Below are practices oriented around the cultivation and direct experiencing of kindness (maitrī/mettā). When well-developed, kindness can develop into a powerful energy that can naturally open body and mind/heart.
Welcoming everything
- Rest awareness back, zoomed-out.
- Whenever any phenomena draws attention, welcome it genuinely, without prior evaluation or hesitation then release paying attention to it.
- Welcome anything felt to be subject (me) as well as object (what is sensed by me).
- Welcoming can be wished each time something shows up in awareness. As momentum grows, a more continuous attitude and wish of welcoming can be worked with.
- No need to try and concentrate or keep the mind on any object. Simply welcome whatever is experienced without prior evaluation or hesitation.
- Welcome: drowsiness, alertness, wandering mind states, stability, dullness, clarity, the sense of “the observer”, wanting, not liking, the “wanter/not-liker”, confidence, doubt, thoughts, lack of thought, the “thinker” sadness, happiness, pleasantness, unpleasantness, the “feeler” etc.
Tapping into natural kindness
- Place the body in a comfortable and stable position that makes it easy to rest one hand on the opposite arm.
- Pillows, blankets, a tabletop or the body may all be used to find a comfortable position for the arms.
- Take one hand and find a spot on the other hand, wrist or forearm where the touch feels welcome, kind and comfortable. Rest the hand here and relax.
- Let this comfortable touch settle in. Begin to directly experience and to rest in what this touch feels like moment to moment.
- It may be helpful to notice how welcome this pleasant touch is, or how nice it would be to be comforted in this way by a loved person or pet.
- As kind and comforting touch is experienced, let it relax, open and soothe body and mind regardless of what other thoughts, feelings or sensations show up.
- The feelings of kindness and comfort will begin to spread naturally throughout the experience.
- There is no need to keep the experience limited to just the point of touch now. Lightly notice as more and more, these qualities of kindness and comfort seep throughout the whole felt experience.
- Let these kind and comfortable feelings naturally fill and suffuse body, mind and awareness.
- Rest here, relax and let all of experience be filled and soothed by natural comfort and kindness. No need for distinctions or discrimination.
The releases of the heart
- Place the body in a comfortable, alert and stable position.
- Gently evoke and experience feelings of kindness.
- You may find imagining a kind act or caring for an animal or baby may help evoke natural feelings of kindness. The instruction above for tapping into natural kindness may also be used.
- Whenever the mind wanders or tension or resistance are noticed, simply relax body and mind, gently smile with body and mind, then return to evoking and experiencing feelings of kindness.
- As this process repeats and builds momentum, pleasure or energy will begin to be experienced as well in body and mind. Simply notice it and continue gently evoking and experiencing kindness.
- Stay with evoking and experiencing kindness. The pleasure and energy will naturally change and refine over time, moving from coarse and higher-intensity to increasingly refined and subtle.
- Eventually an equilibrium will be reached, and kindness will come be intermixed with deep equanimity. This develops into the release of the heart through kindness.
- Continue evoking and experiencing kindness. The kindness will take on a new, softer and more subtle quality. As it does, the experience will open up into a feeling of spaciousness without end.
- As this form of kindness (compassion) comes into balance with spaciousness without end, the release of the heart through compassion will develop.
- Continue evoking and experiencing kindness. The compassion will take on a new, stronger and joyful quality. As it does, the experience will open up into a feeling of consciousness without end.
- As this form of kindness (joy) comes into balance with consciousness without end, the release of the heart through joy will develop.
- Continue evoking and experiencing kindness. The joy will take on a new, very refined and equanimous quality. As it does, the experience will intermix with a feeling of no “things”-ness.
- As this form of kindness (equanimity) comes into balance with no “thing”-ness, the release of the heart through joy will develop.
- Continue practice to see where it goes.