monday mindfulness...

[Jim T]

“Until we are able to love and take care of ourselves, we cannot be of
much help to others.”

We begin practicing this love meditation on ourselves

May I be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May I be safe and free from injury.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

After that we can practice on others (he/she)

May he/she be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May he/she be safe and free from injury.
May he/she be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

After that we can practice including our selves with others (we),

May we be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May we be safe and free from injury.
May we be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

King Prasenajit and the Buddha became close friends. One day, while
they were sitting together in the Jeta Grove, the king said to the
Buddha, Master, there are people who think they love themselves, but
who harm themselves by their thoughts, words and deeds. These people
are their own worst enemy. The Buddha agreed. Those who harm
themselves through their thoughts, words or actions are indeed their
own worst enemies. They only bring themselves suffering. We usually
think our suffering is caused by others: our parents, our partner, our
enemies. But out of our forgetfulness, anger or jealousy, we say or do
things that create suffering for ourselves and others. Another time
the Buddha told King Prasenajit, People usually think they love
themselves. But because they are not mindful, they say and do things
that create their own suffering. When we see that this is true we will
stop blaming others as the cause our suffering. Instead, we will try
to love and care for ourselves and nourish our own body and mind.

To practice this love meditation from the Visuddhimagga, sit still,
calm your body and your breathing, and recite, May I be peaceful,
happy and light in body and spirit. May I be safe and free from
injury. May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety. The
sitting position is a wonderful position for practicing this. Sitting
still we are not too preoccupied with other matters, so we can look
deeply at ourselves as we are, cultivate our love for ourselves, and
determine the best ways to express this love in the world.

The practice begins with an aspiration: May I be.... Then we transcend
the level of aspiration and look deeply at all the positive and
negative characteristics of the object of our meditation, in this
case, ourselves. The willingness to love is not yet love. We look
deeply, with all our being, in order to understand. We don't just
repeat the words, or imitate others, or strive after some ideal. The
practice of love meditation is not auto-suggestion. We don't just say,
I love myself. I love all beings. We look deeply at our body, our
feelings, our perceptions, our mental formations, and our
consciousness, and in just a few weeks, our aspiration to love will
become a deep intention. Love will enter our thoughts, our words, and
our actions, and we will notice that we have become peaceful, happy
and light in body and spirit: safe and free from injury; and free from
anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

From Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh