Generating Goodwill Meditation

After a brief body scan this August 24, 2023, Insight Time Live meditation goes into several techniques of bringing about goodwill. This includes identifying areas of strength where goodwill comes naturally and then amplifying. There's also an invitation to discover lacking areas before creating and applying goodwill. Such work is done primarily with allowing, inviting, intention, patience, and energy.

Transcript

Hullness and welcome. This is Josh Tiffold and we're going to do a brief meditation about generating goodwill. So I invite you to take a comfortable position and close your eyes if that feels good to you, Feels right and like it should be. If not, You're welcome to keep your eyes open which is totally okay too. Most of our experience is done with the eyes open. So this allows them to fall to the floor and soften the gaze or fall down about a 45 degree angle spot in front of you, A few feet in front of you. And let's just take a couple deep breaths and of course setting this intention to generate goodwill. And I welcome and invite everyone to just let these suggested guided instructions just fall away in the background and use your own internal guidance whenever it is asking to be listened to. So allow my voice to fall away in your own internal guidance to take over if so called to do so. So let's go through the body really briefly to arrive in the space we're in. Bringing awareness deep inside the head, Allowing awareness to spread out through the entire head, Inviting relaxation, Presence, Awareness, Goodwill on down through the neck, The top of the shoulders, Shoulder blades down through the entire arms. Again, Relaxing, Inviting goodwill, Awareness, Presence there through the top of the chest, All the way through the back, The upper torso, The entire upper torso going slowly down to the waist. Again, Inviting goodwill, Relaxation, Calm knees, And then through the hips, Down through the legs, To the knees, Down through the feet, All the way down to the feet, All the way through the lower legs, And then sweeping all the way back up to the body without guidance. So just take a few moments to slowly return awareness, Relaxation, Goodwill throughout the entire body from the feet, Slowly up all the way to the head. And let's just rest in this relaxation for just a few moments. Now invite us to open up to creating goodwill. We can take a moment to notice whatever degree of goodness, Goodwill is already present. Whatever that may mean for you, Can offer some suggestions. Maybe it's a degree of recognition for me on the way here. I had misperceived getting here on time, Getting to the place I wanted to get to, And I got here in plenty of time. And so recognizing that the mind can be very fallible, Very persistent in its delusions sometimes, Its misrepresentation, Its misjudgments, Its stubbornness. And so my recognition of that's just the way it is sometimes. How do I hold that? How am I with that? How am I with the ways the body goes into stress because of that? So can there be an opening to the willingness to explore how that is and be kind to myself and forgiving to myself that sometimes that happens. So maybe there's loved ones in our lives that where it's really easy to tap into goodwill, Where we can easily overlook trifles and pettiness and tap into the deep nature of why we care about the dear ones in our lives and just bringing that to mind and sustaining of that and maybe even generating more of that, Giving more attention and time and the inclination and intent to make that stronger, To make those healthy bonds and care stronger. And so let's spend a few moments just feeding energetically whatever goodness and goodwill and benefit we already have in our lives, Allowing what's not helpful from that to fall away and then focusing on what needs strengthening, What needs shoring up or what could use it and be beneficial to shore up. So feeling into that with the intent and the awareness of amplifying those good qualities with the relationships we do have already, The wholesome, Helpful, Skillful parts of our relationships. And we'll spend just a few moments in silence now generating that. Again, Recalling that which is skillful and good in one's relationships and brightening that energetically, Even if it just means continually recalling that. It's not to deny any qualities that still need attention and improve, Improving. We can get to those at another time, But right now let's strengthen the goodness that's already there, Generate more of that. Even if it's just my willingness to address the situation and to call on all my resources to improve the quality of well-being, Even if it's just that desire, That intent, And maybe we can't tune in to the strengths and things we care about right now, But we can tune in to, Again, This desire, This deep sincere wish for the best amongst our relationships. Maybe it's the way we're relating to others or the way others relate to us, This inner change in our relationships, Just the deep caring that we all want the best in our relationships. Maybe we don't know how to do that, But that wish, That desire, Feel into that and we can strengthen that. It's a training of inclining the mind and heart towards well-being, Goodwill, Skillfulness, And this can take many forms. Now spend a moment contemplating how this might actually unfold in real life, What actions might be taken, How might I see situations in a better way, And how might I respond in better ways in relationships and life. If nothing comes to mind or heart, That's okay. We can just continue sitting in this notion of care and kindness and a desire for well-being in our relationships, Even if it's just with ourselves. So again, How might this play out in how we view, Respond, And act within our relationships? Not trying to force anything, Just being open to contemplating that. Now opening up from relationships and generating goodwill to kind of scanning, Contemplating, Reflecting what areas of my life could use more goodness, More goodwill, More kindness, More compassion, Maybe more empathy, Maybe more level-headedness, Groundedness, Centeredness, Maybe even boundaries, Care, And just spending a few moments opening up to the external world, But in particular our deep, Rich inner life or the possibility thereof. Maybe it could just be areas of our body that could use some more goodwill. It can be our emotions, Our perceptions, Our thoughts, Maybe our memories, And maybe our future plans too. All within the context of right here and right now though. So we can remember the past, Anticipate the future right here from our own bodies and how doing so impacts the body in the present moment. So you've identified an area where you'd like to bring more goodwill, You can just sit with the intent of generating more goodwill towards whatever that is and can open to the question, What goodwill is needed in this area right now? And again it's okay to go back to relationships as well in asking what's needed to generate goodwill in whatever instance is coming up for you right now. And then whatever answer you're getting or if it makes sense to do so, Go ahead through with it. Start practicing that. If nothing's coming up, That's okay. Stay in the willingness and openness to be with exploring what's needed. Okay, In a few moments I'm going to end this brief guided meditation on generating goodwill. Spending the last few moments here to perhaps review what your experience has been like, If there's anything you'd like to take forward with you from this, And then of course a wishing ourselves well too, That we've taken the time to do this. Well thank you all so much for joining and may you have all the best blessings for the rest of your day and forward generating the needed goodwill that will bring you long-term happiness, Benefits, And others as well, And for all beings everywhere. May all beings everywhere realize awakening and be free.