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Guided Meditation: Undivided Compassion

Welcome. Welcome to this morning meditation here at the Insight Meditation Center. The topic for this week is compassion samadhi^[1]. Samadhi being a state of meditation where we're undivided. All of who we are gets brought together, centered on a particular area of focus.

Metaphors and images matter. They can help us understand or give us a different entryway for samadhi. The one I'd like to offer is to think of samadhi as a big receptacle, like a big bowl. A lot of things will gather into the receptacle, but none of it is at the center. The center of the receptacle is the subject of the meditation. And that subject is big enough, wide enough to receive everything else into it, around it—just circling it, coming in close, or just settling into the bowl. Maybe it's like a bowl with a little hill in the middle, and everything gathers around it.

When it's compassion samadhi, compassion is the receptacle. Compassion is there to receive everything. And then everything kind of sets around that central stability, that central place of compassion. It's kind of like the story I like to tell of my son in preschool, where the kids were running around playing, and it was time for something else to happen. The teacher would stand calmly in the middle of the classroom and start speaking in a very low voice. I think the kids understood that a story was going to be told, something wonderful was going to happen. When they noticed that, they would come and sit down around the teacher. Within a minute or two, the whole class of twenty or thirty kids would be gathered around this particular teacher, quiet and calm. To manage to get all these chaotic, excited kids running around screaming to settle so quickly was quite a remarkable thing. They gathered, became unified, and were paying attention. Samadhi is that gathering in, letting everything else sit calmly around the center.

And the center is compassion. The contrast to that, for the purposes of this teaching, is either the suffering that we're encountering in the world or in ourselves. Sometimes we make that the center—somehow we have that be where we take a stand, where we live, and that's the receptacle for everything else. That creates a very different ambiance or context for meditation than if compassion is the center and suffering is part of what gathers around it, what is held by it. It can be our own suffering, the suffering of others, or both.

This idea is that there's a receptacle for it all: compassion receives suffering. In samadhi, that's all it does. It doesn't involve actively needing to think about it, solve it, or figure out what to do. Suffering is not a catalyst for feeling despair or fear. Those things can happen, of course, but they're all gathered together in the quietly speaking compassion in the middle. Everything comes together to sit quietly, to listen to the compassion story.

The idea here is to find some way to let compassion be at the center, the receptacle. One way to do that is to have some kind of emotional feeling or sensation that we associate with compassion: a softness, a warmth, a tingling, a vibration, a goodness, a sweetness somewhere within that the breathing breathes through and breathes with. That feeling of compassion is at the center, and everything is invited to come and be there next to it, around it. [Laughter] Nothing is excluded. Everything resolves itself around it, settles itself, and works itself out around it.

The focal point for compassion might be an intention, the wish that others not suffer. That beautiful wish—"may I not suffer, may others not suffer"—can waft up. It can be very gentle. It can be very light. It can also be a sweet or inspiring kind of voice or feeling of intentionality: "may people not suffer." That becomes the center. Like the teacher in the preschool who would quietly speak, there's a quiet voice, image, feeling, or intention that is quietly and lovingly spoken. That is the center that everything else gathers around.

It might be an image of someone suffering for whom our compassion and goodwill easily arises without being despairing, horrified, or troubled by it, without feeling we have to rush off to save them. A very simple image that brings this forth. Don't choose something that's difficult as an image; choose something that's actually very easy. Establishing on that center of compassion—breathing with it, breathing through it, feeling it—let everything else that arises gather around it and be received by compassion.

Compassion is not the forward point of going out and asserting ourselves into the world. Compassion is the open field which receives everything, so everything can settle and calm in meditation. We're willing in meditation to understand that this is not the time to fix problems. That comes later.

Assume a meditation posture, a posture that somehow allows your whole being to be a receptacle to receive all your experience. A posture where your chest is a little open. A posture with the weight of your torso and body balanced on your spine, coming to rest in your sitting bones, if you're sitting. Gently close your eyes.

Quietly, like the teacher in the preschool, gently take some larger breaths. Just enough to feel connected more to breathing. A little longer exhale, just enough to enjoy relaxing and softening. Let your breathing return to normal.

As you inhale, feel anywhere you might be excessively activated, energized, or tense emotionally, physically, or mentally. As you exhale, relax that part of your body. It's as if you're inviting how you feel to be received in the receptacle of the body that can hold it.

