this meditation I'm going to really encourage you to choose one.
That issue,
That situation,
Wherever it is in the world,
That breaks your heart,
It crushes you,
It's not just a mental idea that it is wrong,
But it's something that you actually deeply feel,
You see images of violence,
Or horror,
Or genocide,
Catastrophe,
Injustice,
And your mind goes,
That's wrong,
I don't believe in that.
And there can be anger,
And rage,
And outrage,
But in this meditation I want to encourage you to go deeper,
Feel in that same place where you felt the love,
That same muscle,
Feel the pain,
Feel the grief,
This is not a stoic meditation,
Let yourself be rocked,
Let yourself be deeply,
Deeply opened here,
Sounds can come,
Tears can come,
Your body can move if it needs to move,
Let your breath be however it needs to be,
Whether it's deep or gentle,
But really go there,
And let yourself feel it more deep,
Let it cut more deep,
And again,
You don't have to keep thinking about the situation,
The people that are suffering,
We're focusing on the feeling,
Not the beliefs,
Okay,
We're going to keep going,
But I want to acknowledge that we're shifting into a third phase of this practice,
There in that love muscle,
In that place where you feel that love,
And you feel that anguish,
Breathe into it,
And go deeper into it,
Go deeper into it,
And somewhere deep inside there,
There is a sacred love,
Like a holy fire,
A love fire,
It's actually a deep,
Deep energy medicine,
But breathe into it,
See if you can feel it,
See if you can feel right in the heart of the love,
Right in the heart of the anguish,
That sacredness,
And we're going to do a practice now,
Where we take that energy medicine,
We take that love fire,
And we send it to the ones that need it,
If you believe like I do,
That we're all connected,
All of us are connected,
We can breathe from the heart of our heart,
Out through that web of connectedness,
And touch everyone,
Touch anyone,
You can use images,
You can use memories,
You can use thoughts of the people,
You can do a sort of visualization where you imagine them actually receiving this love,
If that helps,
But the focus is on the deep energetics,
It's not just thoughts and prayers,
We're breathing in to the heart of our heart,
Connecting to that holy love fire,
And sending it out through the web to those who are suffering,
We begin with them,
How generously can you give,
Can you open the floodgates and just let that energy flood to the web to them,
And imagine them receiving it wherever they are,
In this moment,
It's not about whether they deserve it or they don't deserve it,
This love fire in you just naturally goes to them,
And imagine them receiving it,
It might not fix their situation,
It might not remedy the situation,
But imagine from your heart of hearts to their heart of hearts,
This energy flowing through,
This healing love medicine,
As hard as you can,
Do it as hard as you can,
As strong as you can,
Keep going,
And if you want to really try something deep,
Turn this flood of love fire,
Not just onto the victims,
But onto the perpetrators,
Onto the causers,
Onto the harmers,
Onto the leaders,
Onto the profiteers,
If you go into your heart of hearts,
That love will go there too,
It's not approval,
It's not condoning,
Not even understanding,
It's not even compassion in a mental way,
It's just that love fire,
That love medicine from your heart of hearts,
Through that web,
To the victims,
To the victimizers,
To the causers,
To those who are affected,
To your allies in this struggle,
And to those you see as enemies in the struggle,
To those who are aware,
And to those who are ignorant,
Keep breathing into that heart,
Keep breathing that love fire out,
Imagine them all receiving it,
And yes,
Include yourself,
Include this love fire as a remedy for your own anguish,
Your own outrage,
Your own fatigue,
Everyone everywhere bathed in your deepest love,
Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu
