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Saturday, November 13th, 2021

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Forty-Five Summary and Practice

Christianity and Buddhism

November 7 - November 12, 2021

Sunday
Buddhism is more a way of knowing and cleaning the lens of perception than a theistic religion concerned with metaphysical “God” questions. —Richard Rohr

Monday
The antidote for the ignorance that causes suffering is to wake up to what we really are. —Paul Knitter

Tuesday
Buddhism emerged from a caste-oriented culture in which a powerful man of color renounced his power, woke up to his delusions, grew in compassion, and committed himself to teaching a way of life for all to awaken. —Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles

Wednesday
The reality is that there is great terror and pain, and there is great love and great wisdom. They’re all here, coexisting in this moment. —Kaira Jewel Lingo

Thursday
All forms of meditation and contemplation are teaching us some way to compartmentalize our thinking mind. —Richard Rohr

Friday
Don’t forget to make space in your life to recognize the richness of your basic nature, to see the purity of your being and let its innate qualities of love, compassion, and wisdom naturally emerge. —Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Cultivating Radical Compassion

Author Tara Brach is a skilled psychotherapist and meditation teacher who has developed countless ways to help her students transform their suffering not only for their own sake but on behalf of the world. Over the last seventeen years she has focused particularly on the RAIN meditation practice, [1] which “cultivates a trust in our own basic goodness and by extension helps us recognize and trust that same light shining through all beings.” [2] Brach suggests:

When you are caught in difficult emotions, the RAIN meditation can bring you back to a wise and compassionate presence. Give yourself a few moments to pause and turn inward.

R Recognize what is happening. Mentally whisper whatever you are aware of: fear, anger, hurt, shame.

A Allow. Let whatever you are feeling be here, without judging it, trying to fix it, or ignoring it. Simply pause and “let be.” You might whisper “This too belongs.”

I Investigate. With curiosity, feel into your body—your throat, chest, belly. Discover where the emotions live inside you. You might gently place a hand wherever feelings are strongest. Sense what is needed or being asked for right now. Is it love? Forgiveness? Acceptance? Understanding?

N Nurture. Offer care to feelings of vulnerability, hurt, or fear. Let the touch of your hand be tender, and send whatever message might most offer healing. You can imagine this coming from your own awake heart or from another being (friend, grandparent, spiritual figure, dog) you trust and love.

After the RAIN: Take some moments in stillness, simply sensing the quality of presence that has unfolded. Notice the shift from when you started (an angry or fearful or victimized self) to the compassionate awareness that is always here. [3]

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

[1] To learn more about the RAIN meditation, see Tara Brach’s book Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN (Viking: 2019). For online RAIN resources, visit tarabrach.com/RAIN.

[2] Brach, Radical Compassion, xxii.

[3] Tara Brach, Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness (Sounds True: 2021), 100–101.

Image credit: Rose B. Simpson, Reclamation II (detail), 2018, sculpture.

We featured the artist of these sculptures, Rose B. Simpson, at our recent CONSPIRE conference—so many of us were impacted by her creations that we decided to share her work with our Daily Meditations community for the month of November.

Image Inspiration: This piece is of a series of reclamation and it's about finding our identities and our empowerment in our histories and stories and timelines and how do we apply that to our beings in order to become whole. —Rose B. Simpson, CONSPIRE Interview, 2021

Learn more about the Daily Meditations Editorial Team.

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