This meditation is working with taking refuge, invoking, or becoming, Avalokita, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.  His name means Looking Down in Sanskrit.  It does not mean looking down as in with pride, but looking down at the world as a way to see more fully (Lok here suggests both looking and Loka – world).  In Chinese she is known as Guan Yin (觀音).  Guan is to observe, and is also the expression for Vipashyana, when in meditation we look deeply and insight can arise.  Yin is sound.  She is also known as Guan Shi Yin (觀世音).  Shi is “era” or “generation” or “world” and corresponds to Loka (while Guan – to observe- corresponds to Lok).  The first Chinese translation of Avalokita was Guan Zi Zai (觀自在) meaning Observing Freedom.  Zi Zai means to be at ease, to be natural.  Zi is self, and Zai is to be.  To be at ease, to be free, is to just be oneself. 

 

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara “observes sound” rather than “hears sound.”   Sound (Yin 音) is the expression (word 言) of the world.  So we can see why she can observe sounds, rather than just hear sounds.  She is observing the world (the era) with its full expression.  So much of that expression is of suffering, hence she is the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.  But there is also the expression of beauty, of understanding, of love in the world, and in every generation.   It is the ability to connect to all expressions that makes Avalokita the Bodhisattva of Freedom, the one who delivers the message of non-fear in the Heart Sutra.

 

In this meditation, I am searching for ways to embody Avalokita, literally, by taking on the qualities in my body that enable me to observe, and not just hear, sound.  I keep coming back to the physical posture (created through my mind) in order to observe, touch, and connect with the suffering of the world.

 

I begin by coming back to my breathing, taking refuge in the space, rhythm, and calming of my breathing.

 

Once I have a sense of space and calmness, I establish my posture to embody the quality of observing with freedom.

In order to observe (down looking), I sit on the front part of my buttocks, or on my thighs, rather than the fleshy part of the buttocks.  If I sit on the fleshy part of the buttocks, I will be leaning back, and then the posture is not as supportive of “observing.”  This slight movement of the weight forward also facilitates a slight sense of hollowness in the lower abdomen.  I then bring that sense of being hollow up into my chest.  I allow the front of the body to soften and feel empty or spacious.  I let the front of the body be less engaged, and recede to the back, towards the spine, allowing this slight movement backwards to open and widen the back.

I especially focus on widening the back of the chest, the area between my shoulder blades, the back of my heart.

I tuck my chin slightly, to facilitate elongating the back of the neck.

I let my eyes. whether they are open or closed, recede towards the back of the skull (it is easier to initially do this with eyes closed).  Releasing the eyes to the back of the head, allows the world come to my eyes, rather than sending the eyes out to the world.  I now mentally connect the underside of my eyes with my chest, and the feeling of being hollow, and the widening of the back of my heart.

I keep generating this widening as best I can without any muscular tension.   It is primarily a mental process.

I keep coming back to this process through the rest of the meditation.

 

When I feel that I am occupying a posture that has softness, ease and capacity of absorbing all things, I begin the next phase of the meditation.

I connect with the suffering of all beings on our planet throughout all times.  

I touch the suffering of wars and its victims, the suffering of famines, survivors of earthquakes, floods, and storms.  I see the prolonged anxieties brought about by droughts.  I touch feelings of oppression, of fear, of helplessness, of beings imprisoned, suppressed, raped, tortured.

I touch physical pain and emotional anguish and allow it to come into the space of my heart.

I continue to make space in my heart by allowing the frontal chest to recede towards the back and widening the space between my shoulder blades.

If I feel overwhelmed by the suffering of generations of beings, I just come back to my posture, breathing, calming, opening, softening.  When there is enough space in me again and the back of my heart feels soft, but open and resilient, I come back to touch, to observe the suffering of all beings, in all times.

I see the anguish of parents who have lost children, of children who have lost parents, of all people losing loved ones.

I observe crushed dreams, potentials stunted and not manifested, from the beginning times of this planet through all generations.

 

I keep coming back to my breathing and to my “observing posture” that allows me to take on infinite suffering.

 

In next phase I look at the suffering that is all around me currently on our planet.  This is the same as the previous exercise, and I keep recharging my capacity by coming back to establishing the sense of hollowness and widening of the chest, perhaps tucking my chin slightly, hollowing the abdomen, and reestablishing the connection between the eyes and the heart.

I see animals and people who are hungry and thirsty.  I see animals in laboratories and factory farms awaiting slaughter or milking, in crowded, filthy conditions, with no friend to offer care, fearful, anxious.  I see people in refugee camps in Syria, in Europe, in Mexico, in Bangladesh.  I touch fear and despair, embracing it with continuously opening, widening, heart.  I touch, with my heart, those who are homeless, those sick with Corona and many other diseases, I touch the loved ones of those who are sic.

I open myself up and embrace all the suffering of our planet, embracing it all, offering the inexhaustible space within my heart to all suffering.

Now the offering of the space of my heart and the establishing of the space in my heart (the widening) are feeding each other.  I just naturally take on suffering, and the heart is naturally widening.  I consciously widen my heart physically, and more suffering is being embraced.

 

In the next exercise, with the same posture, with the same softness, openness and width, I look at the ocean.  I see places in the ocean that are turbulent, while other places are calm.  From above, from a distance, the ocean shines and reflects, but in many places there are storms and waves.  I just follow the waves and flow of the ocean.

 

Maintaining my posture I allow myself to submerge myself into the ocean.
I open up to all suffering.