Receptive Mode

2: Receptive Mode

Has three subdivisions:


Meditations one and two help us access capacities from the depth of our awareness, our “buddha nature,” to heal our hearts and minds in its unconditional warmth, to settle deeply into its openness and clarity, and to establish the secure base of love and compassion that is needed to extend compassion reliably to others.

1: Field of Care

Meditation one has three subdivisions:


In this meditation, we use the field of care to bring out loving qualities from our underlying awareness—a felt sense of warmth, acceptance, being seen, inner rest, tenderness, well-being, spaciousness and so forth. When you start to experience such qualities, shift your attention mainly to the qualities, rather than the image of the field of care. Relax into those loving qualities, letting them become a healing environment for all your physical and mental feelings. Focus just on the feeling of those qualities, not on stories the mind may create about the field of care or your relationships. Dropping such stories when they arise, just settle increasingly into the feeling of those qualities, letting them permeate your whole body and mind, letting them draw you into oneness with them.


1: Settling into body and breath

Sit in a relaxed way, with back comfortably straight, eyes gazing gently downward. Come down from thinking mind into the body, and settle into the grounded feeling of the body on your seat. (pause) Let the breath flow naturally while breathing from the abdomen, so you feel the belly expand and contract with each breath. Let that feeling draw you into it more and more, breath by breath.

2: Field of Care

Has three subdivisions:


In this meditation we experience ourselves held in the love and compassion of a field of care. This evokes loving qualities from our underlying awareness, as a holding environment in which all our feelings can process themselves, and from which we become more present to others. How to establish a field of care for meditation? There are three options—please choose one for this practice.


1: Caring Moment

Recall and reinhabit a caring moment. This is a moment with another person or being that makes you happy to recall, or feels heartwarming to remember. A moment when someone was joyful to be with you, or seeing you in your deep worth, or listening, or radiating warmth to you, or rooting for you, or wishing you well. This could be with another human being or a loving animal. Or it could be a moment when you were joyful to see others who were caring for each other. Or a moment when you were a loving figure for another (which we will explore more in Meditation three). Or think of a moment when you were in a place special to you, as in nature, where you felt deeply safe, well, at peace, and at home. Reinhabit any such caring moment as happening right now.


2: Benefactor

Bring to mind a benefactor—someone that you are truly grateful has been in your life or world. Someone who has inspired, blessed, or uplifted you by their presence, way of being, or mentorship.


3: Spiritual Field

Bring to mind a spiritual figure, or a group of such figures, that is deeply meaningful to you, who hold you and your world in unconditional care, compassion and wisdom, such as a field of buddhas and bodhisattvas, spiritual ancestors, or a saint or divine figure of your own tradition. Or the presence of God. Imagine and feel that this field of spiritual power is holding you and your whole world in unconditional, enduring love, compassion, and wisdom. Your spiritual field could also be the natural world, as drawing you into the depth of your being, as with a sunset sky or ocean.


Which of those three options is most effective to help you sense that you are held in a field of warmth, deep acceptance, love and compassion?


Now bring to mind your field of care: your caring moment, benefactor, or spiritual field. Bring this to mind not just as a memory or abstraction, but as happening right now, right here. You are being seen and held in deep care, compassion, acceptance and warmth, beyond judgements. Relax into this experience, steeping in its loving energies, feeling its tender qualities, and letting them spaciously infuse your whole being and your whole world. Accept these loving energies and qualities into your whole body and mind—into every part of your body, into every layer of feeling and emotion. Every part of you loved in its very being. Let these loving qualities unify you with them more and more.


Let any thoughts or reactions that occur be gently embraced in the spacious warmth and acceptance of this loving environment. Let them find their own place in their own time, by letting them all be.


If you lose the feeling of the loving energies and qualities, freshly recall your field of care as present here now, and let its power draw you back into the feeling of it.


3: Releasing

After some time, let this loving environment of warmth and acceptance help your mind to relax deeply and release all its frameworks of meditation or concern. Let the mind settle back a bit inwardly and come to rest in the background of its awareness, which is naturally wide open and luminous like a sunlit sky. As thoughts and feelings arise, let them just metabolize themselves and release within this sky-like openness of awareness, by letting everything be.


