We can start by just checking in with how you're sitting and see if you can make any adjustments that you might need.
Both feet on the floor,
Your hands just resting gently at your sides or in your lap.
Resting in a way where you feel your spine is aligned,
Your shoulders back.
It could be a sense of nobility to your posture,
But remaining relaxed,
Not forcing anything.
You might move your head from side to side,
Back and forth,
And just find a position where your head feels like it's gently resting in a natural way.
And if you feel comfortable,
You can close your eyes.
And for a moment,
You can feel yourself arriving in this moment.
It's a special thing arriving just right here where everything else can quiet for a moment.
And you have a different quality of experience just simply being here without any sort of agenda,
Just awake to the simplicity and the ease of life without duties or opinions,
Just quiet,
Experiencing this stillness.
And in this stillness,
You can feel the breath coming and going,
You as the witness of the waves of breath,
The ocean lapping onto shore and then receding.
Back and forth,
Bringing life to the body,
Feeling the rising and falling of the chest,
The body naturally welcoming each breath,
And then gently releasing with the out breath.
Now bringing to mind someone who has affirmed who you are,
Someone who has supported you,
Encouraged you,
Seen the potential inside of you.
Could be a grandparent or other relative,
Might be a teacher or a mentor,
Someone who has believed in you,
Perhaps even when you doubted yourself.
So bring that person to mind and sense again that affirmation you feel just being around them.
Silently directing these phrases to them.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
And may you know deep peace.
For a moment,
Feel that person receiving these phrases from you.
That's the effect of these pure well wishes,
Just the goodness of them.
Now calling to mind someone you don't know that well,
Could be someone you passed on the street today,
A neighbor you rarely see,
Cashier at a store,
Could be the people who once a week pick up your trash and select one such person.
Just imagine who that is and silently direct these phrases to them.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
May you know deep peace.
For a moment,
Feel that person receive those phrases from you.
Just let them land and sense how they change things.
Now call to mind a person who you feel some discomfort around.
Don't select someone who has done true harm to you,
But someone for whom there's some tension or just an inability to connect.
Calling that person to mind and silently direct these phrases to them.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
May you know deep peace.
For a moment,
Feel that person receive these phrases from you.
Feel how they might open up some space and change things with that person.
Now see whether you can extend this goodness,
These wholesome desires to all beings on Earth.
You might mentally sweep your gaze across the Earth.
You can imagine people in different circumstances,
Some poor,
Some well off,
Sick and well,
Young,
Different cultures,
Races,
Languages.
For a moment,
See if you can hold all beings in your gaze and silently extend these phrases to them.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
May you know deep peace.
For a moment,
Feel all beings receiving those phrases from you.
See what it's like to send your kindness out to all of them.
And now moving beyond our Earth,
Off to other planets,
Other galaxies.
Imagine your gaze extending as far as this new telescope has seen some 13 billion light years away,
Including trillions of galaxies,
Each with trillions of stars.
Take a moment to imagine the enormity of that space and feel your mind expand,
Opening to this vastness.
Letting go any feeling of constriction,
Limitation within your mind and just abandon into that vastness.
Scientists think that there are billions of planets in this vastness in which there may be life.
Take a moment to send your kindness out to all other life,
Wherever it might be in the universe.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
May you know deep peace.
Feel part of this great cycle of life,
Extending back billions of years and extending forward billions more.
Finally take this bright light of kindness that you've been shining to the farthest reaches of our universe and bend it back to shine on yourself.
Can you drop whatever self-criticisms or doubts you might have and relax and be still as if you're lying out in a field under the bright sun,
Feeling its warming rays to feel the effect of this kindness directed back to yourself.
May you be well.
May you be at ease.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be happy.
May you know deep peace.
The Buddha said you can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself and that person is not to be found anywhere.
You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe desires your love and affection.
For a moment just sense how good it feels to experience that care.
All that kindness that you willingly share with others coming back to enter your own life.
Just rest there.
Now in your own time you can come gently back.
As you're ready you can open your eyes.
Thank you for your kind attention.
