Guided Meditation: Abiding In Innate Goodness. Feb 4, 2023

This is a recording of a guided meditation that was offered on an online day of meditation, on Feb 4, 2023. It invites the listener to access their innate goodness. Innate goodness is unconditional benevolence. It is the recognition that within all beings, including ourselves there is this quality. Credit is given to Stephen Snyder for inspiring and teaching this meditation practice.

Transcript

Meditating on innate goodness. So you're invited to settle into your body, Putting aside worries and concerns about things not here, Creating an intention for this practice and settle further into your body, Connecting with the ground that you're lying on or the cushion or the chair that you're seated on, Connecting with Mother Earth beneath you, Holding and supporting you and feeling the connection, Feeling Earth element and letting your body come into relaxation as it connects with the Earth. Your mind come to quietude and the inner chatter also come to quietude as we stabilize our attention on the connection with Mother Earth, The stability and the support and that sense of being held. Perhaps you can let your attention settle on that space beneath your belly button, Your abdomen, Lower abdomen, Perhaps even feeling the breath as it rises and falls, Strongly connected with the Earth, Grounding and from that place of stability, The ground, A connection with the Earth and your lower abdomen, The hara in Japanese, The dantian in Chinese. From that place you're invited to bring awareness to the area around your chest, Your spiritual heart, Your emotional heart and you're invited to connect with innate goodness and perhaps you can reflect on someone or something or a place that naturally awakens this quality in your heart. Could be a puppy or a person, A child, A teacher, A friend, An awesome place. Whatever kindles it, Notice that it's there, Deep in the hearts of all beings, Including ourselves, There is innate goodness, A beautiful quality, Warm benevolence and kindness and compassion, Appreciation, Peace, Peace of connection. Sometimes people experience it as a spaciousness, Like a cool breeze, A deep sense of being okay, Everything being okay, A settledness, A light buoyancy and even when things seem to cover it or block it from view, Such as some emotional distress or struggle, Feeling of isolation or separateness, Even though those may come up, Know that behind all that is still innate goodness, This beautiful spaciousness, Tinged with kindness, Savored with benevolence and just stay there, Enjoy the access, Enjoy the connection. When your mind wanders, Let's come back to that spaciousness, That beautiful place in your heart, The lightness, The buoyancy, Beauty, The freshness, The openness, Like a cool breeze and you may notice the perception of light, Lightness, Not only in a sense of buoyancy but also luminosity or you may not, It doesn't really matter. You may also notice a sense of expansion and allow this to happen, From your heart opening up to touch every cell of your body, Every part of your being, Pervading you and allow it to expand beyond the boundaries of our perceived barriers with the world, Beyond the boundaries of our skin and what we normally call ourselves. Allow this quality of warm benevolence, Expand out, Out as far as it wishes to go, In front, Behind, To the sides, Above and below, Perhaps boundlessly out in space, So much so that the boundaries between self in here and everything else out there dissolve and there is unity and perhaps you can perceive this innate goodness as luminous, Bright, Completely receptive, Loving, Kind and whenever there's thoughts, Whenever there's issues of identity, Whenever any feelings of disconnection arise, We can just let them, We can surrender them, Let them go, That they are transformed into this infinite spaciousness, Deep acceptance, Benevolence and compassion and we become completely absorbed into this beautiful quality, This beautiful radiant loving quality, Letting go, Letting be and being warm benevolence.