“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.” 

Bob Sharples, from Meditation: Calming the Mind

Dipa Ma, the beloved teacher of Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and others summed this very simply:

“Meditation is love.”

How do we embody this in our practice now?

Please note: no talk this week.