Cultivating Compassion

Contemplate for a moment the idea of every being - all of life, trees, oceans, rivers, fields, animals, people, everything, absolutely everything being happy, really happy, full of lasting peace and joy. No more fear, judment, anger, hurt, death, nothing. Just bliss. Is this the reality you want? Of course.
In this meditation, Rick leads you through a compassion practice to bring happiness to others and encourages you to act in ways that are sustainable and life promoting for the good of every living being.

Transcript

Hello,

Dear friends.

All of us are drawn to meditation for the same reason.

We want something to be better.

That something may be ourselves,

Our loved ones,

The people we know,

The animals we share this life with,

The Earth,

The cosmos.

Quite likely,

We want everything to somehow be better.

And I think we all want to be happy.

We really want to feel good all the time.

And why not?

Actually,

I think this desire for happiness is part of our basic goodness.

This yearning for the world to be a better place can be rather wholesome.

I truly want every living being to be happy.

Because if every living being was happy,

We would all act in ways that were sustainable and that were life promoting.

Do you really want those who hurt you to suffer?

The immediate reaction might be yes.

But deep inside,

You know if they're suffering,

That means they're just going to keep on hurting themselves and other innocent beings.

Do you really want that?

Not really.

You may think you do,

But it's only because you may not have thought deeply enough.

So,

Let's contemplate for just a moment.

I know this may provoke doubts.

It may provoke aversion.

But if you will stay with me for just a moment and contemplate the idea of every being,

All of life,

Trees,

Oceans,

Rivers,

Fields,

People,

Animals,

Everything,

Absolutely everything being happy,

Really happy,

Full of lasting peace and joy,

Everything in the world feeling like that,

Just bliss.

Just imagine for a moment that that's the world we lived in.

So,

Is this the reality you want?

Of course it is.

Ticknite Han has a beautiful phrase,

No mud,

No lotus.

The phrase is tied to the idea that beauty comes out of that which is dirty,

Even that that is profane,

Even that which is suffering.

Our garbage,

Rotting garbage,

Becomes compost which becomes fertilizer which supports our lovely vegetables.

And this is true.

Now,

On the other hand,

There's a big part of me,

Maybe even the majority that just thinks this whole plan is messed up.

Why create a world where we have to suffer in order to know joy?

Well,

I don't know why.

I just simply don't know why.

If I was in charge,

It would be joy all of the time,

Baby,

All the time.

One big sweet ice cream and gumbo filled dance party.

Well,

As the fates have decided,

I'm not in charge.

At least I certainly don't feel like I designed the laws of the universe.

Back to our theme.

We want to feel good every second of every day forever.

That's what we really want.

Tell me what you want,

What you really,

Really want.

Well,

I just did.

We want to feel great forever.

And that's kind of the promise of having a nirvana,

Right?

Oh,

But wait.

There's this little problem.

There's this glaring reality of suffering.

Suffering is in you.

It's in me.

It's everywhere.

We are of the nature to age.

We are of the nature to become sick.

We are of the nature to die.

We are all going to be separated at some point from everything and everyone we love.

Wow.

Isn't that awesome?

Isn't that uplifting?

And sometime when I get into all this suffering,

Thinking about it,

Contemplating,

Working with it,

Which I've been doing now most of my life,

30 years of my professional career,

I really,

I want to start cussing up a storm,

Throwing a full blown tantrum about this reality that we live in and this body.

But if I really rage the way I sometimes feel like I might get thrown out of Insight Timer,

And I actually love Insight Timer.

So the simple truth is that we struggle a lot.

And if you don't suffer,

People you love suffer,

And if people we love are suffering,

How can we not really struggle or suffer at least a little bit?

So if you don't know you've suffered,

Dear one,

Then I'm going to go ahead and say that you're steeped in denial and delusion.

Well,

At least we're all in this together.

One big seven billion person Sangha of suffering.

That number is not even close to the bigger suffering of our other relatives,

Trees,

Plants,

Insects,

Animals,

Rivers,

Oceans,

Lakes.

Now,

Somewhat unexpectedly,

I'm smiling.

Why is that?

Well,

Who knows why?

Emotions and the rest of life goes up,

It goes down.

We rise,

We fall,

We get excited,

We get depressed.

You know what else?

And this is actually really juicy.

We meditate and study and seek because we want the world to be better.

And this simple fact gives me hope and optimism.

We want things to be better.

We would not want things to be better if our basis was evil,

Somehow bad.

We're basically good.

At the most basic level,

There is goodness.

The fact that we want anything to be better,

Happier,

Healthier,

Anything wholesome reflects this basic goodness.

Basic goodness is everywhere.

We open our eyes,

Open our hearts,

Open our minds.

I'm guessing there may have been 10 billion diapers changed today.

And no one who did it was probably super excited,

Ecstatic,

Really digging doing it,

But they did.

They changed the diapers because they needed to be changed to relieve the suffering of a baby or an elderly person.

Yeah,

This is newsworthy.

We plant flowers,

Basic goodness.

We hold the door for people,

Basic goodness.

We smile.

We give gifts from the heart.

We work hard to feed our families.

We enjoy sunsets,

Basic goodness everywhere.

Now I have an idea why I'm smiling.

I remembered and focused for a moment on this idea of basic goodness and I'm smiling.

Started focusing on basic goodness and got a little happier.

Got a trip.

We might even say that by focusing and writing about basic goodness,

I sparked a little faith in myself.

I sparked a little faith in this concept of basic goodness.

One thing for sure,

A little faith feels heck of a lot better than not having any faith.

And perhaps,

Just maybe,

There is a path out of this sovereign.

And that perhaps just maybe is a form of faith.

It might be weak,

Feeble,

Easily rocked,

But it's there.

Thank God,

Allah,

The atheist,

The agnostic Muslim,

Catholic,

Tantric,

Zen,

Hindu,

And all the rest.

When we start to believe there is a path out,

We begin operating from a faith mindset.

And when we stick with meditation,

We do so because we have at least an ounce or two of this precious perfume called faith.

And faith is cool.

So,

To the best we are able,

If you're willing,

Let's believe together that there is a path out of this suffering.

We don't have to believe it completely.

I'm not sure we even can.

There might be some people who can,

But I don't think I've arrived there too often.

But we can try.

We can try together.

And if we're going to try together,

Let's focus on something we can all agree upon.

And here comes something we can all agree upon.

More kindness and more compassion are good.

Yes,

I think we can agree that we want more of those qualities.

Hmm,

That might be yet another example of basic goodness.

And these qualities of kindness and compassion can be developed.

Feel free to do a search on the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley,

And you will find study after study that shows kindness and compassion can be developed.

Our crusty,

Curmudgeonly judgmental brains can actually change throughout our entire lives,

And we can become more loving.

And even better news,

It's not really that hard.

It's not really hard.

Just add your shot of faith.

Little elbow grease.

That's a funny phrase,

Elbow grease.

My grandfather liked that one.

Not sure how that jumped out.

Hi,

Grandpa.

My grandpa's alive in me.

Your grandfather's alive in you.

He's in our DNA.

Just taking a moment to give a shout out to grandpa right now.

Elbow grease.

All right,

Getting back on track.

Bam!

I interrupt this stream of consciousness to bring you a several thousand year old practice.

The science has now proven to increase compassion.

You just have to do it and keep doing it.

And you do it when you want to,

And you do it when you don't.

You do it when you have faith,

You do it when you don't.

Just do it.

Simple as that.

Just do it.

In the words of our great tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous,

It works if you work it.

Pretty simple.

So three or four years ago,

I took a course with Pima Shodron on compassion through Sounds True.

Amazing.

Gosh,

How can you not love that beautiful woman?

And one of the texts we used in the course was by Dilgo Kensei Rinpoche,

The Heart of Compassion,

The 37 verses on the practice of a bodhisattva.

And I've been immersed,

Sometimes compulsively immersed in this book ever since.

I'm going to quote from verse two.

In my native land,

Waves of attachment to friends and kin surge.

Hatred for enemies rages like fire.

The darkness of stupidity,

Not caring what to adopt or avoid thickens.

To abandon my native land is the practice of a bodhisattva.

At some point,

I'll have the courage to teach these verses,

But that may be a few lifetimes away.

Stay tuned.

So let's focus on one phrase from verse two for now.

The darkness of stupidity,

Not caring what to adopt or avoid.

So what is the darkness of stupidity?

Stupidity?

Stupidity?

According to this text?

Simple.

The darkness of stupidity is not caring what to adopt or avoid.

What are we going to do?

What are we not going to do?

Let's give that some reflection.

So the practice we are about to do is a proven winner.

It's good for everyone.

It's good for everything.

So please,

Please adopt it.

Don't be stupid.

The darkness of stupidity.

Don't be in the darkness of stupidity.

Who wants to be stupid?

So we're about to practice some compassion together.

I don't really think there's any one right way to practice compassion,

But I'm going to show you the way that I do the practice.

And this way is fairly close to the classical way that many of the great masters have done it.

You may find a way that works better for you.

And if you do,

Please let me know because I would love hearing from you.

So it's meditation time.

So we're going to spend maybe 15 minutes on this practice.

I will be guiding you along,

Hopefully helping you tap into some positive mojo.

And I hope it feels good.

If not,

Never mind.

Got that phrase never mind from the great Ajahn Achalo.

Never mind.

I may say too much for some of you.

Never mind.

