WHEN TO USE: Any situation
PURPOSE: To cultivate compassion that is free from selfish motivations. Rather than imagining some radiant energy passing from yourself to another, as is the tradition in Buddhist lovingkindness meditation, imagine well being and bliss for another without placing yourself in the scene.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Conjure up intense sensations of well being and bliss as best you can.
- Imagine the other person experiencing these things. You can imagine every good circumstance, internal and external, every need met, health, wholeness, fulfillment, and freedom from suffering.
- Focus your mind on this imagery until there is no trace of you in it. In other words, focus on the imagery until it does not include you as a reference point. You are not even the imaginer or the perceiver, the sender, or the giver. Simply, there is only the other person experiencing goodness and healing. In your mind, let it be that the well being is not even vaguely coming from you, nor are you languishing on the sidelines. Your absence from the imagined scene is not represented as distance or separation from the other person. Simply, do not devote any energy to imagery of the ‘I.’ Really, that’s all the ‘I’ is. This is absolute and total well wishing, nothing in it for the well wisher. The well wisher, in a sense, dies or ceases to exist.
“mindjob” Heh!
I love this: “The more confused you are, the better.” Than I’m doing great
Thanks for giving us another way to view love relationships. I struggle a lot like your sociology student did, wanting something tangible, but when I can drop that love just becomes a field we swim in, with no reason to attach to anything. Another lovely post!
-M
Haha, yes, I went with the non-obscene synonym. There seem to be some situations for which profanity says it all just right.
mindfudgesomething that messes with your head a lotstupid thesaurus *!#^@You are the most beautiful person I have ever had the honor to know. thank you for the gifts you give to us all every day.
scott
Aw Scott, thank you, but go look in a mirror. And, can you send me your address again? ;-D
“when I choose to love, that love is divine”
LOVE that. ok, i don’t think in terms of divinity, but i get it.
my emphasis is always on the quality of the love. i had never thought of the moment, that nanosecond of choosing love, as the perfection.