Meditation
for clearness and compassion
Part of our human challenge is that our lives are divided and in pain.
The opening we need to facilitate clearness and lay down our anger and fear can be created through practicing loving acceptance of each other and ourselves, and through healing the pain in our relationships and lives.
One place to start this process is with Compassionate Heart meditation. This meditation is one of the exercises we do in our retreats and workshops, and it facilitates opening to our inner wisdom that reveals itself in our Clearness Sessions.
We've also been doing this meditation at our Lifepath offices every week since the spring of 2010, and it's been a wonderful experience. Starting at 12:15 p.m. (CST), we begin the 30-minute Compassionate Heart meditation at LifePath, 1620 S. Lawe St., Appleton, Wisconsin. If you cannot be physically present, we welcome you to join us in spirit wherever you may be at that time.
A voluntary donation is collected and given to not-for-profit organizations working for peace. In the past year we have been able to send several hundred dollars to Amnesty International and the Heifer Project.
To participate in Compassionate Heart meditation, you can read the text below or listen to the following 22-minute recording of the meditation that guitarist Tom Duesterhoeft and I recorded on May 22, 2011 in the sanctuary of Unity of Appleton.
The opening we need to facilitate clearness and lay down our anger and fear can be created through practicing loving acceptance of each other and ourselves, and through healing the pain in our relationships and lives.
One place to start this process is with Compassionate Heart meditation. This meditation is one of the exercises we do in our retreats and workshops, and it facilitates opening to our inner wisdom that reveals itself in our Clearness Sessions.
We've also been doing this meditation at our Lifepath offices every week since the spring of 2010, and it's been a wonderful experience. Starting at 12:15 p.m. (CST), we begin the 30-minute Compassionate Heart meditation at LifePath, 1620 S. Lawe St., Appleton, Wisconsin. If you cannot be physically present, we welcome you to join us in spirit wherever you may be at that time.
A voluntary donation is collected and given to not-for-profit organizations working for peace. In the past year we have been able to send several hundred dollars to Amnesty International and the Heifer Project.
To participate in Compassionate Heart meditation, you can read the text below or listen to the following 22-minute recording of the meditation that guitarist Tom Duesterhoeft and I recorded on May 22, 2011 in the sanctuary of Unity of Appleton.
Compassionate Heart Meditation
Sit comfortably and relax with each breath.
Notice the distractions that come to you.
When they do, simply return attention to your breath.
As the distractions come again,
gently return to your breath.
Now, go deeper.
Feel the presence of your heart
in the moment of each breath.
Be with this awareness
in your whole self.
* * * * *
Bring someone you love into your awareness
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Now be aware of yourself, just as you are
and let yourself rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about yourself into your heart -
and let yourself rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let yourself be aware of a person in your life
you are familiar with but don't know
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts and feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Now bring someone you have difficulty with
into your awareness
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest together
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let yourself be aware of every person in the world
and every living being in the world
and every situation in the world
and let the world rest with you
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about the world into your heart -
and let the world rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let the world be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let all be at peace.
Be grateful for your experience in the world.
Be grateful for your life, and for all life.
Remember to let your eyes see
your ears hear
and your heart care.
And when you're ready
gently return your attention
to your breath
to your body
and to the life you live.
Sit comfortably and relax with each breath.
Notice the distractions that come to you.
When they do, simply return attention to your breath.
As the distractions come again,
gently return to your breath.
Now, go deeper.
Feel the presence of your heart
in the moment of each breath.
Be with this awareness
in your whole self.
* * * * *
Bring someone you love into your awareness
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Now be aware of yourself, just as you are
and let yourself rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about yourself into your heart -
and let yourself rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let yourself be aware of a person in your life
you are familiar with but don't know
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts and feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Now bring someone you have difficulty with
into your awareness
and let that person rest
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about that person into your heart -
and let both of you rest together
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let yourself be aware of every person in the world
and every living being in the world
and every situation in the world
and let the world rest with you
in a gentle place of acceptance and love.
Bring any thoughts or feelings you have
about the world into your heart -
and let the world rest
in the heart of compassion.
Let yourself be at peace.
Let the world be at peace.
Let all be at peace.
* * * * *
Let all be at peace.
Be grateful for your experience in the world.
Be grateful for your life, and for all life.
Remember to let your eyes see
your ears hear
and your heart care.
And when you're ready
gently return your attention
to your breath
to your body
and to the life you live.
Some thoughts about this meditation. Those of you familiar with loving kindness meditation from the Buddhist tradition will certainly see the similarities with this meditation. Yet loving acceptance meditation is intended to have a somewhat different effect than that beautiful and venerable practice, giving you the opportunity to accept and love who you are and what you experience in a more direct way. At least in the beginning stages of practice, loving kindness meditation may maintain the separation between self (the one being loving and kind) and the people and situations we are thinking about (who we may or may not accept as being worthy of our love and kindness). Adding acceptance to the focus of the meditation is an invitation to reduce the experience of separation and conflict with other people and situations, and provide a gentle and transformative way to practice acceptance and love for self and others.
This meditation is intended to help "end the war" against others and situations in your life that you have conflicts with. And this presents us with a problem: How do we accept the unacceptable? How do we love the torturer, the liar, the killer? How do we accept the death of children due to war, disease, or starvation? There is endless suffering in the world, and is this meditation saying it is all ok?
Loving acceptance of the people and situations we find abhorrent and have deep disagreement with is not about agreeing with them, but about accepting the larger truth of their existence without trying to minimize or deny any aspect of what troubles us. It is coming to understand and be at peace within ourselves about the whole truth: that they are the way they are, and that in addition, they are more than we know. Our awareness is always limited, and there is more to every person and situation than we simplistically understand.
In this meditation, we can look closely at the people and situations that trouble us with loving acceptance and perhaps loving, compassionate tears. As we reduce the emotional and mental reactivity that separates us from them, we find it easier to access our wise inner knowing that is able to express our true self and our true relationship with those people and situations. Guided by that inner wisdom, we may find ourselves becoming more involved and moving closer to them, or becoming less involved and moving away. Paradoxically, as we open to their truth and to our own, we let ourselves change and open the possibility for those people and situations to change.
So as you practice this meditation, you may find that loving acceptance of your own truth and the truth of others and the world brings you a peaceful clarity and quiet fearlessness. You may find in yourself a greater willingness to speak or be silent, to act or not act, as you are called to do in compassion guided by the wisdom of the deepest truth you know.