I may not talk enough for some of you.

Never mind.

But please try to keep your aversion gently in check,

Summons a little faith,

And as always,

Our supreme attitudes,

Gentleness,

Patience,

And a sense of humor.

That's what I'm requesting of you.

So I'll provide quite a bit of instruction in the beginning.

And as we progress,

We will allow for more space for you to practice without me talking so much.

At the end,

The bell will ring.

You can keep going after the bell if you want,

But I'll be out doing other things,

Hopefully somewhat mindfully.

So let's begin with a meditative posture.

I'm going to recommend a seated posture.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about this posture.

But if you're in a chair,

Basically want to have the spine upright,

Not leaning against the chair.

The hands can be simply resting comfortably on the knees,

Feet and legs hanging straight down in front of you.

Your head will be upright.

And we'll begin with just a little bit of gentle body awareness,

Just sort of connecting the mind and the body.

And then we'll start working a little bit with the breath.

And then we will actually go through the formal compassion practice.

This practice is often referred to as metta.

So see if you can notice any sensations on the top of your head,

Just any sensations at all on the top of your head.

See if you can feel those.

Now moving to the forehead.

See if you can just feel anything there.

And if you can,

That's great.

And if you can't,

Never mind.

It's okay.

And on the out breath,

Letting go,

Relaxing,

Moving to the area of the eyes.

Wherever your attention goes,

The chi follows,

Moving awareness,

Moving attention to the eyes.

And on the exhale,

Really relaxing for the best you can.

You can't force relaxation.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Now to the area of the jaw,

Noticing any sensations in the area of the jaw.

And on the out breath,

Relaxing,

Letting go.

Letting your awareness simply drop into the area of the neck,

Noticing any sensations whatsoever in the neck area.

As you keep your attention on the area of the neck,

On the out breath,

Letting go,

Relaxing.

Now to the shoulders.

This time,

I want you to just simply lift your shoulders,

Please.

Just lift them up like you're trying to touch your ears.

And as you do so,

Just notice what tension feels like.

You're actually tensing yourself intentionally.

You're tensing your muscles.

And when you're ready,

Let them go.

Just let them gently fall back down.

Sing gently to yourself from the out breath,

Relaxing.

Let's move to the heart area.

Breathing deeply into the area of the heart,

Noticing any sensations,

Any feelings.

There may be tightness.

You may sense feelings of warmth or joy or anxiety or anything else.

Nevermind.

Just want you to notice feelings,

Sensations in that area.

And on an out breath,

Letting go,

Relaxing.

Same thing with the abdominal area.

Let's just draw some attention to the abdominal area together.

See what you feel,

See what you experience.

Noticing in,

Relaxing out.

Let's draw awareness.

And you may even notice what it's like just as awareness is moving throughout the body,

This greater intelligence,

This knowing,

As that awareness moves to the upper back,

Noticing sensations in the upper back,

Breathing into the upper back.

On the exhale,

Relaxing,

Letting go,

Letting down.

Letting awareness just fall naturally down to the middle and lower back,

Noticing any sensations,

Anything at all.

And on the out breath,

Relaxing,

Letting go.

Now the general area of the groin,

The buttocks,

I feel sensations as the buttocks is just supported by the chair,

The cushion,

The mat.

Notice feelings of actually being supported.

You are being supported.

You are being supported now.

Breathing out,

Relaxing,

Allowing attention to flow naturally into the thighs.

Aware of any sensations in the thighs.

Let's take a few breaths here to just notice sensations.

And on the out breath,

Relaxing,

Letting go.

Really allowing awareness to move to the area of the knee,

Noticing any sensations,

Any feelings at all.

Sensations of heat or cool,

Tingling,

Pulsing,

Anything at all.

And again,

If you can,

Great.

If you can't,

Great.

And on your next out breath,

Letting go,

Relaxing,

Allowing that awareness to rest in the lower leg,

Noticing sensations in the calves,

The shins,

Any part of the lower leg.

Simply noticing,

Simply aware,

Not really having to think about it,

Not having to try hard.

This is easy.

We are practicing.

And on the out breath,

Letting go.

And now to the feet.

Your feet are touching the floor,

The cushion,

Maybe even beautiful Mother Earth.

We are being supported by Mother Earth.

This is reality.

Mother Earth supports us.

This is truth.

And on this one,

We might smile that we're being supported.

We're really being supported.

I'm very interested in supporting you in your practice.

Mother Earth is supporting all of us in our practice.

And what we're doing right now in this practice is very wholesome.

When I use the word wholesome,

I'm speaking of that which is sustainable,

That which is good for you,

That which is good for me,

That which is good for us.

Moving awareness to the breath,

The crown jewel of all meditation techniques.

Just notice the in breath,

Noticing the out breath.

