The Resonant Heart

This meditation invites you to rest in grounded presence and gently attune to the natural qualities of the heart—kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Through imagery and reflection, it nurtures emotional resonance, offering steadiness and care amidst the sorrows and beauty of life.

Transcript

Invite you to find a comfortable position,

Letting your body be relaxed,

At ease,

And also bringing some vitality,

Sense of alertness and dignity into the spine.

You might take a few deep breaths if that supports you to settle and arrive more fully.

Bring some attention to your jaw,

Letting the muscles of your jaw relax,

Softening the muscles around your eyes,

Your eyebrows and temples,

Inviting the throat to relax and the neck to be long,

Loosening down through your shoulders,

Your arms,

All the way into your hands.

You might see if your belly can be soft and invite a little letting go anywhere else in your body where you notice some tension,

Tightness or holding.

One of the things that can support this natural relaxation and letting go is letting the body rest on the ground,

So feel the places where your body touches the earth,

Chair or cushion beneath you,

Your feet or knees on the floor.

See if you can give your weight to the earth.

So here there's both a sense of letting go,

Softening,

And also a quality of resting,

Where letting our body be held and supported.

So even as you relax and soften,

You might notice the solidity,

Steadiness of the ground.

Letting your breath be natural,

Allowing the body to receive,

To take in nourishment,

And then to release,

To let go.

So just resting,

Resting on the earth,

Resting in the body,

Resting with the breath,

Starting where we are,

Aware of this stable,

Steady presence in the body,

Alive,

Sensitive.

Within this whole field of sensations lives the heart.

It can begin to become conscious of the area in the center of your chest,

Behind and around the sternum,

Extending in front of you,

To the sides,

Behind you,

Physical region of the heart in space,

And then the heart center,

The emotional center of our lives,

Without needing to do anything,

To just notice how it feels right now.

The heart feels contracted or expanded,

Tender or numb,

Vibrant or blank,

Just as it is.

One of the fundamental properties of the human heart is its capacity to resonate,

To vibrate with and feel.

So this means that introducing a certain element or frequency can start to affect the domain of the heart.

And in the Dharma,

We talk about these four profound qualities,

Kindness,

Compassion,

Joy,

And equanimity,

Balance,

As the nature of the resonant heart.

So inviting some kindness,

First by just saying that word silently and seeing what's evoked inside.

You might bring to mind an image,

A memory,

A moment with a friend,

A pet,

Witnessing or enjoying an experience of generosity or care,

Laughter,

Seeing a friend smile.

So just these simple,

Everyday moments of warmth,

Of connection,

Allowing any moment to come to mind as a seed,

Seed of kindness,

Letting it touch your heart,

Remembering that frequency and just holding the space of awareness,

Allowing it to resonate and vibrate a little bit inside.

However you feel,

Whatever is present is okay,

Just as it is.

We're not trying to produce a feeling or change anything.

We're just opening to the possibility of connecting.

Connecting with the felt memory of kindness.

This then becomes a foundation for meeting the world on its own terms.

So many forces of change that blow through our lives and our world.

If you like,

Taking a few moments to just gently touch the sorrow,

The grief that's present in your own life,

In your community,

Or in the world at large,

Letting an image,

Headline,

Circumstance come to mind.

Feeling the tenderness in the heart,

The ache of connecting with that pain,

And then focusing your attention on the wish to alleviate it.

Compassion is about soothing suffering,

About responding,

Being available to help.

Inviting the heart to care.

May it be released from this pain,

Inside and out.

When a change in the external circumstances is not possible,

We still wish for the freedom and alleviation of suffering internally.

Let the hearts and minds of others be free from fear,

Hatred,

Confusion,

Despair,

And all of the torments of the heart.

Letting the suffering touch you,

Letting it in,

And then caring,

Reaching out to help.

Sometimes what's needed is compassion for ourselves,

For the fear,

The helplessness,

The agitation or stuckness in our own being.

If that's the case,

Can you touch that place with tenderness?

Just bringing your awareness right to the edge of it,

Like a good friend placing their hand on your shoulder,

Is the steady,

Reassuring presence of care.

Breathing gently,

Rooted in presence,

Supported by the earth.

Part of what makes compassion possible is the poise of equanimity,

The wise understanding of the heart that gives us perspective.

It's not a sense of detachment or cold indifference,

But rather a sense of being deeply rooted and knowing that everything changes and the end isn't up to us.

We do our part wholeheartedly and then let go.

So stepping back a little inside,

Widening,

Taking a long view,

A human lifetime,

So many decades,

A generation,

A rise and fall of civilizations,

The movements of geological time,

Recollecting the deep knowing in your own bones that everything changes,

That time doesn't stop for any of us,

And we each have our part to play in something so much vaster than any of us can see from our limited perspective.

This is equanimity.

Deeply connected with a broad and expansive view.

This is how it is right now.

Everything is just exactly the way it is.

Feeling empowered to do our part,

And also free.

Free to let go of the belief that we can control the outcome.

Breathing gently with this understanding supported by the earth.

And within all of this,

The love,

The tenderness,

The balanced perspective is the blessing of joy.

The moments of beauty and laughter that come to us as gifts,

Sustaining us,

Lifting us in the very midst of pain,

Uncertainty,

Hardship,

Just letting the heart remember a moment of joy,

Beauty,

Laughter,

And inviting awareness to be large enough to hold it all.

In your own time,

Beginning to deepen your breath,

Widening your awareness to the whole body,

The space around you,

And then gently letting your eyes open.

Thank you.

Reviews

I am so grateful Oren is back with his amazing guided meditations

Thank you for this very beautifully guided and very nourishing practice!

This was a beautiful way to start the day. Thank you. 🌻

Shifted the energy of my heart. Thank you, Oren 🙏🏼🪷💚

Outstanding. I am especially grateful for meditations of this half hour length these days. Many thanks indeed.

Beautiful, and so helpful in regaining and supporting a sense of stability after difficult first months of 2025 here in Southern California. Thank you!