Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and author. She is the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. The practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness are the foundations of her work.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does kindness as a deep and subtle movement of the heart mean to you? Can you share a personal story of a time you felt this deep and subtle movement? What practice helps you develop kindness?
Kindness is an abstraction of positive thoughts and ideas. When you think positive then positive energy is emitted through you at sub-atomic level--you become like an antenna sending positive vibrations all around your existence in this universe. You become kind to your own existence at physical, emotional, intellectual & spiritual levels. You then try to do kind things to everyone at all four dimensions of your existence. Let each of us become kind in all four dimensions and spread positivity around us through our strengths in four dimensions.
I'm imagining 3.5 billion beings doing a simultaneous act of kindness for the other 3.5 billionð What a beautiful viewð
...and God IS the "Force/Fuel" behind Kindness. All my "good works" (fueled by any other means) are as "filthy rags" (not my words).
Kindness through Him, with Him and In Him . . . . Is the genuine, no motive, no agenda kind of Kindness that grows Heaven's fruit. Amen.
kindness has become apart of me.It is how I treat every day I am out in public. I try to engage others in conversation or just with a smile. I believe God has helped me find a purpose. I get so much in return.
Complete belief/conviction with constant awareness that love,compassion,friendship, forgiveness is the only way forward for a meaningful life is kindness at the deepest level of heart.All problems ,issues, happiness or sadness merge/dissolve automatically is my practical experience. This Meditation with closed eyes is common but with open eyes without supressing any thought,desire ,like or dislike is a wonderful practice for best results.
Kindness as a deep and subtle movement of the heart means to have a ground or floor of kindness that I abide in, am always aware of, and act from. Like the author says, it is like the movement of the sea close to the ocean floor, still and peaceful while affecting all behavior at the surface. I feel this deep and subtle movement during parts of every day, and lose contact with it too often such as during some busy or pressured or striving times. The practice that helps me to develop kindness is to start each day with a reflection or meditation that all that is and everyone that is is one, and to go back to that awareness frequently during a day. It's from that awareness that kindness toward self and others and the earth flows naturally. When I hold that awareness I tend to be more kind.
For the 'thread' of kindness to go through my various selves across situations isn't easy - I often grapple with it.
Being kind comes easy in some circumstances (like @ Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad) or in certain states (of joy and gratitude). The thread is very clear then - it is indeed heart-in-motion....
Yet the challenge is when I am living my day-to-day life.....kindness comes and goes.....and at times is replaced by a very strong sense of 'me', a deep focus on myself (can I pass it off as being kind to me?)
Being mindful helps, engaging with our ecosystem surely helps, sending 'metta' helps.....but fundamentally, the thread that runs through my "disconnected" selves is more my being....kindness is not fully yet an integrated part of it...