As thoughts,

Distractions arise,

Which they almost assuredly will,

Never mind.

It's all right.

To the degree you can,

Just gently,

Gently,

Gently pull your attention back to breathing in and breathing out.

You might simply note to yourself on the in breath in and on the out breath out.

In,

Out.

In,

Out.

Bringing some awareness on the breath to the degree you can.

We begin our compassion practice in a self-directed way.

And I would ask you to suspend any judgment that it's not okay to wish yourself well,

That it's somehow selfish.

Because when we're happy,

When we're well,

When we're feeling really good,

We tend to do good things.

And when we're feeling not well,

When we're feeling agitated,

When we're enraged,

All those kinds of things,

We often do hurtful things to ourselves and others,

You know that.

So breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

You might imagine in your mind a time when you were really happy.

I think of the births of all four of my children.

It's an easy one.

That was a happy place.

I'm seeing them right now.

Smile comes naturally.

Anything that's ever made you feel really good,

Really happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

And I encourage you to allow a slight or even a big smile to come across your face.

Even if you don't necessarily feel it,

It's not like we're pretending.

Just notice what it feels like to have a smile.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Feelings arise.

Feelings arise.

That's fine.

That's natural.

It's the nature of mind.

Gently come back to noticing and gently saying silently,

On the in-breath,

May I be well.

On the out-breath,

May I be happy.

Now I want you to think of somebody you really love.

Someone that it's easy to feel good about.

It could be a person.

It could be any living being.

A beautiful tree.

A lovely river.

Ocean.

So many things to love.

Think about someone,

Some being that you really love.

Get them in your mind.

Somebody that is just so easy,

So natural to adore.

Now silently to yourself with that being,

That beautiful being in mind.

May you be well.

And may you be happy.

Breathing in,

May you be well.

May you be happy.

Staying with that practice.

Breathing in,

May you be well.

Breathing out,

May you be happy.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

Now I'm saying this to you.

May you be well.

And may you be happy.

May you be well.

And may you be happy.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

And as we transition to the next phase of the practice,

I'd like you to just think of somebody that you don't know really well.

You really don't have strong feelings towards them in any way.

Somebody you might see at the grocery store,

Sometimes at the bank.

Somebody you may pass regularly in a hallway.

It doesn't really matter.

But think about that person or even a group of people like that.

And as you have these well wishes rolling,

This great compassion practice rolling,

As we're drawing our attention,

Our presence towards wishing well,

We're connecting our minds and bodies and our intention in this direction which will lead to a positive outcome over time.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

May they be free of suffering.

May they be free of the root of all suffering.

May he be well.

May she be well.

May they be happy.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

And we're going through these stages rather quickly.

But I think that's okay.

Because you can extend this practice anytime you want.

You can shorten it any way you want.

Sometimes I'll do this on planes and before I know it,

An hour or two has gone by.

Sometimes five minutes seems too long.

Consistency.

Just do it.

Thinking about those people still,

May they be well.

May they be happy.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

If you're brave enough and if you're feeling it,

You might want to consider somebody that you don't think very highly of.

Somebody who may have hurt you.

Now if it sort of wrecks you and starts wrecking your mojo,

Then you can stop at any time.

None of this is mandatory.

But if you practice over time,

It gets easier to understand that everyone's happiness is a good thing.

But you may not be there yet.

Never mind.

But if you can with me,

We'll just do it for like one minute.

Think of that person that kind of gets to you.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

May they be well.

May they be happy.

And now,

Just for fun,

Let's just expand that together.

This power of intent that everyone,

All beings be well.

That all beings be happy.

That all beings be free of suffering.

And that all beings be free of the root of suffering.

Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you - may you be well, may you be happy. 😌💗

Absolutely what I need right now! Love his style and way of being just absolutely straight up!

Beautiful meditation and I truly enjoyed your sense of humor

Suffering is cruelty. Compassion is heavenly. Our team ... my husband and I, even in our own infirmities, make it our life’s purpose to aid and assist all those who are suffering from any sort of emotional pain from relationships in marriage and/or family. We’ve been at it for over 20 years now. So today’s meditation really caught my attention. Thank you 🙏🏽 Rick, for all that you do cultivating compassion.

(Breathing in) “May I be well.”🧘🏽‍♀️
(Breathing out) “May I be happy.”

“May you be well... May you be happy!”

“May they be well... May they be happy... May they be free of suffering... May they be free of the root of all suffering!”

I AM that I AM ... and today “that” is creating compassion around the world🌍 for little girls who are mutilated (FGM - Female Genital Mutilation), and will NEVER grow up knowing what it’s like to feel the ultimate pleasures that “come” with experiencing an orgasm!🤔😦😢 Namasté🙏🏽
https://youtu.be/a4n0zcsdoN0

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