Sharing Love II

As we continue to engage with the practice of Extending Love & Care to Others, we need to remember the breadth and depth of the field of loving care that we bring into our practice. When Receiving love, we let the wish and energy of love from our benefactors permeate every part of our body and mind. We are filled with, and rest in, the field of loving care. Every part of our body relaxes into the support of our field of care. Every part of our mind, all the qualities that we love and cherish and all the difficult parts that we resist and suppress, are all held in the spacious acceptance of our field of care. Lama John calls this being loved “thoroughly.”

When we begin the practice of extending love to others, we need to be aware of the thoroughness of this love. The dear ones we bring to mind in the beginning stages of this practice should be those who we would have no problem extending love to and including in our field of care; relationships where we truly expect nothing in return.

At the start, we avoid those people from whom we expect lots of love, attention, and appreciation in return. We want to avoid the practice becoming one where we work with those we are “supposed” to be loving and kind with. We want to envision those to whom we would easily and naturally extend the wish of loving care without expecting something in return. Later, with more experience, as the practice becomes more natural to us and the feelings flow with ease, then we can add those more challenging people to our practice.

Remember that our intention with all meditation practices is to approach them with ease! If something brings more tension into the practice, then we avoid that in the beginning. We release the attachment to anything that brings tension with it, not pushing it away, just releasing the need to follow that storyline. Then we relax back into our field of care and continue the practice. Our field of care is always present as a refuge and safe space for experience.