Welcome.
This is a 15-minute practice working with a sense of goodwill as the object of meditation.
So coming into a posture that will support you in being both alert and at ease.
And for this practice it can be helpful to allow your eyes to close.
And taking a moment to set your intention for this practice period.
Just reminding yourself it's totally okay to put any other concerns aside for this period of time.
And checking in with how things are right now.
Noticing what it's like in the body,
The mind,
And heart.
Not needing to change or improve anything.
Fully opening,
Allowing yourself to be aware of how things are in this moment.
So connecting in with the sensations in the body.
Aware of any sensations in the very top of the head.
Moving to the forehead and temples.
Aware of the eyes and nose,
The cheeks,
The lips and mouth,
The jaw,
The interior of the head,
The back of the head.
Allowing the attention to move to the neck,
The interior of the throat,
The shoulders,
The upper arms,
The forearms,
The hands.
Aware of the upper chest,
The upper back,
The center of the torso,
The waist and belly,
Your lower back,
Your butt,
The pelvic area,
The upper legs,
Lower legs and feet.
And aware of the entire body breathing alive.
This opening fully to whatever sensations are here,
This energetic sense of the body alive.
Allowing everything else to be in the background.
Present with the body breathing.
And maintaining awareness of the cycles of the breath.
So we're not trying to hunt down any particular sensation.
Just knowing that when you're on the in-breath,
You're on the in-breath.
When you're on the out-breath,
You're on the out-breath.
Noticing this takes really no effort at all.
Allowing the attention to rest with the entire body alive and breathing.
And inviting the attention to rest with sensations in the center of the chest,
Sometimes called the heart center.
So allowing the sensations throughout the rest of the body to just go into the background a little bit.
Becoming more curious and interested and allowing the attention to just really rest in the heart center.
And as the attention remains resting with sensations in the heart center,
Whatever they are could be quite subtle.
Bringing to mind someone whom you've felt in the past has held a sense of goodwill and caring towards you.
A kind of unconditional wanting you to be well.
It could be someone in your family or it could have been a helpful teacher.
Just bringing anyone to mind that it's relatively easy for you to touch in with this sense of being cared for,
Being wished well.
And if right now it's difficult to come up with someone,
You could perhaps think of an animal,
Maybe a pet,
Perhaps feeling that sense from that animal or pet.
What could even be a place that feels accepting and caring towards you?
So just settling on one option.
I'm going to be referring to this supposed source of caring to be a person.
So just allowing your awareness of that person to just rest in the mind and from the heart center,
Touching in with this sense of being cared for or wished well or supported.
Not trying to make anything happen.
Just touching in to whatever sense is there right now in the heart center.
You don't need to think more thoughts about this person.
Try to make something happen.
Figure out,
Gee,
Am I really feeling a sense of being cared for right now?
That's just the mind coming up with stuff.
Allow that to be on the side and just opening,
Recognizing what it is you feel right now in the heart center.
Allowing any image that you have of this person to just drift away to go into the background.
Bringing into the foreground this sense of caring.
Allowing this sense of goodwill,
Of caring to expand from the heart area.
Feeling it expand into your upper chest,
Into the space in front of you and around you.
Whether subtle or strong and it certainly doesn't need to be dramatic or even emotional.
Just allowing the attention to rest with this sense of goodwill centered in the heart area.
Expanding,
Glowing,
Moving into the space in front of you and around you.
Perhaps becoming once again a bit more aware of the cycles of the breath.
Aware from the heart area,
So not from your head.
Knowing the breath,
Whether you're on the in-breath or the out-breath.
Just from the heart area.
This sense of goodwill,
Breathing,
Alive.
Perhaps just recognizing for yourself that you can touch into this sense of goodwill,
Really at any time during the day,
Whether your eyes are open or closed.
By returning to this anchor in the heart area,
Either recalling this person or place.
Or perhaps noticing that you may not actually even need to do that to touch into this sense of goodwill,
Which in fact is already there without your help.
And when you're ready,
Opening the eyes and just for the next few moments,
Also being aware of the body,
Breathing,
The heart area,
And this sense of goodwill.
And perhaps directing some of that goodwill and gratitude towards yourself or the fortunate circumstances that brought you here to put aside this time and practice today for your benefit and the benefit of everyone you come in contact with.
