Tag: inclusive

Meditation–Tuning

This is a meditation of the analytical type designed to modify our perception. Our perception of outer reality is largely determined by the internal state of our mind. If we find ourselves in a negative state of mind, we can use meditation to Tune our mind to a better internal state, which can improve our perception of the outside world. This positive state of mind allows us to better help those around us, improving the world for others.

Find a quiet time and place for meditation. Regret any harmful thoughts, words, and deeds you have done to others recently and resolve to do better. Imagine that the universe accepts your regrets and forgives you. Imagine feeling relief at this. Dedicate the benefits of this meditation to all who are in distress. Thank your spiritual guides for the conditions allowing you to do this meditation. Concentrate on your breath, feeling the inflow of air and the outflow of air until you feel relaxed.

Visualize a paradise of peace and beauty, a place you would like to be. Imagine it filled with happy people of all races, ages, genders, and religions, all helping one another. Imagine various animals mingling with the people, predators and prey coexisting. Imagine beautiful plants and flowers. Imagine that the weather is perfect.

You trip and fall, but someone picks you up and tends to your wounds. You become thirsty and a stranger offers you cool, clear water. You become hungry and another stranger invites you to their home for a banquet of your favorite foods and beverages. This makes you sleepy, and your host offers you a room and bed for the night. You quickly fall asleep on the comfortable bed.

You awaken refreshed and greet a perfect morning. At breakfast you ask your host for directions to the place where your most revered master teacher gives lessons. One of your host’s children walks you to the place of learning and you enter. The place is filled with other students of your religion or philosophy. They greet you as a friend and you feel their Love for you and one another. It feels like home.

The master teacher sees and greets you and seems to know you. The teacher then addresses the assembly. You have many questions about the universe and your place in it. The master answers your questions without you having to ask them. During a break, you discover all the students have the same experience. Their questions are answered. After the teaching, all the students request a blessing from the master. The master agrees but asks them for their blessing in return. You have the impression that the master regards them all as equals, not as inferior to the master.

You find a place to stay and a task to perform in this paradise. Continuing the lessons with the master, you find your mind becoming open to new information and more stable. After a long series of lessons and meditations the master invites you to a private conference. There the master questions you, and seemingly satisfied with your answers, touches you on the forehead and heart center and you enter the ecstasy of Bliss. You remain in Bliss for a time and awaken with the clear knowledge that life has meaning. You feel the unity of all things. You become Love incarnate.

Experiencing Bliss and clarity of thought, you wish to share this experience with others who still suffer. The master directs you to the council of elders who help you choose a life of service to others. You make a last round of paradise, enjoying all the features, knowing that you can return at any time. Then you return to the ordinary world and are reborn into a better life. And here you are. What will you do first?

Meditation–Heart Drop

This is a meditation of the analytical type taught by one of my lamas, designed to develop inclusiveness and universal, unconditional Love. Assume a comfortable posture in a pleasant location. As with any spiritual practice, if at any time the following practice makes you feel uncomfortable, simply stop and do something else. Resume only if you feel comfortable.

Begin by dedicating your practice for the benefit of all living beings. Calm your mind with simple or nine-step Breathing Meditation.

Close your eyes and visualize yourself as a small figure, either in your present form or your hero archetype. Visualize moving into your heart center. See yourself staring at a beautiful pulsating drop, a small sphere of Love energy located in the center of your heart. Pause until this vision is stable.

Take a deep breath and enter the heart drop. Hold your breath and abide in the drop. Release your breath and dissolve into the drop. Rest and become the drop. (Repeat this entering, abiding, dissolving, and becoming at least three times until you can clearly see yourself as a beautiful sphere of pure Love energy located at your heart.)

You are a beautiful sphere of pure Love. Now see the surface of the sphere and expand it until it encompasses and encloses your entire body, bathing it in loving energy. Rest in the feeling of loving your body and every aspect of your being. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize your immediate family, and expand the sphere of your Love to include them inside your sphere. Feel your Love for them. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize your friends and extended family, both those who comfort you and those who sow discord, and expand the sphere of your Love to include them inside your sphere. Feel your Love for them despite their flaws. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize your town, and expand the sphere of your Love to include its people, parks, and pets inside your sphere. Feel your Love for its diversity. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize your state, and expand the sphere of your Love to include its mountains, valleys, waters, forests, and life sustaining fields. Feel your Love for all of it. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize your country, and expand the sphere of your Love to include its heroes and history inside your sphere. Feel your Love for its freedom and protection. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize our planet earth, and expand the sphere of your Love to include its creatures and plants, lands and oceans. Feel your Love for this beautiful blue marble, our home in the depths of space. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize the sun and its orbiting worlds, and expand the sphere of your Love to include them inside your sphere. Feel your Love for its light, warmth, and invitation to explore. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, visualize the Milky Way galaxy, and expand the sphere of your Love to include it inside your sphere. Feel your Love for its beauty and mystery. (Pause)

From within your sphere of Love, expand the sphere of your Love to include the entire universe inside your sphere. Feel your Love for all conscious beings. (Pause)

Now expand your sphere of Love to infinity, dissolving the boundary of your Love entirely, boundless Love encompassing all creation. Imagine that this could last forever. Rest in this feeling. (Pause)

Remaining in boundless and eternal Love, slowly bring your focus of attention back from infinity and the universe (Pause), back from the Milky Way (Pause), now the sun and planets (Pause), our planet (Pause), country (Pause), your state (Pause), your town (Pause), your friends and family (Pause), and return to your body. Remain now in your body as Love with no boundary. Rest. Open your eyes. Do you feel differently? Do you think universal, unconditional, boundless, eternal Love is possible?