Processing Meditation One: (1) Name a few of the loving qualities that you experienced during step two of the meditation. The field of care helps us begin to access the loving qualities and dignity of our fundamental awareness, our buddha nature. 


(2) Now identify a difficulty or problem that came up for you during the meditation at some point, which signals how some part of you was reacting to the meditation, e.g. a part of you that wants to think about other things; or a part of you that doubts that any caring moment or benefactor is good enough; or a part of you that doesn’t think that you deserve love; or a part of you that wants to grieve the loss of someone brought to mind by your field of care. “Part of you” refers to the sense of self that is operative in that moment, with its patterns of thought, feeling and reaction.

2: Becoming More Deeply Receptive to Love and Compassion

Meditation two has three subdivisions:


The next meditation uses the field of care to help us become increasingly receptive to the powers of love and compassion that are available in the depth of our awareness, buddha nature. You will bring your field of care to mind, but this time, after you start to experience the loving qualities that come with that, notice when a part of you comes up that has doubts about the meditation or wants to think of other things (as in the examples above). When you notice that happening, let that part of you and its feelings be gently included within the spacious warmth, acceptance and compassion of your field of care as a loving holding environment. These are the three principles of receptive mode practice: accessing awakening qualities of awareness with the help of your field of care, noticing when a part of you comes up that wants to think of other things, and including that part of you, that sense of self and its reactions, in the loving qualities of the field of care as a healing holding environment for all your feelings and reactions.


1: Settling into body and breath

Sit in a relaxed way, with back comfortably straight, eyes gazing gently downward. Come down from thinking mind into the body, and settle into the grounded feeling of the body on your seat. (pause) Let the breath flow naturally while breathing from the abdomen, so you feel the belly expand and contract with each breath. Let that feeling draw you into it more and more, breath by breath.


2: Reconnecting with love

Now bring to mind your field of care: your caring moment, benefactor, or spiritual field. Bring this to mind not just as a memory or an abstraction, but as happening right now, right here. You are being seen and held in deep care, compassion, acceptance and warmth beyond judgements. Relax into this experience, steeping in its loving energy, feeling its tender qualities, and letting them spaciously infuse your whole being and your whole world. Accept this loving energy and its qualities into your whole body and mind—into every part of your body, into every layer of feeling and emotion. Every part of you loved in its very being. Let these loving qualities unify you into with them more and more.


If part of you is having difficulty with this practice, or starts to draw your attention away, notice that part of you, that sense of self and what it’s feeling, in a completely accepting way, deeply allowing it to be here. Let that part of you be gently included in the warmth and acceptance of this loving environment. Let it have all the space it needs to relax, find its own place in its own time, and metabolize itself in its own way.


If you lose the feeling of the loving qualities, freshly recall your field of care as present here with you now, and let its loving power draw you back into the feeling of it.



3: Releasing

After some time, let this loving environment of warmth and acceptance help your mind to relax deeply and release all its frameworks of meditation or concern. Let the mind settle back a bit inwardly and come to rest in the background of its awareness, which is naturally wide open and luminous like a sunlit sky. As thoughts and feelings arise, let them just metabolize themselves and release within this sky-like openness of awareness, by letting everything be.


Processing Meditation Two: Four key learnings:

1: This meditation purifies qualities of love and compassion toward greater unconditionality. We may start with an experience of relatively unconditional love, e.g., by reinhabiting a caring moment from our life, but its qualities become purified, stronger and more unconditional through the meditation instruction (“Every part of you loved in its very being.”). This brings out the unconditional capacity of love and compassion from our basic awareness, our buddha nature. From that secure base, we can also bring greater unconditionality to others.


2: Becoming a healing environment: The mind is learning that it does not have to be totally identified with any one part of ourselves, by letting each part (each sense of self) be embraced in the unconditional acceptance of our fuller awareness, which is larger than any part. Our basic awareness is freed from being caught up in any one part, not by rejecting it, but by becoming a compassionate holding environment for it, so it can metabolize itself in healing ways.


