So,
GONG GONG GONG GONG GONG GONG GONG GONG Let yourself sit or stand or lie down in a posture that's supportive to you right now.
And whatever posture you find yourself in,
See if you can have a balance of easefulness and wakefulness.
So you might let your body be heavy,
Letting go of the need to hold up the body.
While at the same time cultivating an inner aliveness,
Some curiosity and interest in this moment right now.
We're going to practice a meditation that blends metta,
Or loving kindness,
With upekka equanimity.
Particularly helpful for challenging times.
So to begin,
I invite you to remember a time when you felt cared for.
It might be this morning,
It might be many years ago.
It might have been specifically cared for by a specific person.
It might have been just a general sense of support.
And can you tune into what it felt like to feel supported and cared for,
To feel connection?
If you have access to this sense of care and connection,
I invite you to let this sense of care permeate your body.
Breathing it in as much as possible.
Breathing it out,
Let it permeate.
If there's a particular person you're thinking of who has supported you,
You might want to say their name or visualize them.
If that helps awaken a genuine sense of care.
Receiving this care.
And if nothing is happening on the heart level,
That's absolutely fine too.
The practice is to open to the possibility.
What would it be like to feel cared for?
To feel connection.
And so we continue opening to this possibility or breathing in this flow.
It might be a tiny trickle.
It might be a flood.
Probably somewhere in between.
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Even the Earth holding us In the field of gravity is a type of care,
Connection.
So maybe this practice is to let yourself be held by the earth as an act of love.
Breathing in care,
Receiving it,
Breathing out,
Letting it soak and fill our entire being.
And if it helps,
You're welcome to have a half smile on the lips or a sense of breathing through the heart or any caring touch,
Maybe a hand on the heart,
On the cheek,
Hand on hands,
If that also helps to touch into a sense of care.
Breathing in care,
Breathing out,
Letting it soak and fill our entire being.
And now we're going to shift.
You don't need to let go of the sense of receiving,
But we're going to offer this caring connection now outward,
Either to a particular person or a group,
Whether it's a person or people you know or people you don't know.
We don't need to send it to folks that are particularly triggering and difficult.
We want to focus on folks that's not too hard to send care to or an individual.
And again,
You might want to visualize this person or internally say their name.
Tune into the sense of what it's like to be near that person,
If this helps.
And with this sense of flow of all this care that we've received,
Can we let the care almost complete a cycle?
So let's come in and what we've received,
We give out.
A friendliness,
A relationality,
A kindness.
There are traditional phrases that might be helpful if they resonate for you.
You could silently whisper in your mind,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be safe,
May you be free.
And if the words aren't helpful,
You can let them drop.
What's most important is tapping into this cosmic kindness that we've received and giving it out.
And again,
You don't have to try hard to feel anything.
If it doesn't seem possible to care for anybody else,
Then this practice can be a time of opening to the possibility of,
What would it be like if one day there was a sense of care?
If one day my heart had space to care for others,
Then that is plenty to practice with.
And you might want to stay with the same being or beings at this point,
Or it might shift.
Now we're going to focus on a person or people that are going through hardship,
And that touches in you some degree of helplessness,
Of overwhelm.
It doesn't have to be the most overwhelm.
A little bit is more than enough.
So continuing to receive the care,
To give it to those who are easy to care for,
And then we expand to include a type of care that goes towards those who are having such a hard time that you yourself touch a little overwhelm or despair.
And so this is where we're going to blend loving kindness with equanimity.
The invitation now is to connect to some beings that you care for,
Or a being you care for,
And they're going through a hard time.
It's a situation that has no immediate resolution,
And here we're going to blend the stream of loving kindness with the stream of equanimity,
Because both of these energies are ever-present cosmic energies.
And so the traditional upeka,
Equanimity practice,
We start offering to these beings.
I know that my good wishes and intentions cannot relieve you of your hardships,
And still I offered you my love and care,
This love and care.
Or I know that I alone cannot resolve your hardships,
And still I send you this peace,
This love to support you on your journey.
You're welcome to play with the words and find whatever resonates most with you.
You might also want to visualize two streams,
The cosmic care and the cosmic equanimity or spaciousness flowing through and merging in you as you send them out.
Or again,
Opening to the possibility of being able to feel care and equanimity.
It's not an easy task,
But it's very worthwhile.
What would it be like to hold equal space and have equal capacity for care and equanimity,
For connection and spaciousness,
For intimacy and emptiness?
Finally,
We'll direct our practice back towards ourselves,
And perhaps thinking about a part of yourself that is really difficult or that is going through hardship.
And so can you offer to yourself both care and spaciousness,
Receiving the cosmic care and equanimity,
Letting yourself be filled with kindness and love,
While also holding the spaciousness of knowing that there are experiences that are out of our control,
That are not perfectible,
Not fixable,
And still we can do our best to take care of ourselves and relieve our own suffering,
Just as we learn to do for others.
Any inner heartbreak and hopelessness about parts of our own selves,
Our own lives,
Are equally worthy to receive boundless love and boundless spaciousness.
It's not one or the other,
It's always both and.
As we get ready to close,
If there is any strong energy that feels a little hard to manage,
You're welcome to spend the last few breaths grounding,
Feeling your feet or sitz bones on the floor,
Cushion or bed,
Or perhaps breathe out any strong energy.
Offer a gesture of care,
Touching the heart or the cheek or maybe just swaying,
Moving a little bit to help any strong energy that may have built up to flow and be released.
