Because of the events of the last week,
The fear and uncertainty due to the real dangers in the world today,
Due to the spread of the coronavirus and the stock market crash,
And the risks to people's jobs and livelihood,
We've decided to jump ahead in our slowly unfolding sequence to one of the most powerful techniques of compassion,
And one that's an effective and powerful antidote to anxiety.
It's a technique where you empathetically imagine the fear and the pain and the suffering of others,
Not just feeling it,
But sincerely wishing to take it away.
It's a technique of compassion.
If you're unfamiliar with compassion,
Or just familiar with its dictionary definition,
From the meditative approach,
Compassion is different from empathy.
Empathy is when you feel another's emotions,
When you feel their pain.
But it's been shown that empathy alone leads to burnout and more stress sometimes,
Because you can become overwhelmed with others' suffering.
Compassion,
Though,
Combines empathy with a wish to eliminate others' pain.
So compassion's a mental technique to transform empathy into some form of action,
Even if it's just a mental action,
An action of your imagination,
Turning your mind toward helping others,
At the very least wishing to help others.
In this meditative process,
You imagine taking away all the pain and suffering of others,
And then you imagine giving them all your safety,
All your health,
All your peace of mind.
And it's not a kind of spell that magically takes away others' problems.
But imagining like this in meditation has the effect of opening your heart to others in a productive way that eases your own fear and pain and stress and suffering.
And then in a state of mind that is more understanding of the pain of others,
Paradoxically,
You become far better when you get off the cushion at remaining calm,
At helping others,
At staying present and doing the best for the people close to you and the people you encounter in your daily life.
Staying calm in the face of genuine danger like we have today helps you absorb information accurately,
It helps you make rational good decisions,
And it helps you be available to effectively soothe and care for your family,
Your friends,
Your coworkers,
And strangers.
Being able to calm your mind and bring yourself to a point of present awareness without anxiety through this type of compassion meditation or through other types of calming,
Stabilizing meditation.
This isn't just mentally helpful,
But it actually promotes your immune system's health.
It prevents communicable disease from arising and accelerating because stress is a great cause and accelerator of disease.
So let's dive into the meditation.
Find yourself cross-legged on the floor or in a seat with your legs uncrossed,
Your feet flat on the ground.
And so we set our motivation to spend a brief time on the cushion,
To reduce our anxiety,
To reduce fear,
To increase our compassion so that we can make good decisions,
We can be rational,
And we can remain warm and open and helpful both for ourselves and our own physical and mental health and also for all those around us.
And so we'll begin with a brief stabilizing meditation.
Adjust your posture so that your spine is erect,
Your hands on your knees or right hand atop the left in your lap.
Let everything else in your body relax,
Your legs,
Your arms,
Your torso,
Your shoulders,
Your face,
Eyes half closed if you're in a quiet place.
And just bring your attention to your breath.
And as other thoughts and feelings arise or pains in your body,
Try just to let those thoughts and feelings and perceptions gently fade away.
There's no need to pull them close.
There's no need to push them away.
Just let them gently pass by.
Bring your mind back to your breath.
So just for a minute do this together.
Mental health personal existence ASL.
And now,
We begin to open our heart,
Bring to mind other people who are facing the same difficulties as you right now.
And in your mind,
Materialize them sitting in front of you.
People that are scared,
People that are anxious,
People that might be a little bit sick and not sure if it's something more serious,
People worried about their jobs,
People worried about the stock market and the economy,
People worried about supporting themselves and their family,
People worried about their safety.
Bring this group of family and friends and colleagues to mind,
All in front of you.
And for a moment,
Just try to move between their minds,
Seeing how they feel similarly to you in specific detail if you can.
.
And then reflect on your own good qualities that beneath any fear,
Anxiety,
And uncertainty,
All of your best qualities remain stable.
Your capacity to be kind and generous and loving and helpful and patient and your capacity for joy,
Camaraderie,
And your ability to focus and be effective in the world,
To be rational.
And to be compassionate.
And try and visualize all these qualities as if they materialize as a bright white light,
The center of your chest.
The visualization helps to give these qualities a form and a focus.
Imagine expanding that light slightly,
Strengthening those qualities in you,
And seeing that there's enough to share,
Enough to help others.
And that when we exercise these qualities,
They only grow,
They never run out.
And so come back to all the people close to you,
Spread out in front of you.
Come back to the pain and fear and anxiety and maybe even genuine illness that some of them have right now.
And think how much I wish that if I were able,
I would take away their pain.
There's only one of me,
But there's so many of them.
And if it were possible for me to take away their pain,
Even if it meant some small pain for me too,
Of course I would do that.
If you're a parent,
You know this feeling is more painful to see your child suffer than to suffer yourself.
You'd gladly exchange with them.
So try to extend this kind of deep unselfish compassion to everyone you're close to.
And if I could,
I would take away their pain,
Even if it meant some pain to me.
And then imagine that all those people's difficulties also manifest in a visualization.
This kind of a dark blackish gray smoke at the center of their chests.
And there gathers all their fear and anxiety,
Their financial strain,
Any illness,
Any lack of safety and security.
And now as you breathe in on your next breath,
Imagine that those little dark clouds are pulled up within that person,
Pulled up along their spine.
And on the next in breath,
Imagine that that smoke comes out of their nostrils,
All their pain and suffering.
