All-Pervasive Tenderness

This heart-opening meditation invites us to soften and bring a tender awareness to our moment-to-moment experience. The guidance is to evoke or imagine a simple moment of kindness and care and to fully open to the warm, loving qualities of that moment. The warm, loving qualities of the moment then infuse our awareness, and slowly, the entirety of our experience can be included and immersed in a tender, loving awareness. This practice is inspired by the work of Lama John Makransky and adapted from Tibetan Buddhist traditions, especially Dzogchen and Mahamudra.

Transcript

Okay, So finding your comfortable meditation posture. As we're going into this more of a heart practice, Really finding a position that is as comfortable as possible so that you don't have to be struggling with pain in your body or discomfort if that's possible. So you can lie down if that is helpful, And then starting to notice your breathing. I'm just taking a few breaths where you are inviting your attention into your body, Into the present moment. And with each exhale, Feeling if you can relax or soften your body a little bit more fully. And just feeling if you can just soften and bring in a tender quality of your attention or awareness. What would that be like to hold attention or infuse your awareness with a tenderness? A tenderness for all the sensations in your body, A tenderness towards your breath, A tenderness towards whatever is happening, Hearing, Feeling, Thinking. And we'll begin with the receptive mode of this kindness practice. So bringing to mind a kind moment, A moment when someone was kind to you or generous, Or maybe a kind being, Could be human or animal or spiritual figure that really represents kindness to you. So calling this up in your mind, Moment of kindness, Kind being, Getting a sense of the kindness itself, The quality of this moment or this person or this being, And imagining that you could just receive, Like you could soften your body, Soften your skin, Soften all your pores, The cells, And just receive, Kind of soak in this kindness. You might imagine this other being wishing you well, That you be happy, Wishing you happiness, Ease. You might imagine how they perceive you, The appreciation, They see all your good qualities with tenderness, And tenderness for every part of you, Every part of you, Every thought, Every emotion, Every contraction, Reactivity, Resistance. There's this spacious, Tender quality, Just holding all of it. Every part of you just loved in its very being, Being held with tenderness and care. And if your mind wanders off, You notice that you can imagine the tenderness holding your distraction, Like saying, Yes, This too is included. There's nothing outside of this kind gaze. So the distraction or difficulty itself expands the love, Expands the kindness and the tenderness, Shows us how there really aren't any edges, And so you can hold the thought, Any feelings inside of that distraction, Just letting all of it also be pervaded, Held with tenderness. Nothing left out, No boundaries, When there's a connection, Just reinvigorating the sense of tenderness, Kind moment, And including, Including every thought, Every feeling, Every perception, Every sensation held in this tenderness. And maybe there's something you've been struggling with or held against yourself or judged. And inviting that into, Inviting that into also soak in the tenderness, And it doesn't have to change at all, Just as it is, Existing, Being, Unfolding in its own way, In its own time, But held with this deep tenderness, Care, Any judgments you've held against yourself, Anything you feel like you've done wrong or didn't do well enough, Just inviting that in, All those thoughts and feelings here, And it's held with this exquisite tenderness, Just as they are. Everything saying, Yes, You too. How can the mind expand, The awareness expands until everything is included in this tender holding. And so we begin to see it's both inside and out, All of the people who come into your mind, Including all of it, Your reaction, Your thoughts, Your judgments, And these others, The easy to love, The challenging to love, Those are also included, Whatever is in the mind, Whatever is in awareness, Whether it's perceived as inside or outside, Included in this tender holding. It's like a soft care, Inseparable, The awareness and the object of the awareness, Inseparable from this tender holding, View, Perception, All of us held within a mind of love. You can look and see if there's any sense of edges or boundaries and imagine as if you could pour love, Pour tenderness right over and through all the edges, All the boundaries. So it is this pervasive space of warmth, Tenderness and holding, Accepting, Just orienting to a sense of this all-pervading tenderness. Nothing left out, No edges, No one, No thought, No feeling left out. So then you can just drop all efforting, All effort, Any doing, Any technique, And just be. And then when you're ready, You can bring your attention back into the form of your body, Of your breath. And when you're ready, You can open your eyes if they've been closed, And bring your practice to a close.