Connect with a Stranger

There are way more many people on this planet that we don't know than we do know. So how to tune our heart towards concern for them as well. So the setup is the same. Find a comfortable seat. Snuggle in.

Deliberate inhale and exhale everything. Let the belly be soft. Let the back of the heart feel wide. Let your arms find a place so that your hands can turn up. Shoulders are relaxed, back, and down, and skull is light.

Let your awareness come towards your heart region. Tune towards the heart region with the assistance of your breath. Now allow yourself to think on someone in your life who is a relative stranger, someone you might see often but have never really given much concern to their happiness or well-being. So, maybe the woman that makes your chai. Maybe the man who makes your sandwich.

Maybe a coworker who works in a different department or on a different floor. So, somebody you see, but just have very neutral feelings about. They, too, want to be happy and free. Now do your best. Let this person come into frame.

Imagine them in front of you. See him or her. And then with the same sincerity that we've been practicing, can you start to let the mantra ride on your breath. So, inhale and exhale, may you be happy and free. And again, maybe you're saying the mantra out loud.

Sometimes that just helps. May you be happy and free. And sometimes it's easier to mentally think it. So just find which works best for you. Notice the temptation to sometimes think about what would make them happy and free.

Just shh, shh. You don't know that. We don't know that. It's just the simple wish. Just tuning your heart towards another, someone who neither brings or takes from you.

And again, like we've talked about, sometimes as you open your heart for loving kindness, sometimes different people will appear. Just shh, shh. No problem, let them. Because if you find yourself rigidly trying to hold your attention on somebody, we've defeated the point. This is a practice of flow.

This is a practice of opening. Soft in the belly, kind in the eyes. Generous in the hands. Just a few more moments. Just the practice of holding somebody in our attention, in the light of our awareness, who we have not naturally given consideration.

Beautiful. After the last mantra now, exhale, and just rest in your heart region. So now, today, this is your homework, because you will come into contact with many strangers. Maybe it's at work, maybe it's in traffic, maybe it's in the sandwich shop, or the gym, or your child's school. Just as you come in contact with strangers and people you might not know that well, (exhales) whatever thought may come up first can you play with may you be well, may you be happy, may you be free.

Try this. Thank you.