Love, Kindness & Acceptance

This Love and Kindness Meditation guides us through exploring the difference between acceptance and compassion. Besides a feeling of peace, this meditation is designed to help grow our capacity for compassion in our daily lives.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to our love and kindness meditation.

In this meditation we'll be visiting the feelings and sensations that are around acceptance and compassion.

To start off,

Just begin by grounding yourself down,

Arriving in this moment.

Sit comfortably in a chair or on a cushion.

Just allow yourself to feel rooted in whatever position you're in.

Feel your body pressing down against whatever you're sitting on and notice the feeling of support.

Being aware of your breath and natural rhythm.

Allow that breath to fill you with fresh energy and to put you into a state of alert relaxation.

Set the intention for the next 10 minutes or so to be in your practice,

Leaving behind anything that's not going to serve you and be in the moment.

To start this practice I'd like you to think of a time in your life when you felt true happiness,

Bliss,

Peace,

Whatever you want to identify with,

But those moments that you come across when you think to yourself life is perfect.

Everything is perfect.

I want you to bring one of those moments to mind and notice where you are.

What do you see?

What do you hear?

What do you feel?

What do you smell or taste?

What's going on right now in that moment?

You may even notice who you're with or who or what's around you.

And then send your attention to the feeling,

The sensation behind that bliss,

That happiness.

What kinds of effects does it have on your body and mind?

And can you invite that sensation,

That feeling into your body and mind right now?

Allowing this memory to be a conduit to the present moment,

Bringing with it that sense of bliss and happiness.

Just breathe it in,

Feeling as if each breath fuels that fire that was created by this feeling,

Allowing it to fuel this inner light that shines out from you so brilliantly when you're in this state of being.

At any point in time throughout this practice,

If you find this feeling or sensation starting to fade away,

Just bring yourself back to that moment and restoke that light,

Restoke that fire.

Then I'd like you to visualize yourself in a room in your mind,

Just a dark room,

Noticing how because you were so brilliantly lit up that it's not dark right around you.

You feel safe in this room.

This room is your mind,

And I'd like you to invite someone into this room with you who you have an easy time getting along with,

Someone perhaps who helps make you feel this state of peace and bliss.

Then notice as you invite them into your room,

Just at first,

What proximity they are from you.

Do they themselves appear to be radiating a light,

Or are they kind of cast in darkness?

Just take that information in without needing to dissect it,

And then notice if by having them in this room with you,

If it does anything to affect your light,

Your state of being.

Then begin to close the distance between you and this individual.

As you get closer,

Can you allow your light to shine on them?

The idea of how the light of one candle does not diminish as it lights another.

You allow your light to help illuminate this individual,

Or perhaps allow both of your lights to combine to brighten more of this room.

At this point,

You can thank this individual for joining you today and allow them to melt away leaving just you in this room once again.

Next I'd like you to invite a version of you in this room,

But a different version,

A version where perhaps you felt depressed or stressed,

Or like your light had almost gone out.

Invite that version of you to be in this space,

And once again notice the proximity of you between the two of you.

Notice if having that version of you in this space does anything to affect your light.

And once again,

Seeing how close you can get to that other version of you without losing any aspect of the state of pure happiness.

Can you even get close enough to shine your light on that other version of you,

Sharing this light with them?

Perhaps even placing a hand on the shoulder or embracing in a hug.

Noticing that there is more than enough of this light to go around,

And then thank that version of you and allow them to melt away leaving just you in this space.

If you need to,

Take a couple moments to just bring back that feeling,

That sensation of peace and happiness.

Perhaps revisiting that moment in your life.

And then lastly,

I'd like you to invite someone into this room who you have a hard time being in your light when you're around.

Someone that you may see perhaps as a tyrant.

And lastly,

I'd like you to invite someone in this room.

And lastly,

I'd like you to invite someone into this room who you have a hard time being in a state of peace around.

Someone that you might see as a tyrant or someone that tests you.

And again,

As you invite them into this room,

Notice the proximity that you keep from them.

And notice if you can even have them in your room without getting entangled with thoughts and emotions.

Just allowing yourself to have them there while holding that state of peace is such powerful work.

Can you keep your light shining just as bright as before?

How close can you get to this individual while maintaining your light?

Can you even get close enough so that some of your light shines on them?

Noticing what's here for you in this experience.

And then thanking that individual for being there today,

Even if only to give you the experience and to learn about yourself.

The concept of acceptance is the ability to invite these others to simply share your space,

To be there with you.

Whereas the idea of compassion is about sharing your light with those that occupy that space.

In a sense,

Giving some of yourself knowing that you won't lose any part of yourself,

But it's letting go of a sense of ego that identifies it as my light,

That I have a right to it.

But that is simply peace,

Joy.

There's something that we all have a right to,

Something that we are all inherently made of.

When you're ready,

Bring yourself back into this moment.

Bring yourself aware of this physical body in your space now.

Take a deep breath,

Redefining the boundaries of yourself.

And then as gently as possible,

Slowly opening up your eyes,

Noticing how you feel and taking in the experience.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Namaste.

Reviews

I happened upon this, and it was exactly what I needed. Simple but powerful, clear guidance for self reflection — Thank you!

Thank you very much for your lovely meditation
Namaste

Thank you Jason, I really like the concept of being with others in a room, and I especially like the portion about inviting someone like a tyrant in the room, I knew immediately who the tyrant was that I needed to invite in because I struggle hard with hate of this person, so thank you, I will repeat this meditation frequently, Namaste 🙏🏻