Find a way to feel or evoke compassion. Loving care for the suffering of yourself and others. Look for that simple place within where compassion is untroubled by its care for suffering. Almost the simple center of it all. For now, be willing to be very simple. Maybe with an image that evokes an easy, simple compassion—thinking of a person or an event. Maybe a place in your body that's associated with the warmth or the glow of compassion.

As you inhale, connect to this compassion, this warmth, however small it is. If all it is is a wish to be compassionate, that's pretty special in itself. That's enough for the samadhi. Stay close to that wish. Breathing into it, feeling it, connecting to it, and exhaling, relaxing, settling around the compassion, into the compassion.

Imagine you're a large receptacle with compassion at the middle. A compassion which invites every part of who you are to come and join it in the middle. Rather than letting go of things and letting them drift away, take them and let them go into the compassion. Release into the compassion everything: your thoughts, your distractions, your feelings. Maybe with every exhale, let all things settle into the area of the compassion, joining, so that you become undivided in yourself. Everything is unified around the core of care and compassion, with breathing being the unifier of it all. With a central focus of intention on compassion, everything else is in the peripheral awareness, around this warm, stable, inviting compassion. A compassion which has room for everything. Breathing through the compassion.

With every exhale, invite everything about you, everything that's happening, to come and sit quietly around the compassion in this great big receptacle of a heart which is big enough to hold the whole world.

And as we come to the end of this sitting, continue to connect to the place of compassion within. Maybe with a simple wish: may I have compassion for whatever suffering is encountered. May there be care, kindness, with a connection into a simple compassion that brings you some delight, joy, or even gratitude that we have the capacity to receive the suffering of the world in this receptacle of compassion. A gratitude, joy, and appreciation for what a wonderful gift it is to meet the suffering of the world with an undivided compassion and care that's not divided by fear, anxiety, despair, or preoccupation.

May we, with a wide-open, receptive compassion, wish this world well. May all beings be free of suffering. May all beings know that there is care and compassion in this world for their plight. May all beings be free of hunger and free of war, free of poverty and violence. May all beings be free of pain and distress. And may we, at least in ourselves, be able to hold the suffering of others without suffering more. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free. [Laughter]

Thank you.

Dharmette: Love (52) Compassion Samadhi 3

Welcome, and on to this series on compassion samadhi. It follows from earlier in this series some weeks on metta^[2] samadhi, the samadhi of loving-kindness. These two have samadhi in common: the way we can gather and unify all of who we are into a wholeness where our reactivity doesn't divide us, where we don't get caught in ill will or aversion, or recoil and get anxious.

This is particularly important when we're dealing with compassion, because compassion is meeting suffering—our own suffering, the suffering of others, suffering in the world. That can be difficult. It can be difficult when our own suffering is deep and the suffering in the world reawakens or touches that place inside of us which is sore, tender, or challenging.

To find a way to do compassion samadhi, we have to understand better the elements of samadhi, how we put together the whole framework for samadhi so that reactivity doesn't get in the way. Of course, we will have some reactivity, but it's not what we base ourselves on.

There is an ancient Buddhist Pali word, adhiṭṭhāna^[3]. Adhi means something like "higher," and ṭhāna means a "stand." It's a higher stand that we take; we are grounded on something. If we stand and are grounded in our reactivity, it's like standing on one foot—the wind easily pushes you over whenever anything happens. Sometimes it's like standing on one foot with your eyes closed, or standing on one foot while scanning the world for dangers. It's very hard to stand on one foot with the eyes closed or scanning the world around you. But to stand on two feet is to be grounded and really rooted in a place.

Metaphorically, it's like having two feet resting—or the whole bottom, like when sitting in meditation—on compassion. We are not sitting on reactivity, on fear, hostility, wanting to escape, or trying to resist or avoid. We are able to rest on compassion and think of it as a ground that we stand or sit on. It's a ground that's a receptacle, a sacred ground maybe with a big round place. Everything is invited to come and join us in the circle around the wonderful compassion at the middle. That includes our reactivity. Everything says, "Here, here." It becomes simpler and simpler. There's nothing to figure out, just more to include.

For samadhi, the center of attention is resting at the grounding place, this settling place. In other samadhis, it's breathing; in loving-kindness samadhi, it's metta. Here, it's compassion. We need to find some way to evoke compassion just enough that it can be a place for the attention to land. Our sense of presence, the center of gravity of our life, can rest there for a few minutes, connected with the compassion.

