It’s strange that we expect acknowledgement and warmth from others but don’t offer this to ourselves. We want others to be kind to us, but we are not kind to ourselves. We continue damaging ourselves through negative self-talk. So instead, be open without expecting anything. Be aware of your thoughts and feelings as they are without judging them, and allow yourself the warmth of kindness. As you are looking directly at your experience and your sense of yourself in the moment, the pain identity is becoming less fixed or solid because you are no longer feeding it with your thoughts or judgments. A new space opens up in you. And as you connect with this newly emerging space, your awareness of it evokes warmth and kindness. This kindness is not a product of effort but the natural result of openness and awareness. Sometimes it takes only 10 or 20 minutes of meditation to witness the dissolution of pain and feel the emergence of warmth.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
from Spontaneous Creativity
Apple Books