3: As all parts of us feel the deep safety and healing power of such an unconditional care and acceptance, they can learn to trust the source of those loving qualities, which is our basic awareness. As this trust deepens with repetition of practice, at the releasing phase of the meditation, the mind is willing to release more fully into the utter openness, clarity, and warmth of our basic awareness, our buddha nature. This process of deepening trust and fuller release, reunifying with the openness and clarity of our deep nature, begins to draw us into the deepening mode of practice, which is further developed in meditations four and five below.


4: Just as our basic awareness, when not identified with any one part, can embrace all of our parts and feelings in unconditional care and compassion as a healing environment, the same awareness can hold others and their feelings in the same compassion, without contributing to emotional exhaustion or “compassion fatigue.” The utter openness, clarity and compassion of our basic awareness is our ultimate secure base, from which to extend love and compassion to others sustainably and inclusively, as in meditations six, seven, eight, nine, and ten below.


In Daily Life: Do meditation two first thing in the morning, however briefly, then reconnect with it briefly many times throughout the day, every day, over coming months. Each time you reconnect with this practice, make it a point to reaffirm that the loving energies and qualities you are experiencing are qualities of your own awareness. This helps you become increasingly conscious of how available these qualities are to you, whenever you remember to evoke them. To reconnect many times a day in little moments strengthens the neural pathways that support these experiential qualities, strengthening the secure base of love and compassion that is needed for us to extend care, love and compassion more sustainably and inclusively to others in our lives and in our work. The reference here in SCT to “parts of ourselves” draws on the work of Richard Schwartz.

3: Being a Loving Figure

Meditation three has four subdivisions:


Some people find the next meditation their most effective access point to experience the loving qualities of their basic awareness. It is also a powerful supportive practice for all of us to explore. In this meditation, we recall a moment when we were holding another being in kindness, love or care. This helps us further access, nurture, and embody the capacities of warmth, acceptance, love, compassion, openness, reverence, etc. that come from our basic awareness. To prepare for the next meditation, recall a moment when you were a kind presence to someone else, human or animal—a moment when you were radiating love or warmth to them, or rooting for them, or taking joy in them, or seeing them in their deep worth, listening, making them happy, etc. Try to recall a moment like that from anytime in your life. That will be the “field of care” for this meditation.


1: Settling into body and breath

Sit in a relaxed way, with back comfortably straight, eyes gazing gently downward. Come down from thinking mind into the body, and settle into the grounded feeling of the body on your seat. (pause) Let the breath flow naturally while breathing from the abdomen, so you feel the belly expand and contract with each breath. Let that feeling draw you into it more and more, breath by breath.


2: Reconnecting with love

Now bring to mind a moment when you were a loving figure for someone else, and the place or setting of that. Consider that moment not as a distant memory, but as happening right now—you are present in that way now with the other. Feel the loving energies and tender qualities of this way of being with another. Let this loving energy flow freely to the other. Steep in its tender qualities, letting them infuse your whole being and world.


If part of you is having difficulty with this practice, or starts to draw your attention away, notice that part of you, that sense of self and what it’s feeling, in a completely accepting way, deeply allowing it to be here. Let it be gently included in the warmth and acceptance of this loving environment. Let it have all the space it needs to relax, find its own place in its own time, and metabolize itself in its own way.


3: Notice your loving qualities

Notice the loving qualities occurring in this moment, such as warmth, care, acceptance, openness, responsiveness, peace, inner strength, humor, courage. Let yourself fully accept, own, embody these qualities of your caring self.


4: Releasing

After some time, let this loving environment of warmth and acceptance help your mind to relax deeply and release all its frameworks of meditation or concern. Let the mind settle back a bit inwardly and come to rest in the background of its awareness, which is naturally wide open and luminous like a sunlit sky. As thoughts and feelings arise, let them just metabolize themselves and release within this sky-like openness of awareness, by letting everything be.


Processing Meditation Three: What qualities of your caring self did you notice? Name several. Is there a connection between being a caring presence to others and being a caring presence to various parts of yourself and to your feelings? Meditation three draws from a meditation form adapted from Tibetan Buddhism by Paul Gilbert, and also by Brooke Lavelle.