Find any posture that will be comfortable for you.
Some people like to do the meditation lying down or sitting up,
Whatever feels comfortable.
It's finding a posture where there's a sense of ease,
Openness,
Maybe taking a few full breaths,
Deep in-breath and out-breath.
It's letting your attention rest in the body,
Feeling the contact with the chair or the cushion or the floor.
If you'd like to,
You might invite a slight smile,
A half smile to your face,
To the corners of your eyes and the corners of your mouth.
Just again,
Inviting a relaxing sense of ease.
If it's helpful,
You might think of a loved one,
A dear friend.
It could be helpful to think of a child or a baby,
Just see what comes up for you.
Soften the heart,
Open the heart.
If it's helpful,
You might think about a time that you were,
That you felt happy,
Peaceful,
Relaxed.
Some sense of ease,
Freedom from worry and stress.
Maybe from childhood or going to a place that you love,
A beach or the woods,
Or being with somebody who it's really easy to feel kind or loving towards.
Allow yourself to feel whatever comes up for you.
There's a sense of ease.
Just allow yourself to drop into that feeling.
You might also think about some things in your life that you feel grateful for.
Just take in whatever comes up for you,
Friends,
Loved ones,
Maybe work,
Health,
Whatever comes up that you're grateful for,
Spiritual practice.
Take that in,
Take in any good feelings.
Take in the good.
Just let yourself feel whatever is present in the body,
The heart right now.
You might think back to your deepest intention,
Your deepest wish for yourself and your life.
Maybe wishing that for yourself,
That you experience that,
That you come to experience it.
Perhaps that you can touch into that right now,
That wish,
Might be to be happy,
Truly happy,
Peaceful,
Joyful.
Just taking in this feeling,
That wish for yourself.
You might send these,
Use these phrases if they're helpful to you.
Send wishes,
Intentions of loving kindness to yourself.
You might begin with,
May I be safe and free from harm?
Just sending that wish for yourself,
To yourself.
May I be safe and free from harm?
It's very hard for our hearts to be open if there isn't some sense of safety,
Some sense of well-being.
Just wishing that for yourself,
That you be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy?
Just wishing for yourself,
Happiness,
Joy in your life.
The Dalai Lama says,
We all want to be happy.
All human beings want to be happy.
However we may go about it.
Just wishing that for yourself.
May I be happy?
May I be truly happy?
Breathing into that intention,
Friendliness to yourself.
May I be peaceful?
May I be peaceful?
May I know peace,
True peace?
May I live with ease?
May I live with ease?
Just breathing in these wishes for yourself.
And if these phrases don't connect well with you,
Use your own phrases.
It might be just a word or a phrase.
May I be healthy?
May I be filled with loving kindness?
May I be free of suffering?
May I know great natural peace?
Just see what speaks to your heart right now.
What allows you to be as open,
Friendly,
Kind to yourself as possible right now.
May I be safe and free from harm?
And if one particular phrase resonates with you,
You could stay with just that wish for yourself.
May I be safe?
May I be happy?
May I be happy?
Breathing into the heart,
May I be happy?
Truly happy?
May I be peaceful?
Well?
May I live with ease?
May I live with ease?
You might silently continue with these phrases or with your own.
Just wishing,
Sending wishes of loving kindness,
Of friendliness to yourself.
If it's helpful,
You might put your hand on your heart or on your belly.
Just caring about this life.
Perhaps recognizing the struggles that you've experienced,
The challenges,
The difficulties.
Just acknowledging that with kindness,
With care.
Just breathing in.
Just wishing this life be filled with happiness and ease,
Well-being.
May I be safe?
May I be happy?
May I be happy?
And whatever comes up for you,
Meet it with kindness and with friendliness.
So even if there's feelings of resistance perhaps,
Or if there's some disconnection,
Just meet your experience with as much kindness and friendliness as you can right now.
Sometimes this practice can actually bring up the opposite.
It can bring up feelings of anger that have been latent and bring them to the surface.
One teacher talks about loving kindness as a kind of a magnet for some of the more difficult emotions that are present.
It kind of pulls them towards the heart.
So just to acknowledge and accept that that may be the case.
And still continuing to plant these seeds.
May I be happy?
May I be safe?
May I be healthy and well?
May I live with ease?
And if it's difficult to connect with these feelings towards yourself,
Maybe there's some resistance so you don't feel that you're worthy of these wishes,
Loving kindness.
There's different practices that may be helpful.
One would be to imagine that you're looking at yourself through the eyes of a loved one.
Somebody who really cares about you,
Or somebody who cared about you in the past.
Just looking at yourself through their eyes and wishing what they wish for you.
Happiness,
Safety,
Health,
Well-being.
Or you might think of yourself when you were a child or a baby and how you wanted to be happy and loved,
Cared for.
Just let that image come to you and bend these wishes of loving kindness to yourself.
May I be safe and free from harm?
May I be happy,
Truly happy?
May I be healthy and well?
May I be peaceful?
May I live with ease?
And just breathing into these feelings,
Connecting with anything,
Feelings arising in the body and the heart.
Cultivating a field of loving kindness,
Feeling yourself held in this field of loving kindness.
And now if you feel ready,
And with this practice it's really an art.
It's really finding what works for each one of us.
