Meditation On Developing Impartial Compassion

Join Venerable Tenzin Tsepal in a recent “Sharing the Dharma Day” meditation at Sravasti Abbey, focused on overcoming “bumps on the road” to developing impartial compassion for all beings.

This meditation begins with a guided body scan and short breathing meditation. Later, the analytical meditation encourages us to compare our response to the suffering of dear ones and strangers. Do you notice a difference in your compassion and open-heartedness in both situations, and if so, why?

Transcript

So let's begin by just settling into our chair or cushion that we're sitting on.

So just see if you can set aside whatever's happened this morning and really allow yourself just to be here right now.

Noticing the contact that you make with the cushion or the chair that you're sitting on.

Just taking a few deep breaths to settle yourself.

And we'll begin this morning with some meditation.

We'll do a short body scan and then some breathing meditation.

And then I'll set a motivation for our time together.

And then we'll do an analytic meditation to help us explore the topic that Venable's going to discuss today.

We're on Chapter 58.

It's called Removing Partiality.

So let's just check to make sure we have a posture that's conducive for our meditation.

So just checking that you're sitting upright.

And especially if you're sitting in a chair,

If you can just lean forward a little bit so that you're not resting on the backrest.

It just helps to keep the spine straight and upright,

Which facilitates our mind being clear and alert.

And just checking that your legs are in a comfortable position,

Either crossed or feet flat on the floor if you're in a chair.

And here we put our hands in our lap,

The right hand resting gently on the left hand with the thumbs touching.

Just checking to make sure that the shoulders are relaxed and even.

And you might find it helpful just to tilt your head slightly forward,

Tucking your chin a little bit so that your gaze would fall naturally in the space in front of you.

And your eyes can be open or closed,

Whatever is comfortable for you.

If you leave them open just a little bit to let some light in,

That can help to prevent sleepiness or dullness,

Drowsiness.

So let's begin with a short body scan.

And we can start at the head or the feet,

Either way is fine.

But let's just check in with the feet,

Noticing any sensations that you're aware of in the feet,

The toes,

The sole of the feet,

The heel.

Just inviting a sense of relaxation there in the feet.

Isn't it amazing just bringing our attention to different parts of the body,

All of a sudden we become aware of many sensations,

Many feelings.

If you find any discomfort or tension in any area,

Just see if you can breathe,

Breathe in and out with it,

Allow it to relax,

Be more spacious and at ease.

So then noticing the ankles,

The calves of the legs,

Just really paying attention,

Bringing our full attention,

Our gentle awareness to notice that part of the body,

Inviting relaxation,

Ease.

And noticing the knees,

Often a place that starts to talk to us when we sit in a meditation posture.

So just checking in and just allowing your breath to be very natural as we're doing this exploration of the body.

We're not trying to control or manipulate the breath in any way,

Just allowing the breath to be very gentle and natural.

Bringing the awareness up to the thighs.

Again,

Just noticing different sensations,

Different movements of energy,

Warmth or coolness,

Tension,

Whatever's there,

Just notice.

And inviting relaxation.

Bringing up to the hips,

Bringing your attention to the hips and the buttocks.

And just notice if there's any tightness or tension,

Any holding there.

You might even connect with the abdomen at this point.

And just inviting a sense of spaciousness,

Let go of any holding,

Any tension.

Feel the full breath down into the belly,

Allowing yourself to settle into the cushion a little more deeply or the chair.

And then bringing the attention to the lower back,

Another place we tend to hold tension,

Just noticing,

Inviting ease.

Breathing with any discomfort or painful sensations you're aware of.

Feeling the sensations with the in-breath,

Expanding the ribs.

Also check in with the mid-back and the adrenal glands,

Just noticing if you have any awareness there in the mid part of the back,

Especially if you have a lot of stress in your life or difficulties going on.

Sometimes you can really tune into the adrenals.

And then coming around to the front of the body again,

Just noticing the belly.

Also bringing your awareness to the heart and the middle part of the chest.

And we're so fortunate here that we're among like-minded people,

So we can open our hearts completely to whatever we experience today.

Really tuning into the heart.

Also noticing the throat.

Again,

Just observing what sensations are present there this morning.

And then moving around to the back and taking a full account of what's happening in the shoulders.

You might find it helpful to raise your shoulders up to your ears,

Squeeze them really tight,

And then drop them very quickly.

That's a nice way to release any tension there in the shoulders.

