Compassion Meditation

Compassion begins within ourselves, in our hearts and minds. It is the ability to feel empathy and understanding for the suffering of others, as well as for our own struggles and challenges. When we cultivate compassion, we create a deeper connection with ourselves and the world around us.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

I'd like to begin by sharing a quote from the book Path to the Palace of Nowhere by James Finley.

He says,

The master is afraid,

Perhaps as afraid as you are,

But the master is not afraid of being afraid,

Because the master knows it is just fear.

Why be afraid of it?

Why are we afraid of being afraid?

Because we believe that our fear has the power to name who we are,

And it fills us with shame,

And we feel that we are going around as a fearful person so we try and pretend we're not afraid,

And we try and find some way to not be afraid anymore.

This is our dilemma,

Our stuck place,

That the master has been liberated from in realizing that it is just fear.

Why be afraid of it?

Somehow it is to recognize the divinity of fear.

It is to somehow recognize it's woven into the fabric of things.

The master is not one who has risen above human frailty,

But rather,

To the contrary,

Is one who has listened so deeply to human frailty as to discover it to be overflowing with inexhaustible compassion.

Discovering directly the inexhaustible compassion that flows through human frailty,

The master has learned to be at home in frailty,

And has learned to find a paradoxical power in it.

I feel more at home in my humanness now than I ever have,

And I attribute it to decades of deep listening to what I think James Finley was calling our human frailty,

To the long,

Seemingly endless lineup of confusions,

Fears,

Angers,

Resentments.

Once these things didn't belong to me,

And they were left in corridors crying or pushed into cracks and puttied over or stuffed in old shoes,

But now they do,

They are mine,

And I am theirs.

And there's a certain breathtaking peace that accompanies this.

I belong.

I belong to my life,

And my life belongs to me,

And the contents of my life belong to me.

Nothing I experience is brought into my heart,

Nothing is siloed off or rejected,

Although at times I do forget to open the door and I'm still afraid of being afraid.

It never really stops me from eventually deeply listening to what hurts.

This is my home,

And I am inside this place called life,

And I am home.

I am learning to find home inside this place.

I know one of the biggest things we struggle with as humans is to feel as if we belong.

And I realized the other day when I was asking myself,

What is belonging?

How does one feel like they belong?

I think this quote in the book points to how we belong.

We have to bring life into our experience,

Bring life into the room with us,

And let everything belong to us,

The hard,

The afraid,

The discomfort,

The worry,

The grief.

And I think most often and automatically,

We are kind of putting these things off to the side.

We're putting our worries and our issues kind of into compartments or neat places piled up like stacks of books.

One day we'll look at them,

One day we'll deal with them.

And that's where we feel this estrangement from our lives.

I think that's when we start to feel like we don't belong.

Because there's so much that we are not bringing into the room with us,

Even though it's asking.

There's so much that we are disowning and not belonging to.

So how could we possibly belong in our lives and in our moments if there's so much left out of our awareness and somehow yet still asking to be in our awareness?

At one point I did believe that freedom and liberation meant that there was going to be an eradication of the elements of suffering.

I wouldn't be suffering anymore.

And I still struggle against that ideation that I will reach a place where there will no longer be suffering.

But I see now that the words freedom and liberation actually mean something entirely different.

That true freedom is an honest and sincere embracing of our life in its totality.

It is to really see the divinity of our suffering woven into the fabric of things.

And to love all the forces that be.

The human heart,

The one beating inside of you right now,

Is the deep well of our compassion.

That's where our compassion lives.

And it is more than capable of receiving the moments of its life and its experience.

Once we sit inside the heart with whatever is visiting us,

Like the guests I spoke about last week,

We invite the compassionate heart to open and to receive and relax into the experience it's having.

And I think this receiving and this relaxing into is the beginning of coming to feel at home inside our human frailty.

So if I sit to contemplate and consider some of the darkest,

Hardest moments of my life,

I see that I was being involuntarily forced to have a conversation with my human frailty.

And the experiences were unwaning,

Unrelenting,

So assertive.

And I find now it had to be that way because it had so much to teach me.

There were so many parts of me that needed and continue to need to release its resistance and hatred toward what it is going through.

The tidal swell needed to be so strong that it pried my fingers off the edge of the small cliff of my familiarity.

It needed to be so acute that I was bunted into a place that was unrecognizable to me so that it could show me something new about myself,

So I could hear a different sound.

It's incredible how vehemently we will fight against our life,

How we will refuse,

Absolutely refuse to look for even a glimmer of divinity inside the hard face of a feeling or a worry or a fear or doubt or great change.

It just comes in and we won't even look.

So we endure these condensed periods of learning,

Or better named suffering,

Because we're really needing to be stripped bare.

And then only then we become permeable enough to accept and welcome something new.

In our undefended states we find soft-heartedness,

And from soft-heartedness spouts compassion.

In the excruciating blend of all of it,

We feel closer to home than ever before.

