[CHIME]
As you hear the sound of the bells, take your seat.
And maybe even in the early stages of this,
it's valuable to give yourself a little pat
on the back for having made the time
to come to formal practice in this way,
stepping out of the endless river of doing and just
dropping into being.
As I've been emphasizing from the very beginning,
this is a radical act of sanity to stop and drop
and a radical act of love.
Taking your seat is an act of not only wisdom but of kindness
towards yourself, a profound, kind of, caring for oneself,
friendliness towards oneself.
And in that sense all of mindfulness practice
is loving kindness practice.
But that being said, sometimes it's
really valuable to be more explicit about the loving
peace.
And so as we establish ourselves in a posture that
embodies wakefulness and dignity as we've
been doing all along, feeling the breath moving
within your body and how beautiful
it is and trustworthy it is that it actually moves in and out
of the body with drinking in the air
and expelling the spent air effortlessly.
We don't need to strain, but it is
helpful to actually feel it coming into the body,
leaving the body, and appreciating
the beauty of this rhythmic process
that actually keeps us alive moment by moment in breath
by breath.
So feeling the entire body sitting here
breathing and letting this sitting here
breathing be a radical act of love.
And the beauty of love is it's like the sun.
It illuminates.
It radiates in all directions, so inwardly and outwardly.
So placing the sun in your own heart for a moment
and recognizing the radiant luminous warmth
of the sun-like heart as we sit here bathing in that warmth.
And when you feel stabilized in this way,
I'm going to invite you to call to mind
one moment from your past, whether it
was in childhood or at any other point in your life
up to this moment when you actually
were the recipient of unadulterated unconditional
love, where you were and felt completely accepted for who
you are no matter how you were.
And just bathing in that and feeling it as the breath
keeps moving in and out of the body
almost as if we can breathe with that receiving
of unconditional loving kindness,
unconditional acceptance, unconditional recognition
of the fullness of who we are.
And just letting that wash through you
as we sit here breathing.
And if thoughts or memories arise,
well, we're actually inviting them
to arise in this moment But more the feeling of being completely
recognized and accepted and cared
for with a degree of kindness just as you are or were.