Honesty and Compassion

So we're going to start actually by just checking our attitude and our intention for meditation practice this morning. Quite often when we begin to meditate, we bring a sense of pressure and weight, a sort of need to achieve something. This can show up in the body—tension in the forehead, a leaning forward of the body, tightness in the shoulders. We can just find the right kind of attitude, a kind of curious and kind welcoming of ourselves. That's where we want to get to. So just setting this strong intention that anything that arises in practice is to be welcomed, to be included. We can bring all parts of ourselves with us as we practice. With this intention, we can just check if the body is on board with this. Check that the shape that we're taking reflects and supports this kind of intention—this intention of kindness, welcoming, and curiosity. Encouraging the body to be soft and receptive—it doesn’t need to be rigid. Then, tuning into your body, tuning into where your body meets the ground or whatever's beneath you, just spending a moment really landing into your seat, pouring awareness into your body. As you do so, you'll notice whatever's prominent this morning in your body. Maybe particular parts of the body are carrying a lot of tightness. There may be strong emotions showing up in one place in the body or in several places, or simply as a kind of tone or flavor of the space of the body. We can check this general sense of how the body feels as well as these prominent experiences. What’s the overall sense? Does the body feel tired, heavy, peaceful, relaxed, agitated? As we're tuning into the body in this way and asking this question—how does the body feel?—seeing if you can bring a real sense of warmth, honesty, and understanding to the way that you tune in. It’s like you're sitting with a good friend and really listening. "Hello, I'm here. Tell me what's going on." This kind of attitude, this honesty, this compassion can really help us to drop any sense of needing to fix or change the way we feel right now in order to get somewhere else with our practice. We can just spend a minute or two now gathering ourselves with the breath. It’s not that we're trying to focus on the breath and block out anything else. Rather, we’re going to breathe with everything that we're feeling this morning. Breathe with the whole sense of your body, your heart. Breathe with the bits that feel relaxed and easy this morning and the bits that feel heavy and tight. Keeping this awareness of your whole body, centering on the breath, allowing the breath to soothe and to visit all the places in your body that could use a bit of care. Then tuning into your heart, bringing a really sensitive awareness to the space of your heart. You might sense physically where your heartbeat is, or just your chest area, and bring some really caring, gentle attention here. It’s not storming in and demanding to know what's going on, but a feather-light sort of meeting the heart. Again, with this real sense of honesty and understanding—"Hello, heart, I'm here. Tell me what's going on." You can use the breath to connect more with your heart, breathing with your heart, just sensing how it feels—constricted, numb, tired, joyful, sad, peaceful. Maybe you just can't feel it at all. All of these are just experiences to welcome, to open to. You may feel, as you linger here for a little while, a sense that you come into greater connection with your heart, a bit more intimacy with your own heart. If it helps, you are very welcome to place a hand there to make that connection more tangible. Just softening the body, establishing yourself again and again in this deep listening. As we stay with our hearts and allow them to unfold in their own time and reveal what they're ready to reveal this morning, we can really try to get this sense of holding our hearts with compassion. You might imagine your heart tucked up in bed, and you're giving it a blanket, a cup of tea—whatever gesture of kindness makes sense to you. Relating to our hearts with compassion. Then you might begin to sense that your breath is bringing compassion into your heart. It’s like with each inhale, the warm, soft energy of compassion enters your body. See what makes sense—does it enter from above, from the ground, from all sides? Imagining in some way that makes sense to you, with each inhale, your heart is filled with compassion and kindness. It's not like you're sucking it in or pulling it in. It’s just gently opening to this very natural flow, something that's always there on some level, maybe a little obscured by judgment or tension. So just softening—softening the body, softening the heart, allowing this current of compassion. You might begin to sense that the whole space of your body—this whole field of sensation and experience, changing sensations in each moment, emotions coming and going—begins to become tinged, colored by this soft light of compassion. As the breath continues to open you to this current of compassion, the compassion becomes a kind of background atmosphere that can just hold everything. Then it’s more like the breath is made of compassion rather than a vehicle for moving it around. Your body is made of compassion, your heart is made of compassion. To whatever extent this is available to you and makes sense to you, just soften into this experience of holding everything—the moment-to-moment arising of your experience of your body, of your heart—holding it all in this atmosphere of kindness. Areas in the body that feel tight or blocked, constricted—we don't need to tell them to release. Instead, we can just introduce them to this compassion, making sure that they are aware that there is this field of compassion holding everything. Numbness, constriction, tightness—not a problem. It’s just another thing to be held by this kindness. We'll just continue like this, resting in compassion for the last few minutes of this practice. As we come to the end of this time together, practicing, we can just find ourselves again in our physical location in space, finding our seats, taking a few breaths with the echoes of this practice. Resolving to bring some of this compassion into our day in some small or large ways, holding ourselves with this care.