Dec 16, 2019
In today’s episode, we are going to shift from listening to motivation for meditation to actually meditating, with a Loving-kindness meditation. You may listen to this episode while driving, but you will likely want to sit down, close your eyes and give yourself the best gift of this holiday season, the gift to sit still for about 15-20 minutes. When you try to find goodness in other people, you naturally want to understand them and feel how they feel. If you want to know more about Loving, Kindness, and Compassion meditation, go back to and listen to episode 10.
Jinpa, who is the translator for the Dalai Lama, has an excellent definition of compassion. It is defined as a mental state endowed with a sense of concern for the suffering of others and the aspiration to see that suffering is relieved.
There are three parts to it:
- cognitive component - being I understand you
- affective component - meaning I feel you
- motivational component - meaning I want to help you
It’s the holidays, wherever you are in life, up, down, running in circles. Compassion meditation is just a great thing to do. It makes me so incredibly happy to do this with all of you. Think of love as not only a feeling but as an ability. This meditation strengthens your ability to love. Sit back and enjoy it! If you are listening to it while you are driving, just listen and smile, maybe it will give you enough motivation to get to your destination and close your eyes and follow along. Get ready. I’ll be back with you in a moment.