Welcome.
This is Padma Gordon,
And today I want to speak to you about loving kindness.
This is the focus of our meditation,
Loving kindness.
It is amazing how loving kindness changes everything.
It is amazing how what may have been sour or gritty can transform into delicious sweetness,
So delicious that you might enjoy having it gently rubbed on your body just like a luscious coconut oil massage.
It can be so easy to turn away from love,
Away from beauty,
And habitually search in the cracks and crevices for the faults and the flaws,
All the places that we and others may appear to fall short.
And then when we get close to losing something or someone we love,
It's like the lights get turned on and you get to see what it is that is right before you.
It is that which you have been thirsting for,
Hungering for,
Hungering for with pangs of hunger so strong,
So excruciating that you thought they would never pass,
That you might never find true satisfaction,
A true place to rest.
And yet,
This resting place has been here all along,
Yes,
All along.
All of your searching and seeking has led you back to this place right here,
Right now,
Sweet friend.
So take a breath and contemplate what is this resting place,
This resting place inside your own heart.
This place is open and available 24 hours per day,
7 days a week.
It is a resting place that you can find if you turn toward your own heart with loving kindness.
Sometimes you may find yourself out in the cold sitting just outside the door,
Somehow struggling,
Frustrated that the door just won't open.
And so perhaps you grumble,
Maybe feeling lost and alone.
And my friends,
Love has been here all along,
All along.
Love is here to receive you in each moment.
And we all have these moments of slipping into a dream,
Into a trance,
Convincing ourselves that love is not present.
And sometimes our anger leads us to a feeling of great dismay and ultimately to a feeling of separation.
We engage in a fictional inner dialogue that creates a fence between us and love.
So what if when you find yourself,
As we all do at times,
Running that old story of unloveability,
Unwantedness in your head.
Instead you make a different choice,
A fresh choice to breathe or sing a song or let your body move as it will,
Shaking or dancing or walking.
Whatever it is,
Letting it break the spell,
Break the trance and turn toward love.
Let your heart shine its natural loving kindness and receive it.
So now making yourself comfortable.
Let us meditate together,
Sitting with a relaxed and long spine,
Letting your eyelids be heavy,
Allowing the muscles in the face to soften,
Opening to your breath,
To this breath of love,
Of pure loving kindness.
I invite you to relinquish all of your ideas of what it means to rest into loving kindness and discover it freshly for yourself.
One breath at a time.
Just rest sweet friends,
I am here with you meditating and I will hold the space so that you can sink deeper and deeper into the welcoming arms of loving kindness where all your fears,
Judgment,
Parts of you that have been left out in the cold,
Can be received with loving kindness.
So I will call you back in a few minutes.
Rest deeply my friends,
Deeply,
Deeply into love.
May the peace have inclusion in you.
Dropping in deeper and deeper still.
The water is getting deeper and deeper.
The water is getting deeper and deeper.
Letting your awareness expand into loving kindness.
Letting your awareness expand into loving kindness.
Letting your awareness expand into loving kindness.
Letting your awareness expand into loving kindness.
Letting your awareness expand into loving kindness.
And very gently allowing your awareness to come back into your body and back into the room.
Perhaps noticing if anything has shifted.
And then taking a nice big breath.
And as you're ready allowing your eyes to open and letting the light of loving kindness shine through.
