Loving-Kindness Heartscape Meditation Inspired By Jon Kabat-Zinn

This meditation, inspired by the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, is a way for us to cultivate kindness and compassion first towards ourselves then progressively outwards until we are including everything in our field of loving-kindness. This practice also helps to incline the heart towards kindness in difficult times. Through this practice we can experience the infinite qualities of love and how, through regular practice, we can actively manage or even dissolve overwhelmingly afflictive mind states.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Ryan,

And welcome to the Loving Kindness Heartscape Meditation inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Now,

Loving kindness practice can help incline the heart in the direction of kindness more frequently,

Especially in difficult times.

Loving kindness can often serve very practically as a necessary and skillful antidote to mind states such as ferocious rage,

Which may,

At the time of their arising,

Be too strong to attend to via direct observation unless one's practice is very developed.

At such times,

Formal loving kindness practice can function to soften one's relationship to such overwhelmingly afflictive mind states and emotions.

So,

In a dignified sitting posture or lying down,

Whatever you prefer,

Bringing your awareness to the breath and the body as a whole.

Breathing and resting here,

Establishing a relatively stable platform of moment-to-moment awareness,

Riding on the waves of the breath.

And when you feel comfortable,

Resting with the flow of your breathing.

And picturing in your mind's eye someone in your life who loves you or who loved you unconditionally,

Evoking and giving yourself over to the feeling and the qualities of selfless love and kindness they accord for you or accorded you and the whole aura or field of their love for you,

Right here,

Right now.

Breathing with these feelings,

Bathing in them,

Resting in the warmth and radiance of their heartfelt embracing of you just as you are.

Or drinking in the experience that you are unequivocally and unconditionally loved and accepted as you are without having to be different,

Without having to be worthy of their love,

Without having to be particularly deserving.

In fact,

You may not feel particularly worthy or deserving.

That does not matter.

It is in fact irrelevant.

The relevant fact is that you were or are loved.

Their love is for you,

Just as you are,

For who you are now already and perhaps always have been.

Allowing your own heart to bask in these feelings,

To be cradled in them,

Entrained into them,

To be rocked moment by moment in the swinging rhythmic beating of the loving heart of another.

And in the cadences of your own breathing,

Allowing your heart to be held and bathed in this way by the warmth of this radiant pulsing field of loving kindness.

And if you encounter some difficulty in bringing to mind or conjuring up such a person from memory in this moment,

Then seeing if you can imagine someone treating you in that way.

And imagine with great vividness the feelings of love and kindness and regard.

And that can actually serve equally well in this practice.

You And whenever you feel ready,

Seeing if you can become the source as well as the object of these same feelings.

In other words,

Taking on these feelings for yourself as if they were your own rather than those of another.

Lingering as best you can with the rhythmic beating of your own heart.

Cradling in your own heart these feelings of love and acceptance and kindness for yourself beyond judgment of any kind.

Just basking in the feelings of loving kindness,

Akin to the all-loving embrace of a mother for her child.

Where you are simultaneously both the mother and the child.

Resting here in these feelings as best you can,

From moment to moment.

Bathing in your own kind regard.

Your own complete acceptance of yourself as you are right here in this very moment.

Letting this feeling be self-sustaining,

Natural,

In no way forced or coerced.

You you you In resting here in this field of loving kindness,

This embrace of loving kindness,

You may find it useful to whisper to yourself the following phrases.

Or hear them being whispered to you by the wind,

By the air,

By your breath,

By the world,

Or even asserted more strongly with great feeling.

May I be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm.

May I be happy and contented.

May I be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.

May I experience ease of well-being.

You you you Gently,

At your own pace,

Over and over,

Inwardly whispering,

Inwardly hearing,

Feeling,

Sensing,

Affirming.

May I be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm.

May I be happy and contented.

May I be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.

May I experience ease of well-being.

You you you you you you May I be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm.

May I be happy and contented.

May I be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.

May I experience ease of well-being.

At first,

It may feel artificial to be saying such things to yourself or even thinking about them.

After all,

Who is this I who is wishing this?

And who is the I who's receiving these wishes?

Ultimately,

Both vanish into the feeling of being safe and free from harm in this moment,

Into the feeling of being contented and happy in this moment,

The feeling of being whole in this moment.

Since you already are whole,

The feeling of resting and ease of well-being,

Far from the dis-ease and fragmentation we endure so much of the time.

