So let us close our eyes and as you take a breath in and take a breath out,
Let's start by beginning to scan and do a body scan as we move our awareness through the body.
So maybe starting with the top of your head and as you're feeling the top of your head,
Just imagine your spirit is fully coming into your body.
We want to be really embodied with this practice.
This is a feeling practice.
So feeling your head,
Feeling your neck and relaxing as you go through the body.
Relax your face,
Relax your jaw.
Relax your neck and your shoulders and if you need to move your shoulders around a little bit,
Let go of the weight of the world that we often feel in the shoulders.
So just soften with your awareness.
You can move your awareness around and every time you place it somewhere,
Soften that part of the body.
So feel your arms and your hands now and soften those and as you bring your awareness into the center of your heart,
Take a deep breath in.
Imagine it's coming right through the heart center,
Through the chest and just settling and softening and as you breathe on the inhale,
Breathe in the word peace through the heart and breathe out peace.
That's a way that we're signaling to our body the intention of the practice.
So breathe it in.
Imagine on the inhale,
You're filling your heart up with peace,
Every cell of your body and breathe it out on the exhale and now bring your awareness deep into your belly,
Underneath your belly button.
Take some deep,
Long belly breaths.
This is where we often hold a lot of tension and stress in the belly.
We digest our emotions here.
So breathe in on the inhale as if you're breathing in through the belly button,
Deep in the belly,
Breathe out and let your body just soften and settle.
Let your belly expand.
Let go of any clenching,
Anything that's being held.
Let it just wash away on the in-breath and the exhale.
Now feel your sitting bones on the chair or the cushion or wherever it is that you're sitting on the floor.
Feel your sitting bones and we try to hold our chest upwards,
Aligning our back for this practice so that our heart is a little bit forward.
So if you can align your back and your posture upwards,
That can be helpful,
But in whatever way is good practice in a way that suits your body,
That feels compassionate for your body.
Now begin feeling your legs,
Bring your awareness to your knees.
So we're just sweeping our awareness through the body,
Moving down to the calves and the ankles.
Now feel the tops of your feet and the bottoms of your feet.
Now from the top of your head all the way down to the bottom of your feet,
Just feel this unified field of sensation,
Of energy,
This flow of energy.
And as you feel that flow of energy,
We're going to focus on the heart center as we begin to visualize ourselves,
Hold the vision as if looking in the mirror.
Just do your best to hold it steady,
Come back to it as your anchor.
And as you see yourself,
See yourself through the eyes of Kuan Yin,
The eyes of compassion,
The great mother,
The mother of compassion.
As we gaze upon ourselves with the friendliness,
We greet ourselves with care and kindness,
Can help to say your name throughout the practice as a way to get your attention.
If you have a nickname or a way that you reference yourself with care,
Can be even Oh honey,
Darling,
However it is that we extend this friendliness,
We are practicing the metaphrases,
The wish for kindness and friendliness is our intention here.
So as you see yourself,
We'll begin with may I be happy and peaceful.
May I be safe and protected.
May I be healthy and strong in this body.
And may I live with ease and joy and wellbeing.
And so really take your time with the phrases,
Go at your own pace.
It's always quality over quantity.
So just connecting as best you can.
You can also say,
May you be happy and peaceful.
You can use those phrases instead of I,
You can use you.
But the main thing is whatever feels easiest.
So keep settling the body,
Keep softening.
Happy and peaceful,
Safe and protected.
May I be healthy and strong in this body.
And may I live with ease and joy and wellbeing.
So keeping the phrases going on your own here for a time,
Come back to the heart.
You could also say,
May my heart be happy and peaceful.
Be safe and protected.
My heart being healthy and strong.
May my heart live with ease and joy and wellbeing.
As best you can hold the visualization.
Take your time with each phrase.
May I be safe and protected.
Keep softening in the body.
Happy and peaceful.
May I be healthy and strong.
Peaceful.
May I be safe and protected.
May I be healthy and strong.
This body.
May I live with ease and joy and wellbeing.
Other words may arise.
Kind words,
Compassionate words,
Offer them all.
Body,
For the last few moments here,
See if you can really focus.
Seeing your face,
Seeing your goodness as you offer the phrases.
Really taking your time.
May my heart be safe.
Healthy and strong.
May my heart live with ease and joy and wellbeing.
Your awareness also to be focused on the heart center in any way that you can.
Feel,
To breathe through your heart as you do the practice.
And as we move toward the end of the practice,
Let's expand this light from the center of the heart.
Now imagine this golden light is emanating like a portal,
Like a satellite beam out.
And we're going to include now all of our community and our friends and our loved ones and our children and pets and neighbors and coworkers.
And see them all in front of you.
May my community,
My family be happy.
We extend this feeling to include everybody on this call,
All of our friends and community.
And through this light in our chest,
May we all,
Our communities,
Our friends,
Our loved ones,
Our people,
Be healthy and strong.
May our communities,
Our people,
Our families live with ease and joy.
And now imagine that this energy in the heart,
It's like the sun now.
And we're going to shine it on all the beings in the United States and all the towns and cities.
The places we live,
The places we have lived,
The mountains and the oceans,
The beaches,
The trees.
North America,
South America,
All of the countries and nations.
May you all be happy and peaceful.
May all beings everywhere be safe and protected.
Gaia,
Mother Earth,
Pachamama.
And we just envelop her in this metal light.
The whole blue planet.
May Pachamama be healthy and strong.
We send that love to all of the animals in the ground,
The animals in the sky,
The seen and the unseen.
And extend to all of creation,
The universes and beyond.
May all of creation live with ease and joy.
And when we begin to end here,
We always put our hands in prayer position at the heart and we always bow to the practice.
We bow to the good heart,
The great heart of the universe,
To ourselves,
To all beings.
No matter how it was,
We always say thank you,
Gratitude.
And may this practice be a benefit not to ourselves,
But to all beings everywhere.
We give thanks to all the deities and gods and goddesses joining on through their hearts.
Our hearts unite.
Awakened heart.
May it be so.
May we quickly awaken for the good of all beings everywhere.
OM MANI PADME HUM
