Reflection on interconnectedness.
This is a practice that can be done in any posture.
Just be relaxed.
Be at ease.
Take a slow deep breath.
Gently close your eyes.
Take another slow deep breath in 2,
3,
4.
Exhale 2,
3,
4.
Continue to find a slow rhythmic breath.
Allow your facial muscles to relax.
See if you can begin to trace back all those people who are involved in your interest and perhaps your meditation.
Someone might have given you a book,
Read you a poem,
Played you a piece of music,
Told you about their meditation experience.
Let a sense of them,
Recollection of them,
Come into the room with you.
Consider including those who have really hurt you.
Not just those who you find a little bit annoying or irritating,
But someone's whose actions have really brought you to an edge so that you almost said,
I've got to find another way to be happy.
I have to look more deeply into life.
After all,
They're a part of why we're here now as well.
Maybe you had a teacher who instilled love of learning and a willingness to be adventurous.
Maybe you had a parent who instilled confidence in your ability to try new things or explore new terrain.
Maybe you've had a child who's opened you up to a sense of wonder and interest.
Just let them be here with you now.
What about the clothing that you're wearing?
How many forms of life,
How many people,
How many beings have been involved in a growing of that fiber,
Creation of cloth,
Transporting it,
Selling it,
The creation of the building in which you are sitting or the stewards of the plots of land if you're outside.
All the forms of life involved in the food that you've eaten today.
The teacher in the earth who planted that seed and nurtured that crop,
Who did the harvest,
Transported the food,
Sold the food,
Prepared the food.
You can see that none of us is actually independent,
Alone,
Or cut off,
However alone we might feel sometimes.
They're all a part of the greater fabric of life.
This immense web of relationships and connections and influences.
This immense web of interdependence.
We arrive at this moment in time borne by a sea,
An ocean of conditions.
If we look at a tree,
We can see it as just a tree.
Or we can look at a tree and sense the soil and everything that affects the quality of that soil,
Which is nourishing the tree.
The rainfall,
Everything affecting the quality of that rainfall.
The sunlight and the moonlight,
The quality of the air.
Is the tree just a tree or the confluence of all these conditions coming together,
Moving,
Changing?
And so too,
We can see ourselves.
Meditation on seeing the good,
Even though our more habituated tendency might be to remember the things we've done wrong and the mistakes we've made,
The things we regret.
We can consciously shift our attention to include the good within ourselves.
And so too,
When we look at others.
This is not an exercise meant to deny that anything is wrong or regrettable.
But if we look at somebody and we only think about the mistakes they've made,
Then a tremendous sense of self and other and us and them can be reinforced.
Whereas if we include even one good thing,
If we can think of it,
Then a bridge is built.
So that when we honestly and directly look at what's difficult,
It's more from a stance of being side by side,
Rather than across this huge gulf of seeming separation.
Beginning with oneself,
Just in a relaxed,
Easy posture.
However you feel comfortable,
See if you can think of one good thing you did yesterday.
It may not have been very big or grandiose.
Maybe you smiled at somebody.
Maybe you listened to them.
Maybe you let go of some annoyance at a slow clerk at a store.
Maybe you forgave yourself for not saying something totally correctly.
Maybe you were generous.
Maybe you sat down to meditate.
Maybe you thanked a bus driver.
It's not conceit or arrogance to consider these things.
It's quite nourishing,
Replenishing to take joy,
To take delight in the good that lives through us that we can manifest.
If at any time,
Whether within ourselves or somebody else,
We cannot think of something good,
Then there's another reflection that we do,
Which is simply to recall that all beings want to be happy.
Somebody wants to be happy.
This urge towards happiness is nothing to be squeamish about or feel funny about.
The problem is not the urge.
The problem is ignorance,
Not really sensing where genuine happiness might be found.
And so making the mistakes that might cause so much suffering for ourselves or for somebody else.
That urge toward happiness itself is rightful.
It's appropriate.
When we can combine it with wisdom instead of with ignorance,
It becomes like a homing instinct for freedom and can help us cut through many obstacles.
We start with ourselves and then with others looking for the good.
If it's just not going to happen that way,
We switch to this other reflection,
Recalling that all beings want to be happy.
Think of a benefactor,
Someone who's helped you.
Here their good qualities might come in a rush.
You can appreciate that about them,
Those aspects,
Those efforts,
Those acts of kindness.
Think of a good friend.
Appreciate the good within them.
Think of someone you know who's having a difficult time right now.
Whether ill or hurting.
Think of the good within them,
The times they've reached out to help others,
Their own sources of strength.
You can see that this person is not just the problem,
But something bigger.
Think of someone you have a little bit of difficulty with,
A conflict,
An ease.
See if you can find some good reflected in things they've done,
Choices they've made.
If not,
You can switch to that other reflection,
Remembering that they too,
Just like each one of us,
Wants to be happy.
They want to be happy.
Everybody wants the same sense of belonging,
Feeling at home in this body,
This mind,
This life.
Ignorance is a very strong force.
I will close with a few moments of the reflection that all beings want to be happy.
May they be happy.
You can silently repeat that over and over again.
You can close the session with a few moments of reflection that all beings want to be happy.
May they be happy.
You can silently repeat those phrases again and again.
All beings want to be happy.
May they be happy.
All beings want to be happy.
May they be happy.
Take another slow,
Deep breath.
May you find happiness and be truly happy.
Namaste.
Namaste.