This feeling,

This very feeling,

Is the essence of loving kindness.

But you may object,

If this is a selfless practice,

Why am I focusing on myself,

On my own feelings of safety and well-being,

On my own happiness?

One response would be,

Because you are not separate from the universe that gave rise to you,

And so are as worthy an object of loving kindness as anything else or anyone else.

Your loving kindness cannot be either loving or kind if it does not include yourself.

But at the same time,

You don't need to worry.

It's not limited to yourself,

Because the field of loving kindness is limitless.

If you like,

You can think of the loving kindness practice as we've been engaging up to this point on a relative level at least as tuning your instrument before you play it out in the world.

In this case,

Tuning the instrument itself is a huge act of love and kindness,

Not a means to an end.

You you Once you have established a fairly stable field of loving kindness around yourself,

And have lingered here for a time in the feeling of being held and cradled and rocked in its embrace,

You can intentionally expand the field of the heart just as we sometimes expand the field of awareness in the mindfulness practice.

We can expand the field of loving kindness around our own heart and our own being,

Inviting other beings either singly or en masse into this growing embrace.

This is not always so easy to do,

And so it's helpful to start with one person for whom you naturally harbor feelings of loving kindness,

And only if you care to explore it.

Otherwise,

You can simply keep embracing yourself as the recipient of your own love and kindness,

Either using the phrases we are already using or modifying them to suit yourself.

You So,

If you are open to expanding the field of loving kindness out from your heart,

And your own body and your own being,

In your mind's eye and in your heart,

Evoking for now the feeling or image of an individual,

A person for whom you have great affection,

Someone you are close to emotionally,

Can you hold this person in your heart with the same quality of loving kindness that you have been directing towards yourself?

Whether it is a child or a parent,

A brother or sister,

A grandparent or other relative near or distance,

A close friend or a cherished neighbor,

Singly or together,

Breathing with them or him or her in your heart,

Holding them in your heart,

Imagining them in your heart as best you can,

Because,

Just to let you know,

This practice is so intrinsically powerful that none of the imaging or imagining of yourself or others needs to be very vivid for it to be hugely effective.

And so wishing them well,

May she,

He,

They be safe and protected,

Free from inner and outer harm.

May she,

He,

They be happy and contented.

May she,

He,

They be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.

May she,

He,

They experience ease of well-being.

Lingering,

Moment by moment in the field of loving kindness within your own heart,

With these phrases as you voice them silently to yourself,

And even more with the feeling behind them,

Repeating them in order over and over,

Not mechanically,

Not like a mantra,

But mindfully,

With full awareness,

Knowing what you're saying,

Feeling the intention behind the feeling,

The intention and the feeling behind each phrase.

May she,

He,

They be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm.

May she,

He,

They be happy and contented.

May she,

He,

Or they be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.

May she,

He,

Or they experience ease of well-being.

