I'd like to offer a guided meditation practice particularly inspired by our current circumstances as humanity living through the spread of the coronavirus and its implications both externally and internally.
This meditation is going to rely on,
Be inspired by the practice of the four brahmaviharas,
Divine abodes or best homes of the human heart.
I'm just going to lightly touch on them so you don't need to feel like you need to go away now and read up about it or something.
Just to say what the context is or the inspiration is for the practice.
One thing I'd like you to keep in mind is it's really important with any practice but particularly what I'm going to offer today to make use of it according to what is true for you and your experience right now.
For example,
On some days you may be coming and using this meditation,
You may be feeling pretty grounded and calm and spacious and on a different day you might be feeling overwhelmed or anxious.
With what I'll be offering you will have a choice,
A range,
A spectrum of attending to your experience.
A lot of what we'll be doing or what I'm encouraging is to listen to what is going on for you and then to respond in accordance to that.
So allowing yourself to be creative,
To adapt if there's a particular aspect of the practice that really feels like it's meeting where you are,
You can stay with that for longer even if I may be moving on.
So really feel free to play there and we'll be offering these qualities or attitudes or cultivating them both towards ourselves and towards others.
Attitudes like gratitude,
Appreciation,
Joy,
Friendliness and good will,
Compassion,
Equanimity.
Sometimes it feels like I need to really offer that to myself,
To strengthen that in myself and at other times it's actually really helpful,
Really beautiful to open out and to offer that out.
So play with doing both and then see what's appropriate and where you need to stay a little bit more at different times.
And there may be times when the guidance I'm offering is spot on and you just flow with that flow of the practice and that's also absolutely fine.
So don't try to figure things out too much but I just wanted to offer that introduction and maybe I'll just say the four Brahma Viharas are the attitudes of,
The first one we'll be touching on is gratitude,
Appreciation,
Joy.
The second is an attitude of good will and friendliness.
The third is compassion and the fourth is equanimity,
The capacity to stay steady with the ups and downs,
The unreliability and inconstancy,
The change in nature of experience as it arises and passes.
So let's begin the practice with settling into our meditation posture.
Finding a posture where you can feel relatively comfortable and at ease but where there's also a sense of uprightness and alignment in the body.
So as you adjust the posture you're already inviting the awareness into the body and settling it into the body.
This can be helpful to bring the awareness to the sensations of contact of the body with the seat,
Body with the ground.
It can really help to ground us,
To anchor the awareness in the body,
To settle it,
Gather it.
And from that rootedness in the sensations of contact we can just gently open out the awareness to take in the whole body.
Feel the aliveness of the body field sensitive and alive,
At the same time grounded,
Anchored.
For some of us it's helpful to include the breathing in the practice so we can explore receiving the breath in this field of body awareness.
The breath flowing in and out of the body or filling up the body and then emptying out.
If you're feeling any agitation it can be helpful to emphasise awareness of the out breath and feeling the body relax and let go as you breathe out.
There's a lot of agitation and particularly helpful to invite the out breath to be a little bit longer,
Noticing any impact that has.
If you're feeling tired or dull then it can be helpful to emphasise awareness of the in breath.
Feeling the energising quality of the in breath as the oxygen flows into the body and we can tune into that energising with the in breath.
Feeling the body with aliveness and then on the out breath letting go,
Relaxing,
Releasing.
Feeling this breath experience happening in the body field so there's still a wide awareness of the body with the breath flowing in and out.
Feeling the body with aliveness and letting go,
Relaxing,
Releasing on the out breath.
Staying grounded in the body field and the flow of the breathing,
Bringing to mind anything that you're grateful for right now.
Anything that you're grateful for,
It can just be this breath that you're breathing.
It can be the possibility to practice.
It can be the fact that you have the basics of food,
Of shelter,
Of medicine.
Whatever it is,
Your loved ones,
Just allowing to rise in awareness,
Whatever it is that you feel grateful for,
You appreciate in this moment or anything that brings you joy.
You're just aligning with that,
Tuning into that as if you're letting it fill up the space of the body,
Space of awareness.
Gratitude,
Appreciation,
Joy,
Well-being,
Letting them fill up the space of the body and of awareness.
And the mind might wonder,
It kind of likes doing that.
And if it does,
We bring it back,
Grounded in the body,
In the breathing if that's helpful.
It can bring gratitude and appreciation into the fact that we've noticed the mind wandering and we've guided it back.
And settling again with any gratitude,
Any appreciation or joy that you're feeling in this moment and it can be pretty mild,
Doesn't have to be a big deal of any kind.
As you do that,
You can expand a sense of gratitude and appreciation to all of those in the world right now that are working to keep people healthy,
To keep people safe.
