Ordinary Mind Course: Session 3

In the third installment of the Ordinary Mind Meditation Course, we talk about compassion. Rather than the sappy sticky substance that it is often imagined to be, compassion is sharp and open-eyed, and is arguably one of the key elements to true happiness. In the guided meditation we learn techniques for developing our ability to embody the compassionate attitude.

Transcript

Welcome back to the Ordinary Mind Meditation Course.

Before we start,

Please sit comfortably and breathe deeply in.

As you exhale,

Release all the accumulated pressure in the body,

Mind and heart.

In this series,

We will be using meditation to investigate the reality of our life,

Our very own mind,

Heart and body.

As you listen,

Don't try to forcefully follow what I am saying.

Simply listen to the words as you would to the sound of nature or a piece of music.

As the mind immediately begins to make judgments and comments,

Acknowledge these thoughts and softly let them go and bring your attention back to the sound of my voice.

Breathe deeply in.

Here we go.

Last time we touched on non-self,

The idea that there is not a single solid entity that can be called a self.

We began to work on recognizing our thoughts and emotions and thereby seeing them for what they are and not attaching to them or giving them special meaning.

We will continue with training our single pointed focus in the next sessions,

But first let us take a small yet crucial detour.

There is a Tibetan Buddhist saying that just like a bird needs two wings to fly,

We need both emptiness and compassion to get beyond suffering.

So in today's session we'll be talking about compassion.

As a concept,

Compassion refers to the understanding that all of us just want to be content,

Happy and free from suffering and unsatisfactoriness.

Just as a flower inclines towards the sun,

So do we all incline towards contentment and happiness.

One may pursue this end by following a set of completely misaligned incentives such as the pursuit of riches or fame.

Of course,

Having sufficient resources,

Whatever that might mean to us,

Or having social power and a high reputation,

Can be extremely useful when used for the general good.

But as we so often see,

These pursuits easily turn into a sort of addiction,

Where people act out of impulse and greed.

This in no way means that they are evil.

Rather,

It is simply that they seek happiness and contentment in the wrong places.

As we see from this example,

In Buddhist thought there is no such thing as original sin or evil people.

All beings only want to be content and happy,

But they may miss the target by going after these goals in wrong and ignorant ways.

An outlook which embodies this understanding as its basis is what we call compassion.

Buddhism advocates for compassion as the prime incentive for all our action.

This is known as bodhicitta,

Or mind of awakening.

This is the wish to be content and free from suffering so that we can help everyone around us be happy and free from suffering.

Our own happiness is strongly dependent on developing a strong sense of compassion for ourselves and for others.

Because without it,

We might blame and hate others and develop an attitude of anger towards the world.

And with anger in our hearts,

There is absolutely no chance to be free from suffering.

Indeed,

Carrying anger is suffering.

So even if we are only concerned with our own happiness,

Compassion towards others is the only way to go.

Changing our own attitude is far wiser than trying to change every little outer cause.

The Buddhist master,

Shantideva,

Used this analogy.

Instead of trying to cover the whole world with leather so that we can walk around pleasantly,

It is much easier to just wrap our own feet.

Before we begin today's practice,

I'd like to make one remark.

It should be noted that there is an important difference between empathy and compassion.

Sometimes we hear the term compassion fatigue,

But in fact,

This should be known as empathy fatigue.

When we experience empathy,

We really feel the suffering of the other,

Like the feeling we get when we see a child crying or a puppy whimpering.

These are our so-called mirror neurons which let us actually experience some of the suffering that we can see.

This can be indeed very tiring,

Especially if one is in the caring professions such as nurses or doctors.

And rather than help us,

This can make us push away or avoid the suffering of others.

Compassion is not this at all.

Rather,

It is simply the understanding that all beings just want to be content,

Happy,

And free from suffering,

And our strong wish or personal feeling that we want this to happen.

As you've probably guessed,

Today's practice will be a compassion practice.

This is a practice which combines two of the most common Buddhist compassion practices.

The first is metta,

Or loving kindness meditation,

And the second is tonglen,

Or taking and sending meditation.

In this practice,

We will start by generating a feeling of warmth and compassion,

And then send it mentally towards first ourselves,

Then a loved one,

Then a neutral person,

Someone we find difficult,

And finally,

The whole world.

