So just taking your time to find your comfortable position for meditation practice,
Seated or lying down,
Whatever's comfortable.
And as you're ready,
Beginning to settle and turning the awareness inward,
And just taking a moment to check in and noticing how you feel,
Knowing that whatever you're bringing to the practice is welcome.
As you're ready,
Bringing the awareness to the space beneath you,
Sensing the weight and gravity and connection to the earth,
A sense of being rooted to the earth,
Held and supported by the earth,
And sensing the space above you,
The space between the body and the ceiling,
Up to the top of the building,
And out beyond,
Sensing the vastness of the open sky,
The cosmos,
Gently making a relationship with these energies,
The sky above and the earth below,
Sensing the back body,
The length of the spine from tailbone to head,
Strong back and soft,
Open front,
And inviting in a sense of benevolence and goodwill and kindness into the mind,
And bringing awareness to the breath,
Allowing yourself to be curious about the breath,
Inviting in these qualities of benevolence and kindness into being present with the breath,
And connecting with the nourishment of each breath,
The refreshing quality of the breath,
And expanding this kindness into awareness of the whole body and the breath,
Still allowing it to spread out.
You may like to invite in a smile alongside this feeling,
And bringing into the awareness now someone that has experienced a joy recently.
It could be very simple,
A pet laying in the sun,
Someone dancing,
Just any being in your life where you've witnessed some of their joy,
And recognizing the joy that they're feeling,
And really taking it in,
Recognizing it with them,
And I'll offer some phrases you can silently repeat,
And really offering them your kindness,
Your joy for them.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue,
And bringing into the awareness now a recent joy for yourself,
Perhaps a moment when you acted with integrity,
Perhaps a recent win,
Some moment of joy,
Delight.
It can be very simple,
Allowing yourself to feel this joy,
Feeling it in the heart,
Feeling it throughout the body,
And offering yourself the phrases.
How wonderful I am in my being.
I delight that I am here.
May my happiness deepen,
And my good fortune continue.
How wonderful I am in my being.
I delight that I am here.
May my happiness deepen,
And my good fortune continue.
How wonderful I am in my being.
I delight that I am here.
May my happiness deepen,
And my good fortune continue.
Bringing into the awareness now someone that is relatively neutral,
You don't know so much,
And it's possible you might know of a recent joy for them,
Maybe someone that you see on social media,
Or something that you witnessed.
But if not,
You can just imagine them experiencing a joy,
Experiencing a big win,
A career,
Money,
Friendship,
Relationship,
Vacation,
Birthday,
Whatever it is,
Really experiencing this joy with them,
And offering them the phrases.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
Inviting into the awareness someone that is difficult for you in some way,
And maybe there is some jealousy and comparison,
Competition,
Someone that it might be challenging for you to experience their joy with them,
Bringing into the awareness a recent joy of theirs,
Or imagining them experiencing a joy,
And offering them the phrases.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
Bringing into the awareness now all the beings experiencing joy right now,
All the beings experiencing joy of the nature of the joys that you just contemplated,
And just tuning into the sense of joy,
Spaciousness,
Generosity,
Benevolence,
And goodwill that's being experienced all over the planet in this moment.
How wonderful you are in your being.
I delight that you are here.
May your happiness deepen,
And your good fortune continue.
Taking some time,
Just resting,
Just being,
Resting and being.
While you're resting,
I'm going to read from Loving Kindness by Sharon Salzberg.
Once when I was teaching in Australia,
In my discourse on Donna,
Generosity,
I talked about a personal resolve I've made.
When a strong urge comes up in my mind to give something,
Even though the next 50 thoughts may be,
Oh no,
I can't do that,
I might need it,
I give it.
Even if fear or other considerations come up,
My resolve is to honor that first impulse and to give.
One of the students came up to me at the end of the retreat and said that in honor of that resolve,
He wanted to give me some money to give away.
He told me that when I got back to the States,
When I first landed in California,
I should give money to the first people I saw who needed it.
I thought maybe he was going to give me 30 or 40 dollars,
But he gave me hundreds of dollars to give away.
I left for the United States,
Landed in San Francisco,
And the next day I went up and down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley looking for people to give money to.
I wasn't giving away just a dollar,
I was giving away ten dollars and twenty dollars.
It was an amazing day,
Just walking around looking for people who needed something.
It was such an unusual thing to do that it broke down a lot of barriers between people.
There were people literally dancing down the street behind me.
It was the most amazingly joyous day for me as well.
It is a great happiness to be able to give.
I'm beginning to close the practice,
And in closing this practice,
Perhaps considering some action you could take for someone else.
Maybe it's sending a text,
A letter,
Writing a letter,
Not even sending it,
And just some benevolent action that you could take.
If it's something that you can do,
Just resolving to do it,
Honoring that impulse,
Bringing awareness to the breath,
The contact points,
The sense of being rooted to the earth,
Held and supported by the earth,
Taking a moment to acknowledge yourself for taking this time to practice,
Taking in the goodness of your own intention,
And as you're ready,
Gently opening the eyes and lifting the gaze and taking in the space around you.
