When we suffer a love wound,
We lose track of our innate goodness.
Our innate goodness gets covered up or obscured by negative judgments that we received,
That we believed,
And we come to develop a sense of our basic unloveability.
And we have this in small and large ways,
And I call this the love wound.
It's something that everybody experiences,
Perhaps,
It may be a slight love bruise or maybe a deeper love wound,
But it's something that everybody can experience.
This innate goodness meditation that we're going to do now is a way of getting beyond that love wound and getting beyond the feeling of brokenness and unwholeness and unworthiness and getting in touch with our original unconditioned innate goodness that we had when we were first born.
So,
Let's begin the meditation.
Please come sitting in a comfortable way.
Take some moments to relax in any areas of obvious tension in your body.
It's good to sit upright and alert if you can,
But you can also lay down as long as you can be alert while you're also comfortable.
You want to be comfortable and alert.
Deepen your presence now as you rest with the movement of the breath or with the sensations in your body as your primary anchor.
Breathing in,
Note that you're breathing in.
Breathing out,
Note that you're breathing out.
Let the mind focus on the breath or some other sensation in your body.
As the mind thinks,
Gently and firmly return the attention back to your primary anchor.
If you're comfortable,
You may want to close your eyes now,
Focusing on your breath,
Coming back to your breath over and over.
Now let yourself picture in your mind someone you care about,
Someone who is easy to love.
Bring the image and sense of this person close in so that you can visualize how they look at you.
Visualize when they're being affectionate to you.
If you can,
Imagine a sparkle in their eyes as they are being happy or excited,
Sense their aliveness.
Notice the qualities of this person that you most deeply appreciate.
Is it their way of showing love,
Their brightness,
Their playfulness?
As you sense these expressions of their innate goodness,
Imagine sharing your appreciation of what you see with them and how they would feel in receiving this expression of your love.
Now imagine that they're gazing back at you,
Seeing the qualities of goodness that they most love about you.
What are they seeing?
Know what qualities of your original goodness that you most appreciate.
Perhaps it's your honesty,
Maybe your love of the natural world,
Your humor,
Your generosity,
Maybe your kindness.
If it's difficult to find qualities you appreciate in yourself,
You might picture your happiest moments as a child and sense your original innocence.
Just as the eyes of a trusted dear one can see your goodness,
Put your hand on your heart and hold your best self with deep appreciation and love.
Now picture a few other loved ones one at a time and tune into their goodness.
You might tune into the qualities you appreciate in their current selves.
Or if the person brings up more complex feelings,
Imagine him or her as a child,
Happy and at ease.
Imagine their innate original goodness.
With each person,
Be a mirror of goodness.
Imagine sharing your appreciation of their goodness with them and how they would feel in receiving this expression of your love.
Now imagine moving mindfully through your day with the intent to pause and see and honor the secret goodness of all those you meet.
To move through the world like this is a way of living love.
It's one of the greatest gifts we can offer one another.
For this last minute or so of our meditation,
We'll return to the core central practice of mindfulness and kind attention.
Sensing your breath or body sensations in the foreground,
Allowing any feelings or thoughts to be received with loving awareness.
Yes.
Thank you.