A slightly different image that might help is to do this partly with the breathing: to breathe through the compassion, to breathe with it. Or if the compassion is a ground, it's like we're breathing up out of the compassion and relaxing back into the ground. Up and down, just relaxing into the center. There is an openness around it in the peripheral awareness. We know what's going on, we know we have reactivity, we know we have distractions. But rather than fighting them or getting caught in them, we invite them to relax and settle here. "Come, my friends. Come and join us, be part of this." They are part of the peripheral awareness that we don't get involved with using our central attention. We're not making them a problem.

We're actually doing the opposite. If something is a big problem, then we're divided; we're too focused on the problem. Now, we are trying to be undivided and very simple, with the compassion at the center and everything else kind of coming in.

With that, various other capacities we have also become focused on compassion. If we're thinking at all, they are very simple thoughts about how to stay connected to compassion, appreciate it, and remember it. Some people will use simple phrases or very light thoughts. It could just be the thought "compassion" repeated in a nice, simple, compassionate way. It could be bringing someone to mind who is suffering to evoke the compassion we have. We bring that person to mind and maybe use simple words: "compassion," or "may you be free of suffering." Maybe very simply: "Free from suffering. Free from suffering. May you be free from suffering." Our images, recollections, or thoughts are there together with the compassion, supporting it.

After a while, there's a good feeling in the body. We gather that, feel that, and support it. Maybe the compassion on the inhale spreads out into the body more widely, and on the exhale, the whole body joins into that ground in the middle of compassion. The body participates in this.

We organize and orient what we are most motivated for around compassion—not about what's for breakfast, or planning the day. Our intention and motivation are such an important part of our lives; make sure they are there to support the practice. You are behind it. Get behind doing this. If you want samadhi, you want to be fully behind and present for what you're doing.

In this process, compassion is a receptacle. That image of actively receiving is very different from the feeling that we're being assailed by suffering, that we're the victims of the suffering in the world or our own suffering, as if we don't have space for it and it's too much for us. It is also different from feeling that we have to go out and assert ourselves, get involved in problem-solving, and figure out what to do. Or that we have to center ourselves in a sense of responsibility and obligation. We often confuse obligation and responsibility with pure, simple compassion.

Keep or find this compassion as simple as you can. In meditation at least, we don't have to fix or solve anything. We don't have to respond to anything. The idea is to really trust simple compassion so that it can grow and expand. It can be the gathering point for all of who we are, and start becoming the atmosphere or the field where we are only concerned with compassion.

As we do this more and more, the samadhi of compassion means that everything is just about compassion. It becomes the whole field of our attention. It is very focused, concentrated, centering, and delightful. A wonderful feeling of sweetness, beauty, and compassion. It's remarkable that we have the capacity to feel this sense of wholeness, completeness, ease, and satisfaction just by being here in the present moment simply focusing on compassion. That is the upper reaches of this samadhi of compassion, which is possible and beautiful to cultivate.

This becomes a wonderful training in how to go into the world and care for it. It teaches us how to go into the world in such a way that our compassion is an open enough receptacle—that it can receive, be transparent, be porous, and allow us to feel the suffering of the world without getting caught in reactivity. Without getting caught in some of the near enemies^[4] of compassion: the sense of pity, feeling sorry for others, or feeling sorry for oneself. A near enemy can be that one confuses compassion with one's own sense of despair and suffering. There are a lot of complications that we add extra to compassion, but compassion samadhi is teaching us something about the simplicity of compassion. When we do go out to support and help the world, we can do it from that simple place, which can be quite powerful and effective. Simple doesn't mean ineffective; it might actually make it more effective.

If you'd like to continue exploring this during the day before we meet again, I encourage you to do so as you go about your day. In public or in different places, when you see that someone is suffering, struggling, or feeling emotionally challenged by what's going on—in situations where you don't have to say or do anything—gently, privately, open yourself up as a receptacle of compassion to receive it. Just be with it. Hopefully, the suffering is not that great. Look for simple things, like someone impatient waiting in line at the grocery store, and just open and receive that in your compassion. Look for places in everyday life where people are suffering in some mild way, and do the exercise of seeing how you can hold that or be with it. Receive it without reactivity, but with care, kindness, and compassion.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to continuing tomorrow. May we all contribute more compassion in this challenged world. Thank you.