This meditation is Embracing Life with a Smile.
The compassionate Buddha is often seen in statues or pictures with a slight smile as he embraces the ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows.
Meditating with the image and feeling of a smile reconnects us with the spirit of radical acceptance,
With the openness and love that hold our life.
Let yourself sit comfortably taking some moments to gently close the eyes and let the natural rhythm of your breath help you relax.
Taking some moments to let go of thoughts as well as obvious places of physical tightness and tension in the body.
You might sense that with each out-breath there is a natural letting go,
Releasing,
Relaxing.
Now,
Listening to sounds and becoming aware of the space around you,
Allow the curved image of a smile to appear in your mind.
Notice how gentleness,
Openness and ease arise with the idea of a smile.
Sense the curved,
Relaxed smile filling your mind and extending outward into space.
Now imagine the open curve of a smile settling gently into your eyes.
You might sense a smile at the corners of both eyes and feel the sensations that arise.
There,
Smile into the eyes.
Sensing how the sensations of ease and openness can spread through the whole brow.
Smiling into the eyes and allowing your brow to be smooth,
The flesh around your eyes to be soft and relaxed.
You might sense your eyes floating gently as if in a pool of warm water.
Continue to soften and let go through the whole area around the eyes.
Can you perceive a relaxed brightness there?
Now bring a small but real smile to your lips,
The half-smile of the Buddha,
And allow the feeling to relax the muscles of your face.
Let the jaw be relaxed and loose and let the tip of the tongue lightly touch the roof of the mouth.
Feel now again the smile in the mind,
How the eyes are smiling,
The mouth is smiling.
Bring the image of a smile to your throat and notice what happens.
There might be a relaxing and opening.
If there is tightness,
Allow it to be held in the sense of a smile.
Feeling again and sensing the smile in the mind,
The smile that settles gently and spreads through the eyes,
Your mouth smiling,
Your throat smiling.
Let the smile drift down now into the chest.
Imagine the shape and feeling of a smile spreading through the area of your heart.
Whatever feelings might be there,
Even gripping sensations of fear,
Allow them to float in the openness and kindness of a smile.
You might feel the breath at the heart.
Breathing in and out,
Allowing that sense of a smile to become more full,
More present.
Continuing to relax,
Sense the smile in your heart sending ripples of ease throughout your body,
Through the shoulders,
Along the arms and hands,
And down into the torso and legs.
Can you feel the openness and vibrancy of the smile at the navel,
The genitals,
The base of the spine?
Let the sense of a smile,
That openness and aliveness,
Spread through the whole field of bodily sensations,
Allowing the sense of a smile to fill the whole space of awareness.
Edgeless,
Open,
Tender,
Alive.
Allow yourself to rest in this space,
In this openness.
And when thoughts,
Sensations or emotions arise,
Sense how they are held with unconditional friendliness.
If your mind wanders or you find yourself tightening,
You can gently re-establish the smile in your mind,
Eyes,
Mouth and heart.
Rediscovering how the spirit of a smile gives us the openness and tenderness to hold this entire life.
