This is a meditation for strengthening compassion.
Tara Brach articulates it beautifully when she says that compassion is the practice of feeling our pain as the pain.
There have been a number of scientific studies performed on monastics to measure the neurological and biological workings of compassion.
And one of the most novel discoveries has been the understanding that when we activate compassion in our bodies,
Minds and hearts through meditation,
We are simultaneously activating the landscapes in the brain that experience pain.
Compassion therefore is a conscious interaction with what is uncomfortable and difficult,
Making it all the more valuable for the moment we are living in right now.
But let's distinguish and differentiate between compassion,
Empathy and sympathy.
We've all encountered the disempowering experience of being pitied.
This is not a favorable experience for most of us.
Compassion is much more humanizing than sympathy.
It is an active state of witnessing someone else's pain,
Or our pain,
As a shared human pain.
Empathy is highly misunderstood and therefore important to distinguish,
Because empathy is somatic and therefore unconscious.
It's a part of our nervous system's capacity to witness safety.
We do not actually have the capacity to know what another person thinks,
Feels or experiences,
And to assume that we can is a major violation of another person's autonomy and boundaries.
What we might experience,
However,
Through our somatic empathy,
Is the biological and electrical capacity that we have to attune to another person's nervous system,
And to specifically feel whether that nervous system is calm or charged,
Regulated or dysregulated.
This is empathy.
And our bodies are doing this all the time.
Anger is a biological signal that someone has crossed a boundary,
Whether intentionally or unintentionally.
These can be crossed on a physical,
Psychological,
Interpersonal,
And material level.
Anger is a sacred emotion,
And it's not that far off from compassion.
Both anger and compassion are activating and motivating charges that we feel that move us towards relationship,
Either to ourselves or to the world around us,
To other people.
I'd like to suggest that the compassionate mind is the wise,
Kind,
And unshaming mind,
Humanizing mind.
The practice of unshaming ourselves and other people is really an important component of compassion.
So in this meditation,
I'd like us to explore all of this through a variation on traditional loving-kindness practice.
So let's get started,
And go ahead and find a seated position of your choice,
Or feel free to lie down comfortably supported on the floor.
Close your eyes and begin to breathe consciously.
And your breath has been breathing you all these years.
It knows what to do.
So there's no need to regulate or control your breath.
With your attention,
Simply follow the breath and observe what is your breath revealing to you about the state of your nervous system today.
Let's shepherd our awareness to the heart space and call to mind someone in your life with whom it's very easy to get along with,
Someone you love very much.
As you call this person into your heart-mind field of consciousness,
Notice the somatic experience,
The sensations you feel.
There's no need to go into a story.
Simply witness the sensations you feel.
And ask yourself,
What is one thing that I want this person that I love so much to feel?
And pick one word,
Keep it really simple.
What do you want this person to feel?
And then imagine energetically sending that intention out into space towards this person.
And now send that very same intention right back towards yourself.
So receive the intention that you are sending out.
Notice the relationship between what you want for this person and what you want for yourself.
Breathe it in.
Notice and let go.
Now call to mind someone in your life with whom you are currently angry,
Disappointed,
Frustrated.
And if you are angry at this person,
Ask yourself,
What boundary has been crossed?
What is my anger teaching me about my boundaries?
From there,
Ask yourself,
How do you want this person to feel?
Choose one word and keep it as simple as you can.
It's easy to go into the story.
Just notice what boundary has been crossed and how do you want this person to feel?
And as that intention surfaces,
Send it out into space.
Imagine sending this intention towards this person.
And then let that intention rebound right back into you,
Into your heart-mind field of consciousness and receive it.
So perhaps we sent out an intention that we want that person that hurt us to feel remorseful.
But when you turn that around at yourself,
What happens?
Notice that everything that we send out is a projection,
A transference.
We cannot actually know what another person thinks,
Feels,
And experiences.
We can only control ourselves,
Right?
And now call into your heart-mind a third person,
Someone in your community that is a neutral force.
So someone you see on a regular basis that you don't know,
Possibly haven't even had a conversation with.
And call this person into your heart-mind field of consciousness and notice the somatic experiences,
The sensations.
And same practice.
What do you want this person to feel?
Choose one word,
Keep it simple,
And energetically send this intention out into space towards this person,
Eventually allowing that intention to rebound right back into your own heart-mind field of consciousness.
Notice the relationship between what you want for this person and what you want for yourself.
Observe what you are projecting out.
How does it feel as you take it in?
And now bring all of your attention to your own heart,
To yourself,
And sometimes it's helpful to even picture our inner child in our heart space,
If you have a relationship to that idea.
And on your inhale,
Just touch what is coming up for you,
What is tender,
What is vulnerable.
And on your exhale,
Imagine giving that tenderness,
That sensitivity,
Some room,
Some space to process,
To feel.
We inhale,
Touching what is tender and uncomfortable in the heart space,
And exhale,
Give it space,
Give it room.
Your compassionate mind and heart is your wise,
Kind,
And unshaming heart.
We unshame ourselves and we unshame other people through the practice of compassion.
This is a humanizing practice.
No mud,
No lotus,
As Thich Nhat Hanh would say.
And that's it,
Friends.
Take this practice out into the world with you,
See what happens.
As always,
I'm grateful for you and appreciate you.
And until next time,
This is Morgan,
Bowing out.
