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Guided Meditation: Love Within

So again, a warm hello this Monday morning, and quite happy to be here with you.

One of the marvelous, remarkable things that can happen in meditation is that we keep putting aside the preoccupations that obscure what is deep inside of us. Of course, in daily life we often have many concerns and preoccupations that engage us. Sometimes we develop momentum and habit around the preoccupations, the concerns. Sometimes we have also our own inner dialogue and questioning, and inner critique, inner doubts, even inner hostility sometimes towards ourselves, or fears that we somehow have stumbled into. These are important to respect, but they also obscure what's deep inside within us.

This opportunity in meditation is to maybe put any of these things up on the shelf, or leave many of these things at the door—the door of meditation. Just like you would come to a meditation hall and often you leave your shoes on the shelf outside, so to leave things aside so that we can touch into something that's more fundamental. Something deeper, something that's often obscured or ignored or not recognized in daily life. Not to dismiss all those other things, but rather to reclaim what has been forgotten, to reclaim what is lost in the preoccupations we have.

If you spend time in the woods in the winter storm—and it's maybe relatively safe to be there—but you have to be fully engaged and paying attention to where the path is, where the dangers are, and really maybe even take care of every step you take. The wind is howling and the snow is falling, and so all our senses are tuned in to what's going on around us and finding our way. But we finally come to a cabin, a cozy small cabin, and we go inside. Now we can take off our wet clothes and put on some nice warm clothes, and sit in front of a fire. We've made it, we're safe now. Now all that concern with the world around us can be put to rest because now we're safe.

In that coziness and in that settledness, perhaps some deeper wellspring of well-being or attention or even love can begin to arise. Because all our preoccupations of walking in the snow have fallen away, what we're left with is the simplicity and goodness and safety of just being here at the heart. Deep down, if we can do this, really come down to what's fundamental in us, we will come to a place of care. Some people will call it compassion, some people will call it love. I like the word care because it's so broad and wide, that it encompasses all the caregiving care, loving care, caring attitudes, and attentions that we have.

We can sit there not with the control tower thinking about caring for ourselves, but we can sit with a tenderness, a warmth, a sensitivity from inside that maybe could be called something like care, something like love, that's there when all the other things are put aside. It's not easy, but it's there, and maybe it's there in even the most simple ways.

So, to take a meditation posture, and not a posture that you should take, that you're required to take, or that is following some rule for a meditation posture. But from the inside out, to assume a posture where you're caring for yourself, caring to sit in a way that's comfortable, helpful, supportive for you, so you can be both alert and begin to relax in meditation. And perhaps to close your eyes, so you begin a process of leaving the world around you at the door, and find that cozy, warm cabin where you're safe inside of yourself, within yourself here.

Of course, there might be physical discomforts that you have, and difficult feelings and emotions you might have when you turn in and feel them, and that's okay. But perhaps you can also discern that there's more than that. Maybe somewhere deep inside, or in some forgotten corner, might there be something you could call love, tender care, kindness, or goodwill? Giving yourself the benefit of the doubt that there is goodness inside of you. There is sweetness or tenderness.

And if there is, perhaps now to breathe with it, breathe through it. Even if there is just a hint, or you imagine that it's there, it's enough. And then to breathe with that, breathe through it, as if breathing might be born out of that place within, and return to it.

And then, as part of this self-care, caring for yourself as you exhale, to spend a few moments also relaxing the body, the tensions, the holdings, the muscles. But as you relax on the exhale, perhaps almost as if you're returning to the deep place inside of care, tenderness, love.

If you find there's a lot of energy for thinking, perhaps you can dial down that energy, soften, quiet the thinking, or relax the pressure to think. In meditation, thinking is not so important. Though you might have simple thoughts^[1] reminding you to reconnect to whatever is good inside, the tenderness, the love, the sense of caringness that you're capable of. In the way that you would care for yourself, relax, and recover, sitting in a warm, safe cabin after being in the storm—maybe now you can sit that way in meditation. Sitting in some deep place inside of care, of recovery, of coziness, breathing in and breathing out.

If we go deep inside and rest in our hearts, rest deep inside, love is most fundamental, and everything else is either a support for that or the thing that needs our love. Allow yourself to be supported in that care and kindness and goodness. Allow yourself to rest in it and trust it as fundamental, as the most important, and remember to always gaze upon all things that need love with love.

Perhaps as you exhale, to let go of your thoughts, let go of ideas, and let go into some place within—a quiet place, still place, where love radiates, shines, or vibrates. A place of tenderness or warmth. And perhaps allow there to be feelings and very rudimentary thoughts of goodwill, where the most fundamental thing is care or love, and everything else either supports that or is what receives the radiance of kindness from us.

And then, as we come to the end of the sitting, taking a few moments to feel whatever degree of calm or settledness^[2] you might have, or perhaps coziness, quiet, subtleness, or even safety, that might allow you to trust your inner love, your inner care and kindness. The place that is maybe most soft and tender when love is quiet, peaceful.

And in the cozy safety of meditation, where you don't have to say anything to anyone or do anything for anyone, or no one needs to know, turn your gaze outward. Let your tender sympathy for all beings, their tender care, or simply your inner openness, be open to the world around you. Let there be an attitude of care, a love for all beings in all directions. Here, for a few moments, the luxury of being able to safely from a distance open your hearts in all directions. What is most fundamental is our love, and everything else either supports it or is the recipient for it. May your love be supported, and may you offer your love, your care, your kindness to everyone in the world who needs love, by sending out your wishes for well-being, for their happiness and welfare. May all beings be happy, may all beings be healthy, and may all beings everywhere be free.