Dear Friends, As we explore the second wise effort of abandoning unwholesome states, there is an essential element that can transform how we approach this effort: compassion. Compassion invites us to meet unwholesome states not with aversion, but with kindness and understanding. When we notice the mind caught in negativity, frustration, or distraction, we can ask questions like… Read More »
Dear Friends, As mentioned earlier, right intention includes the intention for non-cruelty, and to aid this intention, we can cultivate compassion. Compassion also guides our actions in this world. Here is a beautiful meditation from Jack Kornfield, which I find helps my heart open to compassion for others. Heart Wisdom – Ep 125 – ‘Just Like Me’ Guided… Read More »
Dear Friends, Today, a brief summary from Jill on Working with Compassion, and a guided compassion practice. In the first talk on the The Brahma Viharas for Insight and Wisdom, Jill shared a set of reflections from Caroline Jones and Paul Burrows, that outlined the interrelationship between the four heart qualities of loving kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing with Jill’s talk on Compassion, Karuna, today we turn the ways to practice compassion, what sort of obstacles might arise, and how to work with them. One of the ways we can practice developing compassion is through the repetition of phrases. Jill give us her four phrases, and explains what each phrase means for her.… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing today with the talk on “The Brahma Viharas for Insight and Wisdom,” this time sharing some of Jill’s imagery when talking about the the many ways a kind heart can be expressed and respond wisely in the world. As Jill mentions, through our meditation practice, we can use a range of techniques to help make… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the third talk from the retreat, “The Brahma Viharas for Insight and Wisdom,” Jill brings in lots of ideas to unpack – so I’ll take a couple of days to bring out a few points I found helpful. Jill starts off by explaining two extremes we might notice in our own lives – one of… Read More »
Dear Friends, So now that we’ve zipped through four weeks of material, and we’re nearing the end of January, I thought we could take a step back and have a big picture of what we’ve been cultivating this month. 1 – What’s your why – setting an intention can help us stay oriented in our practice and life… Read More »
Dear Friends, We’re over halfway through this month of reflection and practice! And maybe you notice times you are discouraged that your practice isn’t going “better,” or you are sure you’re just not getting it, or other stories of self-judgment or shame. The RAIN practice discussed yesterday is one way to work with these kind of thoughts. Jeanne… Read More »
Dear Friends, As this month of reflection draws to a close, I’m going to circle back to the beginning of the book, where Christina Feldman presented how these practices work together to support one another: Kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are a family of qualities that support, strengthen, nourish, and balance one another. Immeasurable kindness teaches us a… Read More »
Dear Friends, Like many of you, I wake up in the morning and read the email that was sent out… I have a little friend who reads it with me, and it tells me lots of things… “That email sucked. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re a terrible writer. You forgot to add this in. You… Read More »
Dear Friends, We can cultivate compassion in many ways. One way is with the use of phrases to express our intention. When practicing this way, we find a set of phrases that work for us. Some of the phrases that Christina Feldman suggests include: May you find peace.May you be safe.May you be touched with kindness.May you find… Read More »
Dear Friends, Yesterday, we tuned into the first aspect of compassion – empathy, the quivering of the heart in response to suffering. Today, we look translating that empathy into responsiveness. Christina Feldman starts this section: Empathy teaches us to listen to and understand suffering and its causes. Embodiment is concerned with what we do with that understanding. Embodiment… Read More »
Dear Friends, When the Sunday Morning Insight Meditation Group listened to a recorded talk by Christina Feldman about compassion last year, I was interested to hear Christina bring in some nuances about compassion. I was familiar with the Pāli word karuna for compassion, but Christina mentions another word – anukhampa – what she calls “a profound empathy, the… Read More »
Dear Friends, There’s a Pāli word, dukkha, that Christina Feldman discusses in the context of compassion. Dukkha has many different translations. Some of the original translators used the word “suffering”, but more recent translators use words like unsatisfactoriness, stress, dis-ease. (An article by Glenn Wallis lists several alternative translations:https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-dukkha/ ) Joseph Goldstein has described the origins of the… Read More »
Dear Friends, We now move into the next chapter of Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart. The focus is on the heart quality of compassion. At the heart of compassion is the invitation to turn toward suffering. Just as the longing for love, safety, and respect is a universal longing and story, so too is pain a universal and inescapable story.… Read More »