Hospital and medical staff,
People who need to be making decisions,
Everyone trying their best with what they have.
If that feels too much at any point,
We can just come back to simple present things that bring gratitude or appreciation or joy.
We can see if we can also open that out to feel grateful,
To feel appreciation to all of those that are working now in so many different ways that we know and we don't know.
To look after all of us to keep people safe.
Maybe as we do that,
We can tune in to the second of the Brahma Vihar as this attitude of friendliness and of goodwill.
Really wishing that we ourselves and our loved ones and also all of those out there will find happiness,
That we're all safe,
That we're well.
It can be helpful to start with those that are working hard now on the front lines,
The medical staff,
All the employees of hospitals and different medical aspects of our societies.
We can just feel that appreciation,
That gratitude and tune in to the sense of goodwill and friendliness towards them.
And see if we can include also ourselves and our loved ones in that.
May we all be safe and may we be well.
May we find well-being and resilience.
As we reflect in this way,
We can tune in also into the flavor of compassion which arises when goodwill and friendliness come into contact with suffering or with ignorance.
Maybe we can bring to mind all the different aspects of suffering that are present in the world right now.
Those who are sick,
Those who are worried and anxious,
Those who are unable to be with their loved ones right now because of isolation or in order to keep them safe.
We can feel how the heart perhaps responds to bringing that to mind,
The natural movement of the heart to alleviate suffering.
If that's what's happening for you right now,
Then expanding that can use phrases.
May we find support in times of difficulty.
May we find relief from suffering.
If what's happening is that you yourself are feeling overwhelmed,
Then bring that compassion to yourself and let yourself be held in tenderness with compassion.
May I find relief.
May I be supported in this difficulty.
So noticing what is helpful for you right now,
What is needed.
It may be some time with others,
Some time with yourself or the reverse order.
Connecting to that intention of compassion.
May we be held in tenderness.
May we be supported in times of difficulty.
May we know relief.
Seeing how wide we want to open.
Those who are sick,
Those who are separated from their loved ones,
Those who are grieving,
Those who are anxious and worried,
All forms of suffering and pain,
All asking to be held in tenderness,
To be held in compassion.
May we be held in tenderness and compassion.
May we find support in times of difficulty.
Where we find relief.
And seeing if it's possible to expand also more fully or more widely to include those who are acting unskillfully at this time who perhaps we disagree with or we feel are causing harm.
And without needing to condone these actions or agree with them,
Can we see the confusion?
Can we see the suffering that is inherent when we create suffering for others?
And can we align with and tune into an intention of compassion towards them also?
May you see clearly.
May you act without harm.
May you be free of the causes of suffering.
Feel free to find your own words and to notice the impact of this,
Remembering at any time you can bring compassion towards yourself.
That's always possible and available.
Can we include in the field of compassion those who are acting unskillfully or even harmfully?
Can we wish for them to be free of suffering,
To find relief,
To act with compassion and wisdom in the world?
And can we expand now to hold all beings,
All beings in the world in the field of compassion?
May we all find support in times of difficulty.
May we find relief.
May we be free from suffering and its causes,
Opening out the field to the whole world,
All beings near and far,
Those that we know and those that we don't know,
Those that are like us and those that are different to us,
All held in compassion.
May we all be free from suffering and its causes.
And as we feel that wide open field of compassion,
As big,
As wide,
As open as this whole planet and beyond,
Can we feel the support of equanimity?
Can we feel the steadiness of our body,
Both rooted in the contact with the ground and open out as large,
As wide as the world?
And we feel all the beings moving through right in this moment,
Joys and sorrows arising and passing in the world.
In this moment,
Animosity and love arising and passing in the world.
In this moment,
Babies being born and others breathing their last breath.
May we find our balance and our steadiness in tender equanimity,
In the midst of it all.
May we find ease amidst the coming and going of life,
Amidst the joys and sorrows of this world.
May we find ease.
May all beings find ease amidst the comings and goings of this world,
Amongst the joys and sorrows of life.
May we find ease.
May we find ease.
So feeling the body,
Feeling the breath,
Feeling the flow and movement of life passing through your body,
Heart and mind.
Resting into that flow of experience arising and passing,
The joys and sorrows,
The wanted and the unwanted.
Right now in this moment,
Can you find ease with what is present,
With what is unfolding?
And for the last few moments of this meditation,
If you wish,
Bringing your hands to rest in your heart.
And tuning in to whichever of these four attitudes feels most helpful right now.
The luminosity of gratitude,
Appreciation and joy.
The warmth of friendliness and goodwill.
The tenderness of compassion.
The expansive spaciousness of equanimity.
May all practice together be a support and a nourishment for wisdom and compassion to grow in this world.
May our practice be a support for the well-being and the happiness of all beings in all directions.
May it be so.
