Our families, communities, and media encourage us to see our faults, regard each other as untrustworthy, and perceive the world as a malevolent, dangerous place. But in so doing, we’re creating a psychological hell realm — a collective and personal sense of constant fear and aggression, leading to acts of destruction and endless misery. In Tibetan Buddhism, this hell realm is the worst place to be, where the greatest suffering occurs.
Luckily, we’re not doomed to live in the hell realm. We can change our conditions and if we simply use our attention to see what’s really happening, it’s obvious that we all have blessings, support, and resources all around us. We may have painful difficulties and even experience disasters — but always there is love, kindness, and connection present too.
Today’s meditation is to remind you that you abide in a benevolent realm. By reestablishing your connection with moments of caring, empathy, and compassion, you’ll be able to find encouragement, safety, and deep resilience of heart and mind.
We’ll take inspiration from this instruction:
“We discover love’s transformative and liberating power first by receiving love more fully, then by offering it more inclusively, and finally by becoming a reflex of it from the ground of our being. That is one way to describe the path to enlightenment. To enter into this process, we need to identify benefactors who have been emissaries of love in our lives.”
Please enjoy today’s practice and rejoice in your good sense and open heart! Let me know your experience and questions in the comments or send me an email, it’s a joy to communicate with you.
Note: Remember — all the meditations can be adapted for anyone of any ability. If you can’t walk, sit. If you can’t sit, lie down. There is no wrong way to meditate as long as you’re present centered, paying attention, and meeting yourself with kindness.
Metta+++,
Kim✨
P.S. I described one of my experiences of discovering a benevolent field of buddhas in a Tricycle Magazine podcast interview with James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg last year. You can read about it in a previous newsletter:
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