So I was considering what compassion really means.

And the Latin root of the word compassion is to suffer with.

And I think this begins first inside of us.

We find our compassion for the human race first within our own hearts,

For our own experience.

So I think compassion really means to suffer with ourselves first and foremost.

Are we present to our suffering and our moments of suffering?

Are we suffering with ourselves,

Awake?

Are we listening deeply to our human frailty?

So in order to suffer with ourselves,

We have to bring together the difficulty we are facing and the self in us that is able to console and listen to the difficulty.

This is really a profound thing to realize,

That reveals to you the parts of your living being.

When you turn toward a discomfort or a trigger point,

You bring into the same room your alchemical heart and the stuck human aspect of you.

And when these two parts strike one another,

This cloud of compassion blooms between them.

And this compassion creates safety and well-being.

It communicates to the body that there is a place here within this person,

Within this being,

Within this home that will and can hold your human hand.

So there's a friendship now between your deepest self,

Your God seed,

You could call it,

And the poor storm-toss creature.

And the more times we bring these two parts in us together,

The larger our compassionate reach and the farther the distance is created between our fear of being afraid of the fear and the closer to the divinity inside everything and the paradoxical power in it.

The master is still fearful,

Just as fearful as you,

But the master knows it is just fear.

Why be afraid of it?

I can think of nothing more infused with divinity than an ache that holds the power to anchor the body in its life,

Really an ache that calls the being home to itself.

So I'd love to just meditate with you now,

Just to kind of look at what this looks like,

What does it look like to suffer with myself?

What does this look like?

So if we could just close our eyes and come into our bodies,

Come into the home that is our bodies.

Noticing one lives here with us always.

We have the mind and its rambling thoughts and ideas and identifications.

It's just busy churning away,

Nothing to do about that,

We can't stop thinking.

Oh,

I love that.

I love you mind,

I love you thoughts.

And we have this breath,

This steadfast breath,

Our first friend.

The first thing we did when we came to life was breathe.

Oh,

I love your breath.

And we have this heart,

It's just such an anchored feeling for me,

My heart.

It has a quality of presence that just causes my body to relax and receive.

Oh,

I love you heart.

And I have this great body,

This great beautiful body,

Just working,

Rushing in to fix anything.

Rushing in,

Rushing,

Rushing,

Rushing around to make sure you get to live.

I want nothing more than life.

This is what I mean,

There's this engine just pumping away,

Loving you,

No matter what.

So we breathe and we soften with gratitude for all of this,

These simple,

Ordinary,

Overlooked things.

We see the whole picture,

We don't focus on anything to fix or solve.

Nothing the mind has to say right now is important.

We just zoom all the way out and see how beautiful and how grateful we are for all of these things,

This choir of life.

We just breathe.

And if there's something real for you right now that's disquieting,

Causing you to avoid or silo or reject,

Whatever's triggering that for you right now,

I invite you to maybe just gently bring it into the room,

The home of your body.

You don't have to feel ashamed of it,

Embarrassed.

Just bring it in,

Meet your guest.

Just meet what is hard.

And if you can't find anything that feels particularly hard,

I find joy can even make us feel a bit nervous.

You can bring joy in too.

Sometimes the company of joy makes me afraid to lose joy.

So whatever it is for you,

Whatever feels uncomfortable,

Invite it into the room and give it a name.

Hi,

My fear of death.

Oh,

Hi,

My aloneness.

Hi.

And I want you to notice this part of you that's saying hello,

This part of you that's greeting.

Notice how kind,

How able,

How inexhaustible your love and presence is.

Who is saying hi in you?

Notice its capacity.

Notice how strong it is.

Notice if this is your strong spine.

And just take a moment to listen to what this feeling,

This guest has to say.

And if this guest is shy and it's just offering waves in the body of discomfort or fear or trepidation,

Just accept those.

Try and say yes to them.

And what does it look like to say yes to this feeling moving through my tissues?

How can I say yes to this?

And if you notice there's resistance,

Just keep softening that resistance,

Leaning back into that strong spine of your compassionate heart and presence.

Suffer with.

And then feel that tenderness rise like heat in the heart,

A surge,

A swell of healing.

This is what courage looks like.

See the face of divinity within this afraid part of you.

See how it shakes.

See how it tries to run and hide.

Just see it.

This feeling belongs to you now.

And you it.

It is here and so are you.

You don't have to live under its shadow.

You don't have to choose to hide or rebel against the contents of your life.

You just have to be here to suffer with.

And breathe deeply and invite the qualities,

Qualities that you think would help this part of you.

Is it courage?

Is it strength?

Is it just love?

And invite that quality into the room now too,

So there's a type of triangle there.

You have the quality you need.

You have your undivided loving presence here,

And you have your difficulty,

Your discomfort.

They're all here in the same room now.

And notice that that fear or that discomfort,

Whatever it may be,

Instigated,

Called forth a different quality,

Different essence,

A divine face,

Divine feeling,

Divine strength.

