First,
As we settle into our posture and the feeling of moving towards stillness,
Maybe with a fuller breath,
A deep breath in and out or a few full breaths,
Inviting both presence in the body,
Knowing where we are,
Feeling of the body and its posture,
And a kind of kind or caring attitude as the foundation for the meditation.
Kindness for this body,
For this heart,
For all we encounter,
Experience and suffer and enjoy.
Breathing in a kind of warmth to the body.
Maybe breathing in any message this body,
This heart needs to hear this evening just as we begin.
As if an older,
Wiser,
More at peace version of ourself was speaking to ourself.
It's okay.
It's good.
You're okay.
You're good.
Bit by bit we just invite with the breath some recognition of the basic goodness that's here.
Feeling the breath rise and fall in the body.
If it feels good,
Filling the torso,
Belly and chest,
Whole body with breath,
Letting the arms and legs,
Central column,
Neck and head all breathe together.
Breathing in kindness,
Patience,
Wisdom,
Even if we don't feel wise or patient or kind.
The heart quality of equanimity is one of the sibling qualities to loving kindness or goodwill.
And it's a particularly mature form of kindness,
Where kindness or goodwill,
Benevolence has become so deeply rooted in our being that it by itself starts to become universal.
When we begin to have the feeling,
May everyone be at peace,
May everyone be protected,
All beings human and non human,
Known and unknown,
Liked and disliked,
May they all be safe.
And they all find ease in their hearts be held in happiness,
Well being.
When that wish leaps the border of the personal and my community and my people and becomes everyone.
Basic loving kindness that can feel most potent when it's personal starts to transform into something that is most personal when it's that is most potent when it's impersonal,
Vast.
But to do this,
There has to be wisdom.
Equanimity is something like love with wisdom.
And that wisdom understands that all of our actions and our wishes unfold in the vast web of conditions.
Some under our control,
Most not.
It understands that our own happiness depends not so much on the success of our actions,
Getting what we want,
Preventing what we didn't want,
But on the quality of heart that we bore through it.
So the closing phrase in the five recollections is the phrase for the practice of equanimity.
Feeling our hearts and feeling this basic kindness.
Not letting go of the warmth,
The moisture of kindness for ourselves and others.
All beings are the owners of their actions.
Born of their actions,
Heir to their actions.
For all beings,
Which can sound a little neutral-ish,
We could just say we because it can be too easy to forget ourselves in this one.
We are the owners of our actions.
Every one of us individually,
But also us as families,
As community groups,
As people.
Equanimity understands that all that we truly own as the wheel of life rolls forward.
It is our own actions,
The intention behind those actions.
Equanimity has a deep sense of responsibility to the world,
But also a deep understanding about the limits of any individuals or groups' power.
This is a good thing.
So the practice of equanimity as a brahma-vihara,
Fill the body with breath.
Brahma-vihara is the divine abidings,
The divine states of the heart,
All based in love.
Fill the body with breath,
Breathing in and out.
Really connect with the sense of the whole body as a field of breath,
A field of kindness,
Of love.
We can invoke this without feeling it,
But if we feel it,
Even like a little ember,
We blow on it with the breath.
Not too hard,
Not too soft.
We give it the oxygen of our own breath.
See if we can get the dry bones and skin to catch fire.
Fill the body with kindness,
With the heat of love,
Warmth.
May we each be well,
May all beings be well,
May we be well.
And then we turn toward the wisdom aspect as if soaring high above the earth and just seeing the action of the day like masses of people moving,
Like herds of buffalo moving,
No one animal distinct.
See the movement of whole peoples like weather unfolding.
We are the owner of our actions,
Heir to our actions,
Born of our actions,
Related to our actions,
Abide,
Supported by our actions.
Whatever action we do for good or for ill,
Of that we will be the heir.
Results can never be guaranteed,
But actions can be chosen.
You might feel the language of equanimity in the personal.
I am the owner of my actions,
Heir to my actions,
Born of my actions,
Related to my actions,
Abide,
Supported by my actions.
Whatever action I do for good or for ill,
Of that I will be the heir.
Continue to breathe into the whole body,
Saturating the body with kindness.
If there's a particular community of people or beings that you identify with or you track closely,
You can send this wish for equanimity to them.
It's a kind of compassion wisdom.
The wish that distress over what's happening be dissolved from their hearts.
Wisdom and clarity arise,
Wisdom revealing the love that's already there,
The basis of all the actions.
You might think of this community and say the phrase,
Either you or we,
Y'all,
Are the owner of your actions,
Heir to your actions,
Born of your actions,
Related to your actions,
Abide,
Supported by your actions.
Whatever action you do for good or for ill,
Of that you will be the heir.
How does it feel through the heart,
Through the body,
As we digest this way of loving?
You can continue working with that phrase if that feels good to you.
Continue to work with the full breath from the whole body.
And you can work if it feels good to do in other ways,
Sometimes in a very simple way.
If I can come out of whatever story I'm spinning about how things are and what's going right and wrong,
I might simply say,
This is what's happening.
No further assessment or complaint or celebration.
Simply,
This is what's happening.
We rest in contact with what's happening without turning away,
Without being swept away either.
This is what's happening.
Feel a kind of clarity through the body,
Dignity,
Simplicity,
Full body breathing.
We'll sit in silence together.
Our basic practice,
Saturating the body with breath and the pleasure of stillness,
Just resting together.
And then in whatever way is resonant to the heart,
Inviting on this night where a lot is happening in our world.
The clarity of heart that can know what's happening,
Remain rooted in kindness.
And further than that,
Remain at rest for a few moments,
Nourished by stillness,
Nourished by the presence of the infinite in a world that can seem so finite and small.
Sit together in vastness.
