Cool Loving-Acceptance, Warm Loving-Kindness - Meditation

After establishing body based awareness two complimentary aspects of loving-kindness are explored.

Transcript

Settling into the meditation posture.

Simply aware of the body in the sitting posture.

The legs crossed,

Sitting on a cushion,

Sitting on a chair.

Body is still.

You can feel that harder surface underneath.

Again just aware of that space around the immediate area of the body.

Suggesting that,

Bringing your awareness to the area of the face and head.

Just feeling the sensations of the skin,

A broad relaxed awareness.

And then just offering an attitude of acceptance with this awareness.

By acceptance this may mean dropping any other attitudes which are present.

Often times there's a lot of tension in the area of the face.

Sometimes we feel we have to put on faces.

There can be a lot of tension created by this,

Bringing your mindful awareness just to be aware of the face and allowing it to relax.

And around the ears and the back of the head.

And offering a relaxed attitude of kind acceptance.

And then bringing this awareness to embrace the area of the shoulders.

Similarly there can be quite a bit of tension held in the shoulder area.

With the out-breath we can consciously relax that area.

And just bringing a gentle quality of mindfulness.

Allowing those shoulders to just be,

Bringing your attention into this body.

Often times thinking about what we have to do,

Who we're going to see.

Sending the mind out into the past,

Into the future.

Or very much up in the head with concepts,

Entertainment.

So when we're meditating in this way just really bringing that awareness to rest in the body.

And giving the body some kind attention.

And then embracing the whole upper chest area and the upper arms,

Broadening that awareness.

The face,

The head,

The ears,

The neck,

The shoulders and the chest.

The broad field,

Relaxing.

And include the stomach and the abdomen,

The lower back.

And gentle knowing awareness.

And now include the bottom and the legs,

The knees,

The feet.

Just having a sense of this whole body sitting.

Just allowing the mind to be with that body.

And offering that body awareness.

Gentle knowing awareness.

Doesn't matter if the body is fat or thin,

Young or old,

Healthy or sick.

Just allowing it to be exactly as it is.

And sometimes we can mentally note,

Make an affirmation,

It can help the process.

Breathing in I allow this body to be exactly as it is.

Breathing out I accept the experience of this body as it is.

This is just one good way to bring the body into the mind,

Extract it from various types of concepts.

Try to drop perhaps some habitual attitudes of criticism,

Habits of the way we try to hold the body,

We want it to be a particular shape,

We want people to think it's attractive,

We want it to be young.

All of the things that we,

The energies that we aim at the body,

Which aren't acceptance.

So just allowing it to be as it is and relaxing into that,

The safety of that acceptance.

Governmental address.

And then gently bringing the awareness to the in and out breaths.

Aware of the in-breath,

Aware of the out-breath.

Similarly with the breath,

Just allowing it to be exactly as it is,

Mindfully aware of natural breaths.

And then bringing awareness into the area of the heart,

Middle of the chest,

Still aware of the breath,

Observing the breath in this area,

Aware of the in-breath,

Aware of the out-breath.

And then bringing awareness into the area of the heart,

Middle of the chest,

Still aware of the in-breath.

And then bringing awareness into the area of the chest,

Middle of the chest,

Still aware of the in-breath.

And similarly,

Bringing with our attention an attitude of acceptance right into the core of the being there,

The experience of the body and the mind in the very centre.

A different kind of energy,

Clean,

Non-critical,

Non-willful.

Awareness imbued with loving-kindness,

And the loving-kindness of gentle acceptance,

Just trying to hold that there as an energy.

And however it is down there,

Allowing it to be as it is.

Not having to change anything,

Not having to fix anything,

Not having to get anything,

Not having to get rid of anything.

Breathing in,

Aware of the in-breath,

The area of the chest,

And breathing out,

Aware of the out-breath.

And now very gently,

Understanding that there's no hurry,

We're going to try to generate some warmth,

Some goodwill,

In conjunction with the in-and-out-breath.

And we should understand that this isn't a difficult thing,

This is just a wish.

So we can all offer a kind wish.

And breathing in,

You can make the wish,

May I be well.

And breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

Wishing sincerely,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

When we make this wish,

We're not pushing anything away.

In this quality of loving acceptance,

We are adding a kind wish.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

And sometimes when we make these wishes,

The heart responds with a feeling of warmth.

With a sincere wish,

May I be well.

Some warmth arises in the mind,

Or a feeling,

A pleasant feeling.

And as we breathe in,

We can allow that feeling to penetrate a little more deeply.

Breathing in that feeling right into the heart,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

We allow that warmth to spread,

To embrace that whole heart area.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

The warmth of goodwill.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

If you do have that pleasant feeling,

You just take this as your meditation object in conjunction with the breath.

