Karuna Meditation

Today, I am going to be talking about Karuna meditation.

So, what is Karuna?

Great question. Karuna is a Hindi word, which means compassion. Buddha describes compassion as the ability to feel another person's suffering. As we know, human beings tend to judge each other harshly. Instead, we should develop feelings of compassion for others :)

How does karuna help me?

By developing feelings of compassion for others, we learn to be better human beings. Note that the intention of this meditation is not to feel bad and get caught up in the negativity. Instead, we hope that any person, who's suffering or going through bad times, is able to find some light in their lives, that their lives change for the better.

We wish for their physical and mental well being. This meditation, fills the meditator with feelings of hope, optimism, kindness and love. All these feelings lead to a more positive and relaxed state which helps improve our mental well being, as well as makes us better individuals.

Sounds so altruistic! How do I do it??

Great! Now that you're onboard, lets get started -

1. Firstly, take a comfortable seated position. Bring a gentle awareness to the surroundings, and slowly, close your eyes

2. Now, direct your attention inwards. You might be finding a bazillion thoughts gushing around right now, take some time to take a few deep breaths and still your mind.

3. Now, take a deep breath and direct these words to yourself -

a. May I be free from physical suffering

b. May I be free from mental suffering

c. May I be developed with physical well being

d. May I be developed with mental well being

e. May I be at peace

f. May I be happy

4. Now, lets direct these mantras to your family and friends.

a. May my family be free from physical suffering

b. May my family be free from mental suffering

c. May my family be developed with physical well being

d. May my family be developed with mental well being

e. May my family be at peace

f. May my family be happy

5. Finally, lets direct these to all beings in the universe.

a. May everyone be free from physical suffering

b. May everyone be free from mental suffering

c. May everyone be developed with physical well being

d. May everyone be developed with mental well being

e. May everyone be at peace

f. May everyone be happy

6. Just like the loving kindness meditation, we want to say these words with intention, really feel the meaning behind them, deep within our hearts and minds :)

7. When you're done, gently open your eyes. Congratulations! You just did one session of karuna meditation!

8. You can integrate this into your daily meditation practice. Just 5 mins a day should do the trick!

You know the drill :D Where's the video?

Haha, I haven't forgotten how much of a videophile you are! As a bonus since I am feeling extra generous today, let me throw in 2 resources!

This one comes from the Buddhism in English channel, one which I recently discovered. It has some amazing teachings around buddhism and meditation, I highly recommend you to check out more videos out here too. Don't be shy!

This second one, comes from Insight Timer. This is an excellent app on meditation which I recently heard about, and this meditation is for the audiophiles out there.

https://insighttimer.com/larissahallcarlson/guided-meditations/compassion-meditation-karuna