You you you you here whenever you're ready if you care to you can invite into the field of the loving heart those for whom your relationship is more neutral or even people you don't know at all or who you've only heard of secondhand friends of friends for instance and again cradling him her or them in your heart wishing them well may she he or they be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may she he or they be happy and contented may she he or they be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible may she he or they experience ease of well-being you you you if you find the mind wandering or you find yourself struggling at a certain point just notice what's going on in the mind perhaps feeling the sense of struggling and maybe even maintaining your focus or concentration and simply over and over again including yourself in the field of loving kindness and coming back to the phrases whispered spoken inwardly to yourself resting in the feeling radiating out of those phrases and underneath that out of your heart moment by moment by moment with whomever it is singly or together to whom you're sending loving kindness you you you and from here if you care to you can once again expand the field of awareness to include one or more individuals who are actually problematic for you in one way or another with whom you share a difficult past perhaps who may have harmed you in one way or another who for whatever reason you consider to be more of an adversary or an obstacle than a friend this does not mean you are being asked to forgive them for what they may have done to hurt you or to cause you or others harm you are simply recognizing that they too are human beings that they too have aspirations that they too in all likelihood desire to be happy and safe so as best you can and only to the degree that you feel ready for it or at least open to experimenting with it extending loving kindness to them as well for all the difficulties and problems lying between you may she he or they be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may he she or they be happy and contented may she he or they be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible may she he or they experience ease of well-being just as with the cultivation of mindfulness where we can rest with one object of attention or expand the field to include varying levels of objects of attention so in this loving kindness practice we can linger for days weeks months or years at differing levels of the practice all of which are equally valid and equally healing and all of which ultimately include each other so if you wish to cultivate loving kindness and direct it only toward yourself now in this period of practice that is perfectly fine and you can just keep and sustain that dimension of the loving kindness practice underneath my voice and what I'm saying or if you care to direct loving kindness only towards those who you know and love or even one person over and over again that's fine too any level at all at which you care to cultivate and direct loving kindness is fine is perfect and ultimately embodies all the others anyway for over time it's likely that sends your own capacity for loving whether you know it or not is infinite that is simply the nature of love that it's limitless and therefore actually an infinite supply that you may find yourself naturally drawn to invite more and more beings into the field of loving kindness radiating from you and your own heart and towards all beings in all directions inwardly and outwardly or you may find at times they just slip in unbidden somehow this is interesting to note if you are not consciously inviting them in why are they showing up anyway how are they getting in hmm maybe your heart is bigger and wiser than you think in the spirit of the boundlessness of the heart and of love itself we can expand the field of loving kindness even further to include our neighbors and neighborhood our community our state or region our country the entire world if you will you can include your pets all animal life all plant life all life the entire biosphere all sentient beings you can also get very specific and include specific people even political leaders in the field of your loving kindness difficult as that may be if you differ strongly with them and find yourself judging them and even their basic humanity harshly all the more reason for including them being human they are worthy of loving kindness and perhaps will respond to it by softening in ways your mind cannot possibly imagine and perhaps the same goes for you as well you can also specifically include in the field of loving kindness those less fortunate than yourself who are exploited at work or at home all of those who are imprisoned justly or unjustly all of those who are at the mercy of their enemies all those who are hospitalized or sick or dying all those who are caught up in chaos who are living in fear who are suffering in any way shape or form whatever brought them to this point in their lives just as we do they all want to experience ease of well-being rather than dis-ease in fragmentation just as we do they all want to be happy and contented they all desire to be whole and healthy they all desire to be safe and free from harm so we recognize in this way in which we are all united in our common aspiration to be happy and not to suffer and we wish them well may all beings near and far be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may all beings near and far be happy and contented may all beings near and far be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible may all beings near and far experience ease of well-being you you you may all beings near and far be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may all beings near and far be happy and contented may all beings near and far be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible and may all beings near and far experience ease of well-being you and it need not stop here why not include the entire earth in the field of loving kindness why not embrace the very earth that is our home that is an organism in its own right that is in a sense one body a body that can be thrown off balance by our actions conscious or unconscious in ways that create huge threats to the life it nurtures to the intelligences embodied embedded within all aspects of life animal and plant and mineral that interact so seamlessly in the natural world and so we can expand the field of the loving heart even further the field of our own loving kindness moving ever outward and once again to include this time the planet as a whole and out beyond that the entirety of the universe in which our earth is merely an atom and we not even a quark may our planet and the whole universe be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may our planet and the whole universe be happy and contented may this planet and the universe be healthy and whole may our planet and the whole universe experience ease of well-being and it may feel a little silly to be wishing loving kindness to the entire universe it may even feel a bit animistic but why not after all we are not separate from this universe that gave rise to us you may our planet and the whole universe be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm may our planet and the whole universe be happy and content may our planet and the whole universe be healthy and whole may our planet and the whole universe experience ease of well-being you you you you you so in the final moments of our time together resting here in the radiance and luminosity of your own intrinsic beauty your own intrinsic love your own intrinsic kindness whether you are using words or not at whatever level you choose or intuitively you are drawn to radiating loving kindness inwardly and outwardly near and far and as this formal period of practicing together comes to an end with the sound of the bells affirming inwardly that this practice can be nourished on a regular basis if you are drawn to keep it alive and vibrant just as can all the other practices we have been engaging in together and affirming for yourself and for others if you like the old Navajo saying which I extend to you now may you walk in beauty may you and all beings near and far walk in beauty you

Reviews

This one was so so beautiful thank you so much 🌏🙏🏼🤍🕊️💧

Feeling blessed and content and surrounded by love ❤️ and peace 🙏✨thank you Ryan

Thank you my heart is full of loving kindness .♥️🙏🏻