Zen Boundless Loving Kindness (Ji) Meditation

Guided Zen 'Loving Kindness' (or Ji in Japanese) practice led by Zen master Daizan Skinner.

Ji is one of the little-known or practiced 'Shimuryo Zammai' (Four Boundless Meditations) taught by Rinzai Zen Master Torei (1721-1792). If you're hindered by negativity, hatred, jealousy, agitation and impatience you'll find benefit in the Four Boundless Meditations.

May all beings be free from suffering.

Transcript

So long in your spine,

Long in your neck,

Letting your body be open,

Aligned,

And yet as relaxed as you can manage.

Your shoulders releasing away from your ears,

The back of your neck long,

Your eyes soft and lowered,

A little bit open if you wish,

Or if you wish,

Closing your eyes fully.

Your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth,

Breathing through your nose if you can,

Your mouth if you need to.

So when your body feels settled and relaxed,

Bringing to mind your initial object of compassion,

Whatever,

Whoever,

Is easy for you to develop,

The urge,

The impulse to help this person or this being.

We've mentioned a terrified child in a tree,

We've mentioned a dog with its paw caught,

In a trap.

Whatever for you is a way to connect with this compassion,

This wish.

May this being be free from suffering,

And taking all the time you need to let this impulse clarify and manifest.

And then if you can,

Allowing it to intensify.

If you can,

Finding it in the body,

Finding the physical seat of this urge to be of help,

Urge to relieve suffering.

And from this physical seat,

Applying a color,

Whatever for you is the color of compassion,

And then beginning to spread this color through the body.

And then intensifying the color,

Or any other way that you can use your faculties of intention,

Imagination,

Visualization,

Any way that for you causes this intention,

This urge to be of assistance,

To help,

To relieve suffering,

To deepen and to strengthen.

And sometimes it might be suitable to spend the whole meditation period at this point,

Just developing this,

Exploring this.

But if you find you can access this compassion,

This impulse,

Then you can let it intensify.

And bringing to mind yourself,

Directing this towards yourself,

This wish to be free from suffering.

You may find it's appropriate for this to be direct to yourself as you are right now.

You might find it more appropriate or easier to connect with an earlier version of yourself,

Or you need a later version.

Just whatever for you allows yourself to be part of this.

The wish to relieve your own suffering,

To wish that your suffering would come to an end.

And again you could stay right here and just build this,

Remembering this process of equalizing,

Where we connect with our first objective compassion and then the second one,

Yourself,

And allow the intensity of the compassion,

The intensity of the wish for the suffering to end,

To equalize.

And as it does,

If you wish,

You may find you want to include a dear friend,

A boon companion,

Someone for whom it's relatively easy for you to wish that their suffering would come to an end.

Again using all the imagination,

Imagery,

Intentionality,

Silent pronouncement,

Whatever for you manifests this wish,

This urge.

If you're finding these three cases can balance out in terms of the intention,

The level of compassion,

Then you might incorporate a neutral person,

Someone for whom there's neither aversion nor attachment,

Nor particularly affection,

Just somebody in that neutral zone wishing this person to be free from suffering.

This suffering that we all share,

Even the most successful,

Seemingly the most blessed person,

Still gets sick,

Still gets old and still dies.

And along the way,

The pains are often more than people realize.

And then if you wish,

Bringing to mind somebody who has a difficult presence in your life,

Somebody for whom there's aversion,

Or at least has been aversion,

What would it take to wish that this person's suffering would come to an end?

What would it take for the urge within you to end this person's suffering,

To balance out,

To reach the same pitch,

The same level,

Is that for the neutral person,

The friend,

Yourself and your initial object of compassion.

Remembering how if we find ourselves getting caught by resentment,

Anger,

Hatred,

We have these remedies.

We can step right back to our previous objects of compassion and only when we're ready bring forward again this person to whom there's aversion.

We can remember the Buddha's words that someone who entertains hatred is outside his teaching.

We can remember that harbouring hatred gratifies the enemy because hatred within you creates ugliness within you,

Pain within you,

Ill health within you.

If the aversion continues,

Just find some aspect of this person to wish well.

Reflect on the law of karma with respect to them and with respect to yourself.

Remember the perspective that even this person was a mother for you at some time in the past.

Bring to mind the advantages to you of having a spirit of compassion.

If you need to,

Divide them into elements,

Taking each element of their body and mind,

Reflecting on whether it's really an object of hatred or not.

And if none of that works,

Considering the giving of a gift or the receiving of a gift,

Just allowing whatever needs to happen to bring this person and the compassion towards them to the same level as it is towards the others in your circle that you've created.

This wish for the suffering of these beings to end,

Just checking its equality,

Its balance,

And you could stay right here and contemplate this,

Balancing out the level of compassion between these beings.

But if you want to go further,

You can begin to extend your compassion,

Begin to pervade this whole building,

Allowing all the beings within this building to be embraced within your wish that their suffering should end every single one.

If you wish,

Extending this out to the neighbours,

Human and non-human,

Wishing that their suffering might come to an end.

If it's right for you,

Allowing this to expand,

To permeate and pervade this whole street,

May every being on this street be free from suffering.

If you wish to expand further,

Consider this whole village.

How would it be if you wished every being in this village to be free from suffering?

If you wish,

Extending this to the nearby town or city,

May all beings within this town or within this city,

May all beings be free from suffering.

If you wish to extend it further,

Encompassing this whole region,

May all beings within this whole region,

However large,

However small,

May they all be free from suffering.

Expanding further neighbouring regions,

May all these beings also be free from suffering.

Expanding this further still to embrace the whole country,

May all within this country come to the end of their suffering,

Pervading out,

Expanding out into neighbouring countries.

May they be free from suffering.

Expanding further,

Encompassing the entire continent.

May all beings within this continent experience freedom from suffering.

And at any point you can stop,

Just check the equality of this compassion.

Is it the same intensity for every single being on this continent as it is for yourself,

For your close dear friend?

Expanding out into neighbouring continents,

May all these beings,

Great and small,

May they all experience the end of suffering.

If you wish,

Once the whole planet has been embraced,

In this wish,

This intention,

This urge to bring the suffering of these beings to an end,

You may find you can expand beyond this planet.

The entire solar system,

Whether or not there are beings,

Whether large or very,

Very tiny,

May they be free from suffering.

This whole galaxy,

May all beings within it be free from suffering,

Neighbouring galaxies.

Again,

May all these beings,

However many there are,

Be free from suffering.

The same level of wish as for yourself,

As for your dear friend.

May all of them,

Every last one,

Be free from suffering.

Expounding,

Expanding out through world system after world system,

Further,

Further,

May all beings be free from suffering.

May all beings suffering be ended.

Just continue to expand until your mind is boundless,

There's no limit,

There's no edge.

This wish,

This intention for all beings has no limit.

Your mind has no limit.

Just resting in this compassionate limitlessness.

Resting here,

Experiencing this,

Allowing this to become a body memory as well as a mental memory,

So that it's easy to reconnect with this whenever you want to.

And once this boundlessness is of equal intensity,

Near and far,

This urge for suffering to end,

Absolutely equal throughout the universe.

Then very gently coming back to your body right here,

Your connection with the earth,

Beginning to sway the body,

A little bit side to side.

When you can feel ready,

Allowing your eyes to lift,

Preparing for walking meditation for kinen.

Reviews

Loving kindness and compassion for an ever expanding group of sentient being.

Loved this…settled into feeling the compassion in my body. Thank you Daizan 🙏😊

Love his voice!

💖🙏🏻

Thank you

Beautiful practice. Thank you 🙏🏼

A beautiful deep dive into the zen experience