You can do it a couple times if you find that helpful.

And then bringing your attention into the face,

All the little muscles around the mouth and the eyes,

The jaw,

The forehead.

Just inviting a softening,

Relaxation,

Relaxing all those muscles.

Just let them surrender to gravity.

And then just thinking about,

Even thinking about a slight smile coming upon the lips.

Just doing that small action relaxes even more muscles in the face.

And then noticing the crown,

The top of the head,

Any sensations present there.

Pleasant sensations,

Unpleasant sensations,

Tingling.

So again,

I invite you just to take a nice deep breath into the body.

And as you exhale,

Again,

Just invite a deeper sense of relaxation and presence.

And at the end of the exhale,

Just pause for a moment and wait until there's a natural inclination to breathe in again.

So that in this way,

We establish that very natural rhythm of breathing,

Just like when we're in deep sleep.

Our body knows how to breathe.

We don't need to control or regulate it in any conscious way.

Just simply allowing the breath to be as it is.

And then let's take a few moments to focus on breathing meditation.

You can either observe the rise and the fall of the abdomen with each in-breath,

Each out-breath,

Just noticing the different sensations.

Or if you're more familiar,

You can bring your attention to this little area of the nostrils and just above the upper lip.

And really tune into all the little sensations with each new in-breath,

Each new out-breath.

Our body only exists in the present moment,

But our mind is a different story.

It likes to think about the past,

The future.

And so when we tie our attention to the body,

Like with noticing the physical sensation of breathing,

Then we tie our awareness,

Our attention to the present moment too.

So just choose one of those objects to focus on.

And let's just take five or six minutes to luxuriate in noticing the breath.

And also noticing thoughts will continue to arise in the mind,

That's their habit.

We can just let them be like clouds passing in the sky.

They arise,

They abide very briefly.

Notice how they just pass away of their own accord when we don't give them any attention,

Any energy.

Just let them be in the background.

And continue to bring your full awareness to each new in-breath,

Each new out-breath.

So we'll do this together for a few moments.

So you can just stay in that meditative space and let's take a moment to set our motivation for our time together today.

It's important to recognize that there are countless people around the world who share in a vision as we do for a kinder,

More compassionate,

More empathic world.

So we can trust that we're not alone.

And events like this,

Sharing the Dharma Day,

Allow us to come together and encourage and support each other and to support that better aspect of ourselves,

Cultivating our good qualities.

It's important that we keep our eyes on our values and the qualities that we find so important in our lives,

In our societies,

Like love,

Compassion,

Empathy,

So that we don't lose hope or trust or confidence in our humanity.

So much of the news is dominated by what's going wrong.

There's emphasis on tribalism,

Extreme nationalism,

Divisiveness.

And in particular,

There's so much hateful and divisive speech on social media,

It's almost become normal.

But let's remember that it's a small,

Vocal minority of individuals and groups who are trying to highlight the differences among us,

To deliberately separate or drive a wedge between people.

Sometimes we can think that small,

Loud minority is the majority,

But it's not.

There's so many kind individuals in this world that we share the planet with.

So paying attention to what we value and making an effort to feel connected with others who share the same kind of hope and aspiration for humanity as we do is really important at this time.

And what makes human beings so unique is our intelligence and our ability to intentionally cultivate our good human qualities.

Like love,

We can increase our love.

We can increase our compassion,

Our kindness,

Our forgiveness,

Our tolerance for differences.

And so forth.

And compassion is a really important element of not only an ethical life,

But a happy life.

And so we need to support our compassion by first lessening our tendency to be biased,

To be partial.

So we're intentionally trying to lessen exaggerated attachment to friends and loved ones,

Trying to lessen the hostility towards people we find different or challenging,

And really trying to lessen and eliminate any apathy we feel towards any sentient being,

Any living being,

All the while increasing our love,

Our compassion,

Our wisdom,

Mindfulness.

And particularly,

We need equanimity,

Which involves a sense of valuing everyone,

Each individual,

So that our love and compassion are less partial and more stable,

More universally applied.

And cultivating more of our good qualities like kindness and compassion helps us to feel connected to every living being.

Think about your own experience.

When the heart is open,

No matter who we come in contact with,

We can feel a connection,

A kinship.

And so we're intensely trying to increase our capacity for these good qualities and to increase our capacity to be of greater and greater benefit to all living beings in whatever way we can.

So see if you can set that as your motivation for our time together today.

We're opening our hearts and minds to listen to some teachings,

To discuss,

To connect with others so that we can go back out into the world and let that ripple effect go out and touch so many lives.

So now we're going to do a little bit of analytic meditation.

Analytic meditation is where we use our thoughts to investigate our own experience,

To really analyze if how we're thinking is correct and beneficial.

And so in this section of the book,

It's called Bumps on the Road,

Which focuses on different things that can prevent us from developing impartial compassion towards all beings or that make it challenging to develop that compassion.

So this chapter is called Removing Partiality.

So just thinking about what is partiality in our life?

It's that tendency or habit of favoring one person or group over another.

In a way,

It's a sense of,

It's a lack of equanimity.

So let's just think about what are some of the causes and conditions that influence our own partiality?

What are some of the things you notice in your own life that influences partiality,

Thoughts of partiality or actions of partiality?

Probably you're coming up with things like the conditioning we grew up in,

The people and objects we encounter,

Perhaps our personal values and beliefs,

Our own prejudices and projections,

Our hopes and fears,

Even the mood that we're in at the time we have a partial attitude,

The times and the culture we live in,

The people we associate with and respect,

As well as our own karmic seeds from previous actions that we've done.

So let's do a little exploration this morning around partiality.

It's probably quite obvious to us that when a friend or a loved one suffers,

That can really affect us.

It can make us unhappy as well.

And we easily wish to help alleviate their problems and their suffering.

So just think of a recent example when a loved one had a problem or some suffering,

Some difficulty,

A challenge.

Think of something very specific.

And just try to examine what was going on in your mind when you encountered that suffering.

What kind of thoughts and attitudes did you easily have?

Did you see their suffering as your own?

And what kind of actions did you take to help that loved one or that friend?

And did those actions seem like a burden or was it easy because of your care and your concern for their well-being?

And then let's call to mind any suffering that we may have read about or heard about this past week of someone we might consider a stranger.

So not an average stranger,

But someone that brings maybe a little discomfort in the mind when you notice this kind of stranger.

Maybe a homeless person you passed on the street.

Or maybe someone you read about in the news,

Someone specific.

Maybe reading about the stories of the shootings that happened this week from people ringing the wrong doorbell or driving up the wrong driveway.

Maybe thinking about both people in that situation,

The person affected and also the person who did the action of shooting.

So think of one person.

And just notice,

Did you take a keen interest in that person,

In their story,

In imagining what might be going on for them?

And if you didn't take a keen interest,

Just notice what was going on in your mind.

What kind of attitude arose?

How much time and energy did you give it?

Were you concerned about their suffering as if it were your own or as if it were your loved one?

Did you try to imagine yourself in their shoes,

In their situation,

Their condition?

And what actions did you take,

If any?

And as kind of an aside while thinking about strangers,

If you're like us at the Abbey,

You probably contribute to many charities or social programs like Save the Children or SPCA or ACLU,

The Tibet Campaign,

Different things like this.

Did you get any mailings this week that had graphic stories or pictures?

Stories or pictures that might somehow encourage you to donate?

Did you read the literature and let it touch your heart?

And if not,

I encourage you to really explore what prevented you from engaging with empathy and compassion.

And then one last exploration.

Keep in mind that developing the broad kind of impartial compassion that we're after requires a lot of honesty,

A lot of humility,

A lot of effort,

Really.

And so I invite you to think about,

See if you can recall a time when you saw a person suffering and it actually generated a sense of happiness or satisfaction,

As perverse as that sounds.

We've probably all had that experience.

See if you can call to mind a specific incidence.

And then just investigate what was going on in the mind.

Was there some jealousy involved,

Some competition?

What was preventing compassion from arising then?

So these are just a few bumps along the road for developing the broad kind of impartial compassion that we're after.

Reviews

Gratitude 🙏🏾 V

I think the real love I am working on is giving without expectation in return. The impartial compassion that i have a ways to go on is sometimes those who are apathetic or hostile or both will not care for your care for them.

But that’s what makes the impartial co
passion true is that you do it because you unconditionally care for the apathetic, hostile, and violently delusional because true compassion can only manifest if you rise above the self pitying anger that you always have to be met with people who will be pleasent to you.

Thank you, though this is easier said than done, remembering these words and not letting others ill actions lead to hostile anger or complacent apathy is a 24/7 practice.

Wonderful. The world definitely needs more compassion and tolerance. Much Metta to you. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