Kindly Awareness
"Kindly Awareness is a Metta Practice. The word Metta comes from Pali and is translated as "friendliness" or "loving kindness". We use this meditation towards the end of the courses once we have developed a deeper understanding of ourselves, and befriending ourselves in a warm, kindly, compassionate manner, then extending this to others.
Transcript
This is a Kindly Awareness meditation,
Sometimes known as Loving Kindness.
There are lots of different Loving Kindness meditations.
Some of them are known as Metta.
By practising this you become familiar with its quality so that it's easier to recognise when Loving Kindness or Kindly Awareness arises spontaneously from your practice,
So that it's more available to you in your daily life,
Once we start to embody mindfulness and embed it in our day.
This practice is just as mindfulness a lifelong commitment to an investment in time and energy as it delivers immeasurable value to our lives.
Some Loving Kindness meditations have phrases and some without.
This meditation has phrases and the intention is practising kindness to ourselves,
To the whole experience and expanding to include more and more people,
Our shared common humanity.
From whatever emotional space we find ourselves in,
We can just put out the welcome mat or on the workbench of our mind.
The attention is connecting to our experience with kindness and noticing how it's right with us to know in our body and our thoughts and our emotions.
And that we can offer Kindly Awareness to ourselves whether we're feeling kind or feeling angry or sad.
Whatever is in the present moment and just allowing it to be there,
It's okay.
With an attitude of curiosity and kindness and non-judging.
So adjusting yourself into your chosen posture and we'll start with the sensations in the body.
And asking yourself the question,
What is my experience right now?
And gently accepting this experience.
Perhaps feeling a sense of lightness or heaviness in the body and maybe an expansion in the spine.
And allowing yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment.
Now to the sounds outside of the room.
Not trying to identify sounds but taking a moment to hear them.
An awareness and sense of hearing.
Listening from sounds to sounds,
Just allowing that raw sound to come to your ears.
And the sounds inside of the room.
Sound of my voice or other sounds,
Allowing them to come and go as they please.
When it feels right for you,
Moving your awareness and attention.
Really noticing the movement of the breath in the body.
The breath is such a constant feature of life,
It's easy to ignore,
So taking some time with it now.
Feeling once more,
Feeling the sensations of the breath.
This constant rising and falling.
This constant ebb and flow throughout our life.
Just gently practicing awareness of the breath.
Simply placing a hand on the belly for a moment to notice the movement of each breath,
The rhythm of the breath.
Simply riding the waves of the breath.
And on each out breath we soften.
We allow.
And we let go.
And as we practice,
At any time the sensations in the body become too uncomfortable or thoughts and emotions arise that are difficult,
Just remembering that it's always possible to come back to the rhythm of your breath,
All your feet on the floor,
As a safe place,
A retreat,
A refuge for us to rest in.
Imagine coming back to the breath as an anchor in our lives.
Until we're ready to continue with the meditation.
And just tuning in once more to the meditation.
Coming into the awareness of the body and the breath in the present moment.
Maybe practicing having a sense of warmth and kindliness in the breath.
Understanding that as it flows in and out of the body that it's soothing us and comforting us.
And if it's too difficult to connect with a sense of kindliness,
Then simply breathe with the intention of responding kindly.
If you are experiencing any pain or disquiet or discomfort that's emotional,
Then maybe look for its echo in the body.
For example,
If you're feeling a little anxious,
This may be felt in the stomach and the belly or the clenching of the jaw.
Remember to return to the breath from time to time.
Softening any resistance to any sensations.
Breathe into them and softly out from them.
Where there's maybe discomfort,
Pain or suffering,
We can soften as best we can.
Being mindful of the qualities that are arising moment to moment.
Feeling letting go of the judging mind.
So we may or may not be feeling kindness and that's simply how we're feeling right now.
And remembering that the heart has its seasons and feelings can't be forced.
So practicing giving ourselves permission just to be as we are.
Practicing broadening and investigating our awareness.
The very nature of our experience of living with continual changes.
Rather than trying to grasp it or pushing it away,
This creates a strong and stable perspective.
By using formal practices,
Embodying mindfulness and changing the neural pathways.
Allowing ourselves to feel more settled.
Whilst all the time the practice is held by the kindly breath.
Soothing and caressing us moment by moment as we've befriended the breath.
And perhaps saying to ourselves in a kindly way the phrases.
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I be peaceful?
And may I live with ease?
Maybe just repeating these phrases to yourself.
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I be peaceful?
And may I live with ease?
And then if it's okay to do so,
Bring to mind a good friend.
Someone that cares for you and you care for them.
And inviting this friend into our awareness.
In whatever way feels most alive and engaging for you.
Maybe picturing them in your mind's eye.
Or a feeling of what they're like.
Perhaps hearing them.
Practising a sense of our friend.
And sitting with our experience of their kindness.
And bringing to mind what we share.
As in the first part of this meditation we reflected on our own experience.
Maybe now practising and reflecting that in our friend.
Who also experiences pleasure and pain.
In each moment of their lives.
The stories of our lives are different but the basic human experience is very similar.
And our friend feels joy and sorrow.
And hope and fear.
Experiences triumphs and regrets just like we do.
They experience the same emotions that we experience.
And like us.
They wish to love and be loved.
We can also reflect that our friend is breathing in and breathing out.
Just like we are.
Practising becoming aware of our friend on the in breath.
Then perhaps breathing out kindness and well wishing towards them on the out breath.
And using the phrases.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be peaceful and may you live with ease.
And in the last part of this meditation we broaden our awareness to include more and more people.
And in the last part of this meditation we broaden our awareness to include more and more people.
So coming back to the body and the breath and anchoring in the present.
Breathing in the kindly breath and breathing out our kindly breath.
Bringing to mind both ourselves and our good friend.
And practice connecting with what we share our common human experience.
Becoming aware of how it feels with us right now.
As we broaden this awareness to more and more people.
Bringing to mind people in all directions.
For those we know well and those we know less well.
Those we love and those we love less.
Those in our communities and beyond into the world.
All of them experiencing a mixture of pain and pleasure just as we do.
No matter where they live,
Their age,
Their origin or wealth.
All breathing.
All sensing.
All experiencing pain or suffering and pleasure and joy.
So maybe we can send out these phrases to them.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be peaceful.
May you live with ease.
As we breathe in and out within our experience of this meditation.
We can find there's always some aspect which is agreeable and which is pleasant.
Maybe we could develop an attitude of a seeker.
Looking for hidden treasure in precious moments.
Not always noticed immediately.
Especially if we're living in automatic pilot or the doing mode.
Just allowing the kindly breath to be a vehicle to settle us and to calm our minds.
Allowing us to notice with inner wisdom.
As we practice awareness of widening the circle of life.
Allowing the sense of the whole world breathing.
Rising and falling like waves on the ocean.
And bringing our attention back onto ourselves and onto our experience.
And allowing ourselves to be in the room with our friends and colleagues that we practice with.
And maybe having a sense of being with them and sending the message to them too.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be peaceful.
May you live with ease.
And maybe even hearing the message back from everyone in the circle.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we be peaceful.
And may we live with ease.
May we be peaceful.
