Have you ever experienced the compassion meditation and its significant advantages? It is believed that compassion meditation can bring so much great effects to our life. Nowadays, compassion meditation is one of the most popular kinds of meditation. Let us discover what compassion meditation means and its positive influence.
The Source of Compassion Meditation
Compassion Meditation (or”Karuṇā” in Buddhist circles) means “loving-kindness meditation”. This practice is originated from the Buddhism tradition, especially the Theravada and Tibetan sect. It is called a modern science which represents the great benefits of compassion and related kind of meditation.
The Meaning of Compassion in Buddhism
This compassion comes from our clear awareness about the emptiness and the nature of all things in reality. In this meditation, the vast and profound meets each other.
For more details, the nature of all things means all aspects of beings do not exist inherently. All things have no homogeneous nature. People often claim that our body and mind are not connected, thus we separate two definitions – one is “ego”, another is “myself”. Then, we acknowledge strongly about “ego”, try to hold on the homogeneous nature of all phenomenon. For example, we think “owning a new car” means “richness, high-fashion”. As the result, we must suffer from uncomfortable states when we do not have our beloved stuff such as a big house, modern car, new smartphone, etc. Can you realize that we always name the label or identify the characters for something which they do not truly have?
When compassion is connected with the awareness that: “Most of the suffering truly comes from the misunderstanding about the nature of beings in the present”, then we can take a next step in the soul trip. After all, we will realize that we are absolutely able to expel all suffering.
As we know that it is difficult for people to avoid all human, however, they can overcome all suffering, then our compassion will exist. We know clearly that humanity must struggle with hardship from inside their mind and life. Therefore, we easily can share our empathy and sympathy for others. All the interactions between individuals become a motivation for our compassion. Finally, our compassion will be much deeper, and our mind will always extend in daily life.
The Theory of Compassion Meditation
It will take us for a long time to build and develop the compassion. We must devote our effort and spend much time to achieve this lofty purpose. It will be better to practice meditation early in the morning every day. Nevertheless, nourishing the compassion is not a one-night success.
Therefore, you need to practice compassion meditation for a couple of months or several years. On the one hand, we must minimize our selfish or our bad characters in daily life. On the other hand, we have to promote our kindness and loving for others, evenly until we pass away. It can be said that compassion meditation is not a normal habit that you practice for some minutes every day. Actually, compassion meditation is really a lifestyle. In which, you can not enter the Buddhahood after a short time but you will make our compassion appear easily in our mind and our daily life.
How to Practice Compassion Meditation?
You sit down with closed-eyes in meditation posture that you feel most comfortable. You create in your mind and heart the feeling of kindness and love. To do this, you learn to love yourself first and gradually move the compassion’s intention to others and humanity.
First of all, you pay attention to your breath.
Second, let the stream of the kindness and loving flow into your heart. You should let all pains or sufferings in the past disappear. Let you experience the emptiness of the enlightenment and difficulty in the practice surround and protect yourself, too.
Third, let you spread your love to the nearby person, your friends, your parents, or everyone in the meditation hall. You need to share your empathy with their past sorrow, with the difficulty they must face in the present. You should remember that: All of us love to be loved, and the only thing you should do is to show your love and kindness to them. Let them feel the warmth of your compassion.
Forth, you think about the ones you hate with your love. You can understand their troubles and pains. Let them be covered by your love. Next, you think of the one who lacks fortune than you. Maybe, they are in the hospital, the prison, or the war. Or, they are in poverty, loneliness or sickness. Let you share your kindness and love to all of them.
Finally, pay attention to yourself. You learn to love yourself again. You feel you can help, protect, accept and love yourself more than anyone can.
The Meaningful Words in Compassion Meditation
While you practice compassion meditation, you can whisper in your mind these words tenth times.
“I wish for health, peace, happiness every day.”
“I hope the health, peace, happiness and for all the sentient beings in the world.”
Soon after, you can let your mind think about each person.
“Best wishes for myself.
For my masters, I wish they will be healthy, peaceful and happy.
For my parents, I hope they will be peaceful, healthy or joyful.
With my family and relative, I pray for the best things.
To my friends, I believe that they all will be successful and happy.
For my co-worker, I wish they will have happiness and success.
I pray all best things for both the ones hate me and everyone that I do not know.
And, I hope all of the people in the world will be peaceful. No more sorrow, no more pain, or suffering. Let them live happily and successfully.”
5 Things to Remember for Better Compassion Meditation
In every single day, you should remember these five things. This awareness will be the solid basis for you to build the compassion.
You are the owner of karma. You know that it is true, so you learn to be responsible for all things happening in your life, no matter how it is good or bad. Let you destroy the thought “Someone hurts me, someone makes my life worse.”
The legatee of karma is me. You are the one who creates your karma. When you notice this clearly, you will find it easy to do good things and avoid bad things.
“I was born by my karma”. This is the easiest thing to remember. You are born because of the dream of living in this life. The desire to live again in this world is the reason why you are here, right now, in this universe. It is worth for us to experience.
“I connect with my karma”. Let you remember this Buddha’ sentences: “Owners of their karma are the beings, heirs of the karma. The karma is their womb from which they are born, their karma is their friend, their refuge.”
The final and the most important thing to remember in compassion meditation in particular, and your life in general, is: “No matter how good karma or bad karma, I myself will be responsible for all.” This understanding will bring your mind back to the present.
Great Benefits of Compassion Meditation for Your Life
Real compassion has strong power which looks like the mother’s love for her child. Over time, her love and care for child affect her tendency in thinking and behaviors. We must improve this attitude so as to have a great compassion.
By real compassion meditation, we can prevent the arrogant thoughts and the selfish. In this period, we are encouraged by altruistic thoughts and unconditional love. Then we get ready to devote our lives to rescue other’s life from the human hardship of the cycle of reincarnation.
In compassion meditation, we find the noble happiness. We never look for personal happiness, but we pray for mankind salvation. Perpetually, we promote our kindness and improve our compassion as well as our morality. With this great compassion, we will take a good preparation for the enlightenment.
After all, we need to nourish our mind with compassion and take good deeds. In fact, there are not any secret ways to love or be kind to others. You just need to be persistent and the best result will come into your soul, your life, and more than you can imagine.
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