You take care of that feeling,

You nourish that feeling,

And then allow that feeling to nourish the heart,

Nourish the mind.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

And if you don't notice any particular feeling,

That's okay too.

Simply making these wishes is very powerful.

It will have a good effect on the mind,

Setting this intention.

Breathing in,

Wishing with loving kindness,

With loving friendliness,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

Wishing with loving kindness,

With loving friendliness,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing in,

I accept the experience of this body and mind exactly as it is now,

With loving kindness.

Breathing out,

May I be well,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be well.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing in,

I accept the experience of this body and mind exactly as it is now,

With loving kindness.

Breathing out,

May I be well,

May I be happy.

And now,

Hopefully having relaxed a little,

Brightened the mind a little,

Try to bring your awareness now to the feeling of the breath,

Dropping for now any thoughts about me or I.

Once again not rejecting,

But simply placing the awareness on the breath.

Noticing those feelings of the in-breath,

The entire in-breath,

Through the nose,

Chest and abdomen,

And then out the abdomen,

Chest and nose.

Offering this attention,

Offering this interest,

Really wanting to know those feelings.

And we can use buddho,

Knowing,

Awake,

Alert,

Aware,

Breathing in buddho,

Breathing out buddho,

Simply knowing the breath as it is,

One breath at a time.

Out of this body,

So aware of the in-breath,

Bhut,

Aware of the out-breath,

Do.

Simply knowing the natural feeling of the breath as it is.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

Simply knowing the breath as it is,

One breath at a time.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

One in-breath,

One out-breath.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

We can use Bhutto,

Knowing,

Awake,

Alert,

Aware.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

Breathing in Bhut,

Breathing out Do.

One in breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

Just five more minutes of the meditation now.

Trying to be attentive to that awareness of the breath.

And as much as you can enjoying the meditation,

Relaxing into the breath.

Picking up the breath as a meditation object and putting down everything else.

One in breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One in breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

One breath and one out breath.

In this last minute of the meditation it can be good to set the intention.

First of all notice if you're experiencing a heightened sense of clarity or peacefulness,

What's that like?

This is the mind with some sharp mindfulness which isn't scattered.

So we set that intention,

May I be able to take some of this clarity,

Some of this spaciousness into my life.

May I take care of my mindfulness.

May that mindfulness help me to live a skillful life,

Good for myself and good for others.

And if you can notice that if it's a pleasant experience,

Perhaps sometimes it's not so pleasant but you might notice a lack of other types of suffering.

That are sometimes there in the mind,

In the heart.

So just notice what's it like to not have that heavy feeling or that hot feeling or that busy feeling.

What's it like to feel a little bit more spacious?

It's good to recognize this before we get up and start walking around.

We notice,

Oh this is the result of meditation.

Really notice that and really enjoy it.

And then we can set the intention,

May I meditate a lot?

Seeing the benefits.

May I meditate,

Developing clarity and enjoying that clarity.

And then we understand that generating mindfulness,

Perhaps a little bit of samadhi,

Some collectedness,

Makes a lot of good karma.

So you can dedicate that,

Dedicate merit to someone that you know who may appreciate that.

It could be somebody who's died,

Possibly reborn.

It could be somebody who's died,

Possibly reborn.

Reviews

I left leaving relieved free of tension.

I got a lot from this, as I do with all of your teachings. Thank you. May you be happy, May you be well. 🙏

Excellent.

It’s necessary to be compassionate and accepting to ourselves before we do that with others. This practice helped me develop compassion , thank you 💚

This is new for me, but good. I’ll be back. Thank you 🙏🏻

Excellent and so much learning Thank you so glad I found you are amazing . 💛

Thank you. I enjoyed this meditation and found it powerful.

It’s good to find a meditation that begins at the head and works downwards, with simple instructions and helpful intention setting. Thank you.

Deeply peacrful

A straightforward breath meditation with helpful techniques and a nice balance of guidance and silence. Thank you. 🙏🏻

Some background noise but it's okay! Lots of pauses which is great, very calming. "I accept my mind and body exactly how it is" was very powerful for me. Thanks!

Lovely beautiful Ajahn meditations are an important part of the day!

Body scan, metta and breath instruction all provided within a good length of time and delivered at a perfect pace. Thank you Ajahn Achelo 🙏

Great mediation. Acceptance and loving kindness do oneself. Guided throughout

Thank You Ajahn. Balm.

A wonderful way to start my day. Peaceful, focused and grounding. Thank you 🙏

This meditation allowed me to touch peace and truth. Thank you.

Every helpful, thank you!

Very gentle. An ideal tone for me and guidance that fit me very well.

Thank you!!!! Great Meditation!!!