All of these exercises will be connected to the rhythm and quality of our breathing.

So to start off,

Let's sit comfortably with the back straight but free of tension,

And take a few deep breaths.

In and out.

If you'd like,

You can do some healing breaths,

Either 555 or 142,

As we learned in the first two sessions.

Now,

Bring to mind an experience of unconditional love.

Perhaps you've experienced it from a child,

Or a parent,

A grandparent,

Or even a pet.

If you can't recall any such experience,

Simply imagine it.

Let a certain warmth fill up your heart and your center.

Imagine it as a warm and bright light,

Softly glowing inside you.

In Buddhist sources,

Every compassion training starts with compassion towards ourselves.

More often than not,

We carry around at least some amount of guilt.

Now,

With the understanding that all we want is to be content,

Happy,

And free from suffering,

We can send ourselves this feeling of unconditional love and compassion.

On the in-breath,

Breathe in all the suffering and pain you are carrying with you day to day.

Imagine it as sticky black smoke.

On your out-breath,

Send out your best loving and compassionate intention in the form of bright and warm light.

You can repeat to yourself silently,

May I be content.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

May I be at peace.

Do this a few times.

Now,

Bring to mind someone close,

Whom you care about.

Feel that glowing warmth and direct it towards them.

On the in-breath,

Take in all their pain and suffering,

All the black and sticky smoke.

Just like you,

They just want to be happy,

But carry around pain and suffering.

On the out-breath,

Send them your best compassionate and loving intentions in the form of bright warm light.

Repeat silently with your out-breath,

May you be content.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

May you be at peace.

Continue like this for a little while.

Next,

Think of someone who you are neutral towards.

A stranger you passed in the street,

A bus driver,

A shopkeeper,

Or any other person who you feel neutral towards.

Feel that they too just want to be free from suffering,

But they experience it every day.

Breathe in their suffering and discomfort in the form of black smoke.

And on the out-breath,

Send them the warm glowing white light of compassion and care.

On the out-breath,

You can repeat to yourself,

May they be content.

May they be happy.

May they be free from suffering.

May they be at peace.

Go on like this for a bit.

Now turn your attention to someone who you experience as difficult.

Someone who wronged you and you didn't forgive yet,

Or someone who brings up negative feelings like hatred,

Anger,

Or fear in your heart.

Now think of the fact that they act the way they do only because they themselves want to be free from suffering,

But they don't know how.

Breathe in the suffering and pain that they must be experiencing as a result of their misguided actions.

Breathe in all this dark smoke.

On the out-breath,

Send them the shining bright light of your heartfelt compassion and loving attitude.

Repeat to yourself,

May they be content.

May they be happy.

May they be free from suffering.

May they be at peace.

Repeat for a few moments.

Finally,

Bring to mind the whole world.

Everywhere there are so many beings who just want to be content and happy and free from suffering.

Everywhere there are beings experiencing suffering,

Dissatisfaction,

Discomfort,

And pain.

Breathe in all this mass of suffering,

All this sticky black smoke.

On the out-breath,

Send them the brightest shining light of compassion and love.

There is so much of it.

It covers the whole world,

Filling beings everywhere with contentment and peace.

Repeat to yourself,

May all be content.

May all be happy.

May all be free from suffering.

May all be at peace.

Continue like this for a little while.

A little while.

To finish,

We will do a small purification practice.

Imagine a shining white egg on the top of your head.

It shines a bright light.

As it cracks,

A glowing warm light flows out of it and covers your whole body,

From the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.

Wherever it touches,

It causes all the black smoke you've breathed in to evaporate instantly and makes you completely relaxed.

As this shining nectar covers your body,

All the tension dissipates and evaporates together with the black smoke.

You remain completely and totally absorbed in the glowing light which surrounds you.

Totally free.

Feeling yourself gently back.

Repeat this practice daily,

Together with the single pointed concentration practice from the last sessions.

This practice is useful together with all the practices we have done so far and that we will do in the future.

Once you feel that you have mastered it,

Feel free to use it with any of the other practices that you'll be doing.

Thank you for joining today and may you be content and at peace.

Ami tofo.

Reviews

Cool metta and tonglen

A challenging technique to be practiced.

Thank you. Every time I practice I find my wandering mind is able to stay a little more focused. It is indeed like a butterfly.

Excellent..thank you