It didn't come to cause harm.

It didn't come to cause harm or pain.

It came to show you the face of divinity inside of it.

It came to show you how capable you are.

It came to show you the paradoxical power within it.

This is grace.

At the root of all suffering is grace.

It's just fear.

Why be afraid of it?

You don't have to fix it.

It's just here with us,

In us,

Belonging to us,

And also offering us wisdom and qualities that we need,

Qualities that will help us lead a more loving and compassionate life.

And these qualities,

The more we sit with every one of them,

Just grow and blizzoon around us like a halo,

A cloud of loving presence.

And so we begin to heal the world.

And so we learn to belong inside this life,

Belong to ourselves.

Wholeness comes from denying nothing its presence and arrival.

Breathing in,

I'm aware of my in-breath.

And breathing out,

I'm aware of my out-breath.

Wonderful.

Thank you for practicing.

I know many of us are just learning.

You know,

I'm 40 and I'm just learning this.

We're just learning to bring in the contents of our life and allow them their place and learn from them and love them.

We're just beginning to learn like babies with wobbling legs.

And that's more than enough and that's more than okay.

And it's incredible how quickly we can begin to change the landscape of our lives.

Everything's just coming in.

So make sure it's allowed in.

Try your best.

I'm still afraid of being afraid sometimes too.

But it's definitely lessening.

And also I just want to encourage if you,

You know,

How I have met my visitors,

Sometimes,

You know,

These feelings we have hide in the body and they're not very clear and it's hard to name them.

And I find the practice of flow writing has been tremendously helpful for identifying what's there.

And flow writing is just allowing the pen to write without stop and just say,

What's here,

What's here,

What's here,

What's here,

What do you have to say?

And letting it express itself and that creates the distance and then the compassion moves in between you in that distance and the engine just starts operating with more flow.

There's less rigidity.

There's nothing being splintering off and being avoided.

So maybe try flow writing if there's something that's a little unclear or something that's very persistent.

Just keep letting it express itself.

Just keep inviting it to express itself no matter how many times it comes.

Suffer with yourself.

Suffer with.

Thank you for being here and have a beautiful week.

Reviews

Beautiful, similar to IFS work but with a soft and graceful approach. 🙏🏼💓 thank you

So powerful. I am struggling emotionally with old memories that have resurfaced. Painful. Tears of compassion for this struggling, sad child. Thank you Sarah.

Gentle and beautiful guidance to embrace what brings suffering as part of being human. Tears of relief. In gratitude

I cannot belueve how you speak to me so personally. OMG can you read my mind and then you offer solutions or progressive steps i can not thank you enough. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Very powerful and I learnt a lot about the different parts of me. I love your realness. Thank you.

Deeply love 💗 and appreciate this so much 🥰 thank you Sarah ! Yes indeed!!

Wonderful beginning to this promising day! Thank you🫶🏻🇨🇦

So incredibly profound as always. Thank you so much for being a pivotal part of me being alive today
I am wholeheartedly grateful for you Sarah. If I didn’t find you and your work in 2017 I would likely not be writing this today.
Thank you for your love in all that you do.

So helpful and comforting during these troubling times. 🙏🏻

No matter which of your meditations I choose, you have this beautiful way of drawing me back into my heart and from there flows so much compassion, peace & clarity. Thank you Sarah, you are a very special soul.

I loved the story and meditation so much. Reminded me that all of me is my responsibility and is welcome. I welcome my parts with open arms. Not to be calm all the time, but to be present with whatever arise.

This is my new favorite track from SB! SO powerful the image of the triangle. I see the healing quality of Trust for my Anxiety while the Grace of knowing my own divinity makes it all possible!

Brilliant guide to really feeling and acting with compassion towards my whole self.

Such beautiful words and tools and wisdom to bring to our awareness Sarah. Thank you for sharing such honest and loving lessons.

Another outstanding session from Sarah Blondin. Honestly, it was like she was sitting at the dinner table with me last night and knew exactly what I needed this morning. So much wisdom and so much love. Thank you.

Loved this meditation. Lately I have been feeling a longing that I cannot name. During this meditation, tears flooded in, and I let them I’m. An awareness that I have not fully grieved a loss completely, due to fear of “feeling the feelings”. This meditation gave me permission to go there. For that I am truly grateful❤️🙏

I envisioned an empty room with a big bouncer at the door keeping everyone out. The bouncer is fear and I invited it in. Showing how much space there is, how capable I am of receiving. So next time I will stand at the door myself, seeing who’s next in line and letting them in, one by one. Meeting them, accepting them.
I am only whole when I let everything in.

Utterly Amazing. Thank you Thank you Thank you Sarah 🙏💞

𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐. 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝟸𝟶 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚜𝚘 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚢.

Helpful examination of where my fears reside, what’s holding me back from living fully. Starts with a thoughtful and probing talk and moves into meditation.Thank you Sarah.