by Madonna Gauding
Note: I may tap out a few of the 140 meditations but I highly recommend you seek out a copy.
Reading off a computer screen can't compare with sitting in a nice, comfy chair with a copy
in your hot, little hands!
THREE BOXES
Benefits:
* Helps you understand why you put people in categories
* Reveals the underlying problem of self-centredness
* Helps you practice love & compassion
Equanimity is such an important topic that we have included another meditation on the issue.
Combine this meditation with the previous two meditations and discover why you mentally put
people in three different boxes.
Equanimity is the basis for love and compassion. It regards everyone as equally deserving of
your love & compassion. Without it, you will find yourself pre-occupied with sorting people
into three boxes - those whom you find attractive, those you dislike and those to whom you are
indifferent. This restriction of your love and compassion to those on your 'approved list'
diminishes your freedom and joy
When:
This is a wonderful meditation to practice on a daily basis
Preparation:
Think of someone whom you find very attractive, someone you find repulsive and someone you have
no feelings for, one way or the other.
1. Prepare yourself to meditate in your meditation space. Begin by watching your breath for a
few minutes in order to calm and clear your mind.
2. Begin by thinking of someone whom you find very attractive. Are you seeing him or her
clearly? Perhaps you are putting the person on a pedestal. Would you still like the person as
much if they were not as beautiful, clever or funny as they are?
3. Next, think of a person you find repulsive. Go through a similar exercise. Are you painting
a full picture of the person or making him or her into a two-dimensional caricature? Is any
love or care for that person dependent on whether he or she is attractive to you?
4. Finally think of a stranger about whom you have no feelings. Do you feel neutral towards this
person because you haven't determined if he or she is useful to you or not? In this way,
discover the self-centredness inherent in putting people into 'three boxes'.
5. Visualise all three people standing in front of you. Realise all three want to be happy and
want to avoid suffering. Imagine feeling love & compassion for all three. Notice if this feels
better than sorting them into good, bad and indifferent.
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Benefits:
* Provides an antidote to the feeling that you are separate.
* Helps you feel your life has meaning.
* Promotes love & compassion
You are connected to everything and everyone else. This meditation on this important fact will
help you counteract feelings of alienation, loneliness or meaninglessness and increase your
sense of loving connection to all beings.
Interconnectedness is not just a spiritual idea. Quantum physics finds you are intimately
connected to all reality. In fact, physicists can only observe the particles from which you
are made through their interactions with other systems. You may feel alone and separate, but
rest assured, you aren't.
When:
Try this meditation if you are feeling alone, overhwelmed and alienated.
Preparation:
Buy an apple at the market.
1. Sit on a cushion or chair in your meditation space. Bring your apple with you. Watch your
breath for a few minutes to calm and settle your mind.
2. Place the apple on your altar or on a small table in front of you. Now visualise the seed
from which the apple came. Visualise a farmer planting the seed, carefully fertilising the
ground. Clouds come and go and rain moistens the earth. For years the farmer tends the tree,
which is also home to birds and insects, until one day it bears fruit. They pack your apple in
a crate with others. The farmer drives your apple to a wholesale market. The wholesaler buys
your apple and sells it to your shop. Another driver delivers it to your shop. A shop assistant
arranges it for display. You arrive and pick that apple to use for your meditation.
3. Visualise the apple tree and all the people and equipment involved in bringing this one
apple to you. You can extend this meditation by tracing every aspect of the process, including
the people who built the vehicle that delivered your apple. At every given moment you are
connected to an infinite number of beings. You can't exist without them. You are enmeshed in a
cosmic web of creation.
4. End your meditation by eating your apple. Feel your connection to everyone who made it
possible.
FOUR IMMEASURABLES
Benefits:
* Promotes love & compassion
* Includes yourself in your intentions
* Encourages spiritual growth
This meditation is a wonderful antidote to the nightly news. You wish that an immeasurable
number of beings have immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity.
The 'Four Immeasurables' is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation. Its purpose is to help you feel
more kindness and compassion towards yourself and towards others.
You will need to memorise the following prayer for this meditation:
May all beings have happiness
When:
Meditate on the 'Four Immeasurables' on a daily basis.
Preparation:
Memorise the short prayer opposite.
1. Sit on a cushion or chair in your meditation space. Meditate on your breath for five
minutes.
2. Recite out loud the first line of the prayer: 'May all beings have happiness'. Feel your
intention that all beings have your unconditional love. Include yourself in this wish.
Accept them and yourself exactly as they and you are.
3. Move to the second line and say it loud: 'May all beings be free from suffering'. Imagine
that you have infinite compassion and wish all beings, including yourself, to be free from
suffering of any kind. Bring to mind any form of suffering. It could be someone with cancer or
your own suffering from illness or addiction. Feel a great urgency to help them and yourself.
4. Recite the third line: 'May all beings find joy that has never known suffering'. Imagine
that all beings have enlightenment, the ultimate spiritual development in Buddhism. Feel the
depression of all beings, including yourself, lifting and being eradicated. Imagine they and
you are in a blissful, happy, unselfish, enlightened state
5. Recite the fourth line: 'May all beings be free from attachment and hatred'. Imagine that
all beings, including yourself, never distinguish between a friend, enemy or stranger, but
regard all beings, regardless of who they are, as worthy of love and compassion. Know this
equanimity is the basis for the first three wishes - unconditional, altruistic love,
compassion and pure joy.
May all beings be free from suffering
May all beings find joy that has never known suffering
May all beings be free from attachment and hatred
Some Links:
Basic search 4 the book
Hurry up and meditate is another excellent book about the experience of meditation
This beautiful prayer is featured in one of the meditations
Search this list for the word 'mind' - it is a huge list of great sites
Meditate on unconditional love
Meditation is a route 2 enlightenment
The aim is to develop compassion & wisdom equally
Some guided meditations are very helpful - like the CD of the Gyuto monks :)
It is good 2 reflect on the fact we ALL have Buddha nature
Forgiveness is one of the essentials 4 happiness
HUGE list of thoughts on Buddhist practice
At that same site - worth a good look!
Pray for strength in times of difficulty
That Beliefnet site has plenty - many are included in my daily journal
The Dalai Lama on the importance of compassion for ALL beings
Inner Smile along with dozens of other meditations!