Question

Last night during the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation, the repeated thought came up that I feel quite fortunate regarding my health, or the environment, life circumstances I find myself in. I had doubts if these are the right thoughts, when I consider the extreme Dukkha that some people experience, especially during the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation. Can you please say something a bit about this?

Answer

To a certain extent, especially when we're focusing on Compassion, we don't want to feel happy. It's not really the right response when we're fully focusing on Compassion. But the thing is, that often especially in the beginning years of practice, not just the beginning week or something, the beginning years of practice, it does take us a while to truly understand how fortunate we are. It takes a while. We don't believe it in the beginning. We make up all sorts of excuses as to why we're not fortunate. "Yes but I've..." "Yes but... Yes, but..." We make up all sorts of excuses. At odd times, and especially during the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation, the realization comes up of "Wow! I have so much! Why am I always getting so worried and whatever else. I have so much!" Often this will come up during the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation. Often it's just a natural thing, so it's not like we're going to say it's terrible that it came up, it's very normal that it will come up. Acknowledge it, remind yourself, "I want to use this later. I want to do the reflection on how fortunate I am later. I've got to make it stronger. I've got to believe it." Then let it go, and go back to the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation.

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