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Public Talk in Boston - Walking the Path of Love with Muddy Shoes
It is possible to cultivate true love because each of us has four seeds of true love in the depth of our consciousness:
- maitrī (loving-kindness): the energy that can bring happiness.
- karuṇā (compassion): the capacity to transform and remove the suffering in another.
- muditā (joy): the element that makes life beautiful, nourishing, healing, transforming.
- upekṣā (equanimity): the energy of non-discrimination that sees another’s suffering as our own and removes all separation.
The Buddha offers sixteen exercises of mindful breathing to take care of body, feelings, emotions, perceptions, sorrow, and fear. In the third exercise:
“Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body.
Breathing out, I smile to my whole body.”
In the next exercise:
“Breathing in, I release the tension in my body.”
The next four exercises deal with feelings, for example bringing joy:
“Breathing in, I notice the feeling, I bring in the feeling of joy to myself.
Breathing out, I feel the joy within myself.”
And embracing pain:
“Breathing in, I’m aware of the pain within myself.
Breathing out, I smile and embrace that pain in myself.”
Through these practices we generate the energies of mindfulness, concentration, and insight to recognize, embrace, and transform all suffering.
