The main thing to realize about innate goodness practice is that it really is a wonderful way for us to contact the goodness that is part of our beingness.
It's a goodness that's not based on anything we do.
It's based on just who we are in our truest sense of that.
Normally in life,
We receive attention and we receive a mirroring of goodness when we do something.
When we do something that our parents,
Our partner,
Our teachers,
Employers like,
They make sure and tell us so we can repeat that behavior.
But on some level,
We always know that the goodness is dependent,
Dependent on our doing something rather than our beingness.
And really we,
In many ways,
We hunger,
We ache to be seen and mirrored for our innate goodness.
So this is a practice where we can get in contact with that for ourselves and we're not dependent upon somebody else being properly tuned to us properly in the right vibe with us to give us this kind of mirroring.
So the benefits of the innate goodness practice,
It allows us to simply be with our innate goodness without having to do anything.
So we're just resting in our innate goodness.
Another great benefit of this practice is it helps counteract the negative self-talk that we participate in.
A lot of the negative self-talk we maintain because it maintains a sense of identity.
Because we're constantly telling ourselves what we like and what we dislike about things that we're perceiving,
It helps us remind ourselves,
Okay,
This is who I am.
I've got these likes and dislikes.
So that helps with the regular identity,
The personality identity.
And a third benefit of the innate goodness practice is it allows us to rest in a really important quality of our true nature,
Which is innate goodness.
So again,
It's an unconditioned quality.
Among the ways it can be experienced,
Mostly it's experienced through the heart area.
I don't mean the heart itself,
The muscle heart,
But rather the heart area.
And we're feeling that often as a kind of radiance that's emanating from our heart,
Flowing in and out.
Often people describe it with a warmth,
Some sense of okayness,
Belonging,
Being home.
And also there's a subtleness to it.
So it's not going to be as dramatic as other experiences we have.
It's going to be kind of fresh and like a light breeze in the summer,
Something very nice and relaxed and easy flowing.
So the way the meditation works is if you're a visual meditator,
Which some people are,
You want to find a picture that you can hold in your mind's eye,
Either of yourself,
Particularly when you were younger or another child.
But just that kind of picture that shows that exuberant joy and carefreeness that children can have.
Or you can use a picture of a pet,
Nature,
Something else that just evokes that quality of a goodness that's not dependent,
That's independent of anything that's being done.
And so when you get the picture,
You want to hold that and maintain that picture,
Just feeling the innate goodness in your own heart.
You'll begin to well up.
If you're not a visual meditator,
Then remember a time when you were around a newborn baby,
A puppy,
Something along those lines,
Where again,
There's an innate goodness just radiating from that being.
And remember that felt sense of what it was like to be in contact with that baby,
That pet,
That sweet animal,
Or even adult.
But the sense of goodness,
Again,
Not dependent,
Just there being goodness.
And that's what you want to really hold in your mind's eye,
In your heart,
And be with.
And when you're able to be with the innate goodness for,
Say,
Something like 10 minutes without serious interruption,
Then see if you can rest your awareness actually directly in the innate goodness.
There will be a felt sense of that innate goodness.
And after about 10 minutes,
It should be stable enough that you can rest your awareness there.
So go ahead and seat yourself in your meditation posture.
Take a couple,
Three or four nice deep belly breaths.
Really expand your belly,
Get a nice big full lung breath.
And then see if you can exhale as much of that air out as possible.
Just let yourself be right here in this moment.
Feel your contact with the ground,
Whether it's your feet,
If you're sitting in a chair,
Or your legs,
And bottom if you're sitting on a zafu.
And feel the support that building you're in is providing you.
It's nice and solid beneath you.
And feel the earth holding that building,
Holding all of us right now in this moment.
We're all being held fully.
So again,
If you're a visual meditator,
Picture yourself or another human or an animal when they're radiating in a goodness.
Or felt sense meditator,
What was the felt sense like of being with someone or something that just emanated radiated in a goodness.
If the goodness fades,
Return to the picture or the felt sense to reestablish contact.
Again,
If you're a visual meditator,
Picture in your mind's eye yourself or another person or animal that just radiates in a goodness.
And if you're a felt sense meditator,
What was it like?
How did it feel to be around that being radiating in a goodness?
Just hold that in your mind's eyes as you breathe in and out of your heart area,
Letting in a goodness forward.
And again,
If you're a visual meditator,
What was the felt sense?
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