Meditation
to Facilitate One’s Capacity for
Unconditional
Love
(starting
with how to love your own beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful self)
Each major
world religion and many philosophical outlooks hold compassion for oneself
and others to be the core of ethical conduct, and it is also at the core
of healing effectively. Tibetan
Buddhism, with its focus on compassion and the easy accessibility (and
lack of a deity) of many of its meditations, is one way to develop your
compassion. What follows is a meditation from The Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying by
Sogyal Rinpoche, p. 203.
Divide yourself into two aspects, A and B.
A is the aspect of yourself that is whole,
compassionate, warm, loving; like a true friend or the best parent,
willing to be there for you, is responsive and open to you without ever
judging you, whatever your faults or shortcomings.
B
is an aspect of you that has been hurt, that feels misunderstood and
frustrated, bitter or angry, who might have been, for example, unjustly
treated or abused as a child, or has suffered in relationships or been
wronged by society.
Now, as you
breathe in, imagine that A opens his or her heart completely, and
warmly and compassionately accepts and embraces all of B’s
suffering and negativity and pain and hurt.
Moved by this, B opens his or her heart and all pain and
suffering melt away in this compassionate embrace.
As you breathe
out, imagine A sending out to B all of his or her healing
love, warmth, trust, comfort, confidence, happiness, and joy.
