Allowing the brightness of our intention to permeate the posture,
Allowing breath to deepen through the whole body.
And as best we can find a kind of ease or softness through the musculature and bones of the body.
Whatever comfort can be found,
Physical,
Emotional,
Mental,
At this moment,
Somewhere midway along the journey of your life,
Turning attention toward that comfort or ease,
As if a balm for injury.
Ease is not just the result of practice or of the medicine applied,
But ease is the applying itself.
The way most of the comfort comes in the voice of the one who says,
It's okay,
I'll help you wash the wound.
It won't hurt for long.
I'm here.
Let ease be the medicine and the result.
And we invite into the space of the heart,
Body,
The sublime intention of loving kindness.
The feeling that is carried along the wish for wellbeing,
Whether we think the words as we sometimes practice or invite wordlessly just the feeling.
May I be safe from harm,
From danger.
Between breath to soften,
Chest to soften,
Belly to soften,
Spine and central column to brighten without effort,
Tall and clear.
We are both the one bringing ease and the one receiving ease.
May I be at peace in my heart.
May I be strong,
Powerful,
Resilient in body and mind.
May I live with ease,
The deep ease of wellbeing arising from wisdom and clarity in this life.
The birthright of everyone who has taken birth to rest at ease in their aliveness.
I'll say variations of these phrases again.
And you can repeat the words in your heart mind or let the words flow through and just rest with the invitation of the feeling or even more simply resting just with the sense of ease through the whole body and the invitation of the delicious breath.
Whatever ease and comfort can be offered this evening to this one sitting here in your seat.
May I be safe from harm and danger of all kinds.
May I be at peace in my heart.
May I be strong,
Powerful,
Resilient in body and mind.
May I live with the great ease of wellbeing.
Tonight let's go on bringing one person to mind who we care about.
See the image of this person or being.
See them happy,
At ease in themselves,
At their best as they would like to be seen as you enjoy seeing them.
May you be safe from harm and danger of all kinds.
May you be at peace in your heart.
May you be strong,
Powerful,
Resilient in body and mind.
May you live with the great ease of wellbeing.
Sense how it is for your inner gaze to turn outward toward this person,
To wish well toward this person in all the complexity of their story,
Aspects of their story,
Their suffering,
Their joy that you know,
That you don't know.
And we'll finish this part of practice tonight just by going all the way as if the heart were a bright star in open space,
Shining in all directions,
Unobstructed,
Giving light and nourishment to everything that finds its way into its field,
Everything not obscured by shadow,
Allowing the heart to shine in all directions.
And here we say all beings,
May all beings be safe.
Tonight I'll suggest that we use the we for all beings,
Remembering ourselves as part of the circle,
Never separate from the circle.
Cast the light of your heart as wide as you can imagine it through the front and back and sides and above and below the body,
Inviting every kind of living being into the field of kindness.
May we be safe from harm and danger of all kinds.
May we be at peace in our hearts.
May we be strong,
Powerful,
Resilient in body and mind.
May we live with the great ease of well-being that is the birthright of everything that lives.
May all beings be at ease.
May all beings be at ease.
May we all be at ease.
Resting in the vast field of kindness.
As we go on into silent practice,
Any anchor for the attention can feel natural and easeful here.
Any anchor that does feel natural and easeful,
Maybe the breath,
The body and its posture sounds,
Or the field of loving kindness itself,
The feeling of kindness.
We'll sit together in silence,
Blessing ourselves and each other in the whole of existence with the wish for peace and well-being.
