Real Life - Bringing Practice Into The Day

It is one thing to practice loving kindness while relaxed on your seat or cushion. Then you have to get up and face the day. Here is an invitation and practice to help you put your good intentions into effect. Spread kindness wherever you go in this Real Life series.

Transcript

Music Dear friends,

Welcome to our meditation today.

We begin by staying for a while in this wonderful present moment.

Let's sit in the still point between all that has gone before and all that is yet to be.

Let's pause for sixty seconds of just being.

Music Music Music Welcome back.

Today's meditation is part of our Real Lives series,

Where we look at situations which we understand in theory and see how we might better manage to apply the theory to real life.

Today we are going to take a look at loving kindness.

Have you ever practised loving kindness in the morning,

Only to find your patience frayed just a little while later when you encounter the work,

The interruptions and the challenges of the day?

How is it that we can meditate on the theme of loving kindness and succumb so easily to the old habit of impatience when people or things go against us?

Isn't it obvious that each day will present challenges,

That each day will not be all plain sailing?

Let's pause and consider how our morning thoughts play out in our daily lives.

Music Music Music Welcome back.

There are some suggested solutions to this situation.

A quote from Thich Nhat Hanh.

Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us,

We must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities,

Those of compassion,

Understanding and loving kindness.

So how can we do this?

It helps first of all if we can be faithful to our morning practice.

Try to establish a morning practice,

A corner where we go for a few minutes and dedicate ourselves to a day of kindness and love.

In that place we set an intention to try to apply theories to our everyday lives.

And then when we enter the day,

It helps if we can learn to create a space between the external events and our reaction to them.

Try to notice if a negative routine response is arising and try to stop it.

If you can't say something positive,

Try and say nothing at all or excuse yourself as needing time to think or consider.

See if you can look on the offending person or circumstance as an opportunity to practice.

Let's pause for a minute to see if there's anything here that might help us on this path.

Let's end our reflection today with a morning dedication practice.

Today may I be calm within and kind without.

Today let me remember to water the seeds of goodness that I carry within me.

Let me be aware that within each of us there are traces of weeds and seeds with the potential to strangle the flowers of love.

Today let me take care to avoid watering those weeds and those seeds in myself or in others.

Today may I remember to pause before I react,

Recalling the wisdom contained in the old advice to count to ten.

Today if I fall,

Give me the strength to call to mind the ideals of my better self and determine to get up and begin again.

Today let me prepare for challenging situations by taking a few conscious breaths,

Bringing myself into the present moment and placing myself in the shoes of the other.

Let's pause for another sixty seconds,

This time to renew our dedication to the idea of making this life a little easier for the people we meet.

Let's begin.

Welcome back.

And finally for today we send ourselves on our way with this thought.

I shall pass through this world but once.

Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being,

Let me do it now.

Let me not defer it or neglect it,

For I shall not pass this way again.

Namaste.

Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you 🙏🏽 for sharing your wisdom with us. May we all have a peaceful and blessed life. Namaste 🙏🏽

I love the quiet mornings as it really sets the tone for the day and allows me to witness the sun rise!
Btw I was drawn to this practice by the picture of the child and dog… a representation of innocence and unconditional love! 🙏🏻

Tony this was beautiful and such a great reminder to hear. Thank you for always being my inspiration to become a better person. 💕🙏🏻

Tony dress is layers to keep warm, have very good warm boots for walking, gloves or I prefer mittens, Wool socks, and long underwear oh and a nice hat. Have a wonderful trip to Iceland.

Beautiful meditation and great reflection to soak in ❤️

This is another favorite that I'll be using regularly. Wonderful.

Lovely meditation. Thank you.

Thanks Tony for your thoughtful words. Especially like the reminder that we will only pass this way once so should be mindful of offering kindness and compassion where we can. 🙏

Beautiful 😌🙏🏻💗

Always love your talks of wisdom

Oh how this struck close to home for me! My troubled grandson is living with me right now and I find bliss in my meditation one minute, and the next feel my hackles rising due to his oppositional defiance. It’s a very hard teeter-totter I am on lately.
Thank you for these very much needed words of wisdom Tony. So grateful.
🙏🏽🐾🌷🦋🌸💕🌹🙏🏼🍁🍂💖

Great, full of wisdom, like always 🙏🍀

Thank you, good ideas. I'm trying to say to myself- "be curious" before responding...

Beautiful thank you

Thank you for this calm and focusing meditation 🙏🏻

EMPATHY. This is the meditation for that.

I so love this. Thank you

Such practical wisdom, delivered so gently, truly easily entreated. I listened twice,and participated first listening, then took notes the 2nd listening. For Grace to remember and apply these simple understandings regularly. Thank you.

My heart is overflowing right now. I had a couple of insights during this practice that I believe will ease the internal conflict I have had over standing my ground versus choosing to disengage and avoiding conflict. These insights are as follows:
1) Remember that all beings strive to be happy, and keep that in the foreground of my response rather than attempting to discern perceived intentions behind individual actions. (Which, as a graduate-level mental health/counseling professional, is my automatic response most of the time and has been a difficult habit to break when not in the office.)
2) Examine my personal principles and clearly establish if they have solid boundaries (and where those are) or "grey zones" (and where those are). Knowing my personal principles will enable me to better assess my own responses - walk away to maintain peace and equinimity, or engage to uphold that which at my core I feel is right (mainly major issues - abuse, neglect, human rights, etc.).

Since my early undergraduate years, I have had some version of a poster on my wall which shows the Earth from space with an arrow pointing to it, reading, "You are here." One version was the Milky Way galaxy rather than the Earth. Currently I have a magnet at work stuck to a framed photo on my desk with this photo on it, and additional text pointing out how ephemeral our own reactions are. In recent years, my meditation practice has sunk in to the extent that in situations where once I would have responded by shrinking back or growing hot with anger or frustration, I now hear a calm voice from my practice whisper, "I choose peace" and I simply state that it is not a subject I wish to discuss at this time.
(This is mainly extreme political differences within the household, often discussed by others at the dinner table, but as the lone dissenter hailing from an entirely different part of the country and with entirely different perspectives, I am often the focal point of others attempting to convince me of the error in my thinking and opinions. This is one of the biggest areas I struggle with - feeling comfortable discussing my views versus maintaining a lower level of tension. I suspect I will continue in the latter, but my personal comfort and knowing the reasons for my choice here is critical - and it has worked well. I choose others to discuss such things with, if I feel the need to talk at all.)

This practice brought so much of these core issues into sharp relief and I feel so much lighter now, relaxed, and aware of what steps I may take to deepen my awareness of lovingkindness towards others even in challenging situations or ones I have struggled with personally for a long time. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I've bookmarked and downloaded this practice, and look forward to others in this series. I see the light in you, Tony. 🤲❤️🤲