So certain words or phrases may work for somebody,
Maybe for you at one time but not at another.
Maybe you don't even need the words,
You can just evoke the feelings.
Just see what allows your heart to be as open as it can be right now.
Planting these seeds of loving kindness.
So we can say we could do a whole period of meditation just focusing on ourselves.
We could spend a whole day as we do sometimes in retreats,
Just on ourselves or on another person.
Maybe even a week or more.
Really letting the heart be open,
Cultivating a loving and an open heart towards ourselves and others.
If you feel ready,
You might let the circle expand to bring in somebody who's dear to you.
Dear friend,
Loved one,
Somebody who it's easy to feel that connection with,
That caring for.
Where there's not too much complexity,
Too much bringing up both challenging and warm,
Open feelings.
You might bring that individual person or being into your heart,
Into your heart's eye,
Your mind's eye.
It's reflecting on their challenges that they've experienced.
The joys and the sorrows that they've lived.
The times of peace and the times of more of turmoil.
Just holding them with kindness in your heart and just letting these wishes of loving kindness,
These intentions of loving kindness,
Go out to this person or this being.
It could be a non-human being,
Could be a dear pet,
Could be a spiritual being,
Could be a dear friend or loved one.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy,
Truly happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you know true peace.
May you be healthy and well,
Free from physical and mental harm.
May you live with ease.
Just continuing in your own time with these phrases or with your own phrases or wishes or feelings.
Just wishing this being safety and happiness,
Peace,
Good health,
Ease.
May you be filled with loving kindness,
Held in loving kindness.
And again,
If you feel ready right now,
You might extend the circle to include all of us here,
Appreciating all of the effort and the energy and the diligence and commitment that each person has brought and is bringing to this practice together and how we support each other with our efforts,
How we hold each other up.
If you'd like to just bring to mind individuals,
Just holding them in the heart of loving kindness,
Send a wish of friendliness and kindness.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be peaceful.
May you be healthy and well.
Just letting those,
These wishes of loving kindness go out to individuals here,
Supporting us in being here.
All of us here,
Teachers,
Yogis,
Everyone,
Sending these wishes out individually and collectively.
Just holding,
Creating a field of loving kindness.
Perhaps feeling the wishes of others coming to you too.
Taking in those wishes,
Feeling yourself held in the heart of loving kindness.
Including too all the creatures around us,
In the fields and in the trees and in the air and under the ground.
Just letting these wishes of friendliness and kindness go out to other beings who in their own way want to be safe and live a life free of suffering.
Sending these wishes out to include them,
Birds and the horses,
Squirrels,
The insects,
Chipmunks,
All these beings.
May you be happy and well,
Safe and free from harm.
We can let these wishes go out to include those near and far.
In the practice typically we begin with ourselves,
A loved one,
A dear friend.
Those we are close to and going out to those who we don't know,
Maybe people we pass in a store or on a bus or train.
Including them in our wishes of loving kindness,
Outward towards to include those we might have difficulties with.
And ultimately out to include all beings everywhere.
In these remaining minutes of the practice this afternoon you might just let your wishes go out to anyone who you feel could benefit from your wishes and intentions of kindness and friendliness.
Maybe people suffering in conflicts or fleeing their homes.
Those who are caught up in violence or in internal turmoil and difficulty.
Just letting your wishes go out wherever you'd like to wish them to go.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be safe,
Free from harm.
May you be happy,
Truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be peaceful.
May you know true peace.
May you live with ease.
And you could include whatever and whoever comes to your mind and to your heart.
You can do this practice for whole groups of people.
May all women be happy and safe.
May all children free from harm,
Healthy and well.
May all men,
May all those who are incarcerated.
May all those who are traveling,
May they journey safely.
Just letting your heart be as open as it can be,
Sending these wishes out.
You can include our planet Earth.
Just feeling,
Just opening your heart to the changes and difficulties that the Earth is experiencing,
Our planet is experiencing.
Just holding our world,
The heart of loving kindness.
Holding all those who are caught up in turmoil around politics and elections and all that can come up around that.
Maybe including ourselves,
Just sending a wish,
Wishes of loving kindness,
Friendliness.
Maybe wishing ourselves free from strife.
All beings,
That all beings be happy,
Safe and free from harm.
Including all beings everywhere.
May all beings everywhere be safe and free from harm,
The human and the non-human being,
In all the realms.
May they be happy,
Healthy,
Peaceful.
May all beings everywhere live with ease.
May all beings everywhere awaken and be free.
And in this field of loving kindness and friendliness,
We're cultivating here,
Just holding all of us and any struggles that we're going through right now.
Just in our collective hearts,
Just knowing that we're not separate from each other.
That we share in the joys and the sorrows of life.
Just feeling yourself held in this heart of loving kindness.
And may this practice and the other practices that we've been cultivating,
May they serve you in working with challenges that arise,
Difficult habits,
Patterns that cause us suffering,
Causes difficulties.
I'm going to share a poem by Naomi Shehabnai called Kindness.
Before you know what kindness really is,
You must lose things.
Feel the future dissolve in a moment,
Like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
All this must go.
So you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride,
Thinking the bus will never stop.
The passengers,
Eating maize and chicken,
Will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you.
How he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore.
Only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread.
Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say,
It is I you have been looking for and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.
Thank you.
