Meditation 101

Week 7 - Mindfulness and Compassion by Dave Potter

Lovingkindness Meditation

In some mindfulness courses, the linkage between mindfulness and compassion is not very explicit, relying on the modeling by the instructor (acceptance and compassion extended to students and others) and the logical extension of the idea of accepting one's own experience. If one were to rely only on a secular definition of mindfulness, which typically emphasizes paying close attention to one's own experience and staying in the present moment, an argument could even be made that a trained killer could be perfectly mindful, and be more a effective killer as a result, with no contradiction to this secular definition. Of course, something seems very wrong with this, since kindness and compassion are at the core of almost every meditative tradition.

Videos and Reading

The videos and readings explore this, the idea that concern for others is something that is natural, endemic, to who we are as humans. Dacher Keltner's video, The Evolutionary Roots of Compassion, and Eckman's article, Survival of the Kindest, explore this theme. Similarly, in the Supplementary Materials, the Dalai Lama makes a case for compassion being a basic human trait, in Compassionate Ethics in Difficult Times., as do Sylvia Boorstein and Sharon Salzberg in Universal Compassion.

We also explore the natural linkages there are with mindfulness and compassion (Shauna Shapiro's video, How Mindfulness Cultivates Compassion and her article, Does Mindfulness Make You Compassionate). In our culture, it can be argued that the person we are least kind to is often ourselves and in First, Forgive Yourself, Tara Brach talks about "waking up from the trance of unworthiness". In Self-Compassion, Farida Zaman points out our tendency to be overly critical of ourselves and some ways to cultivate a healthy self-compassion.

Daily Practices

In keeping with this theme, we introduce the Lovingkindness Meditation, which we suggest you try at least once this week. It is a shorter practice (13 min), so when you do this meditation, you can extend it for another 17 minutes to give yourself a full 30 minutes on that day. Or, if you'd like to extend a bit of lovingkindess to yourself(!), you can stop at the end of the 13 minute meditation.

For the formal practice this week, you can choose between any of the three main practices you've experienced so far: Body Scan, Sitting Meditation, Yoga, including at least one day of the Lovingkindness meditation.

For the informal practice, on any given day, you may choose any of the practices you've experienced so far (e.g., simple awareness, mindful eating, STOP, RAIN), and enter your experience on the supplied log.

Videos

The Evolutionary Roots of Compassion by Dacher Keltner [5 min]

How Mindfulness Cultivates Compassion by Shauna Shapiro [16 min]

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff [21 min]

Reading

Survival of the Kindest by Paul Ekman

Does Mindfulness Make You More Compassionate? by Shauna Shapiro

First, Forgive Yourself interview of Tara Brach by Tej Rae

Self-Compassion by Farida Zaman

Practice sheets

Formal Practice - Body Scan, Sitting Meditation, or Yoga (including Lovingkindness)

Informal Practice - Any (Simple Awareness, Mindful Eating, STOP, RAIN, etc.)