This guided meditation offers us the opportunity to look deeply into what has been transmitted to us by our blood ancestors and spiritual ancestors. We can practice to celebrate the positive and transform what needs to be transformed. To begin this practice, we invite you join your palms in front of your chest in the shape of a lotus bud.
Then, gently lower yourself to the ground so that all four limbs and your forehead are resting comfortably on the floor. While touching the Earth, turn your palms face up, showing your openness to the Three Jewels — the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. When we touch the Earth, we breathe in all the strength and stability of the Earth, and breathe out our suffering – our feelings of anger, hatred, fear, inadequacy and grief.
We invite you that, after practising with Thay’s text, to write your own, so that you can go even deeper into your practice.
Note: In this guidance Thay guides us to contemplate our relationship to certain traditions - using Christian, Jewish spiritual roots and American land ancestors as an example reflecting the audience he was facilitating for the day of the recording. Please do mentally replace these words to reflect your own religious or cultural background to make it relevant for you.
In gratitude, I bow to my ancestors in my blood family through all generations.
I see my father and my mother whose blood and flesh and vitality are present in me circulating in my veins and nourishing every cell in me. Through my parents, I see my grandpa, grandma on the paternal side as well as on the maternal side. Their energies have entered me with all expectations, all experiences and wisdom transmitted from so many generations of ancestors. I carry in me the life, the blood, the experiences, the wisdom, the happiness and the sorrow of all generations. The suffering and the elements that are to be transformed - I am practicing to transform them. I open my heart and my flesh and bones to receive the energy of insight, of love and of experiences transmitted to me by all my ancestors. I have roots in my father, my mother, my grandfather, my grandmother and all my ancestors. I am only the continuation of my ancestral lineage. Please support me, protect me, transmit to me more of your energy. I know where children and grandchildren are, ancestors are. I know parents always love and support their children and grandchildren although it happens sometimes that they are not able to express their love and support due to difficulties they encountered. My ancestors have built up a way of life that has expressed gratitude, joy, confidence, respect and loving kindness. As a continuation of my ancestors, I bow down to the ground and receive the energy of all of my ancestors. Please support, protect me and give me more strength.
ii
In gratitude, I bow to my ancestors in my spiritual family.
I see in me my teacher - the one who shows me how to love and to understand how to breathe, to smile, to forgive and to live deeply in the present moment.
I see through my teachers all the teachers of many generations, all Bodhisattvas and the Buddha Shakyamuni, the one who started my spiritual family of two thousand six hundred years ago.
I see the Buddha as my teacher and also my spiritual ancestor.
I see the energy of the Buddha and that of several generations of teachers has entered me and is creating peace, joy, understanding and loving kindness in me.
I know the energy of the Buddha has transformed deeply the world. Without a Buddha and all my spiritual ancestors, I would not know how to practice and to bring peace and happiness into my life and into the life of my family and society.
I open my heart and my body to receive the energy of understanding, loving kindness, and protection from the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha over many generations.
I am the continuation of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, please transmit to me your infinite source of energy, of peace, stability, understanding and love.
I vow to practice to transform the suffering in me and in the world and to transmit your energy to future generations of practitioners.
iii
In gratitude, I bow to this land and ancestors who have made this land available to me and to us.
I see myself being whole, protected, nourished by this land and all living beings that have been there with all the efforts to make the life easy and possible for all of us.
I see Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and all the other known and unknown by their names. All those who have made this country into a land of refuge for so many people of so many origins and colours by their talent, perseverance and love, those who have worked hard to build schools, hospitals, xx, roads (min 7:08), to protect human rights, to develop science, technology, and to fight for freedom and social justice.
I see myself touching my ancestors of Native American origin, who have lived for a long time on this land, who have known how to live in peace and harmony with nature, protecting mountains and forests, animals, plants and minerals of this land
I feel the energy of this land penetrate my body and soul, supporting me, accepting me and I vow to cultivate and to maintain this energy and transmit it to future generations
I vow to contribute my part in transforming violence, hatred and delusion that still lie deep in the collective consciousness of this society so that all the future generations will have more safety and joy and peace
Please support and protect me
iv
In gratitude and compassion, I bow down to transmit my energy to those I love
All the energy I have received, I now want to transmit to my father, my mother, to all the ones I love, to all the ones who have suffered and worried because of me and for my sake. I know I have not been mindful enough in my daily life. I know also that the ones who love me have had their own difficulties, they have suffered because they have not had a favourable environment for their development, they were not lucky. I am transmitting my energy to my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, to my beloved ones, my husband, my wife, my daughters, my sons, so that their pain be relieved, so that he or she would smile and feel the joy of being alive. I want him, I want her to be healthy and joyful. I know, when she is happy, I will also be happy; I know, as he is happy, I will also be happy. I feel I no longer have any resentment toward him, toward her now. I pray all the ancestors in my blood family, as well as in my spiritual family, to channel energy to him, to her; to protect and support him or her; I no longer see myself as a separated self from him or her. I have become one with the person I love, with the persons I love.
v
In understanding and compassion, I bow down to reconcile with the people who have made me suffer.
I open my heart and send my energy of understanding and love and kindness to the ones who have made me suffer so much, who have destroyed much of my life and the life of those I love. I know now that that person, these people have undergone a lot of suffering themselves, the heart overloaded with pain, anger and hatred. I know that a person who suffers so much always makes people around suffer. I know they might have been unlucky since they were still a child and did not have the chance to care for and to be loved and life and society has given them so much hardship. They have been wronged and abused by society. They have not been guided on the path of mindful living. They have accumulated wrong perceptions about life, about me, about us and have wronged me and the people I love. I pray to my ancestors in my blood family and in my spiritual family t channel to him, to her, o these people who have made us suffer, the energy of love and protection so that their heart will be able to receive the nectar of love and bloom like a flower. I pray that that person could be transformed so that he or she could experience the joy of living; so that she or she will not continue to make herself or himself suffer and make the others suffer. I see his suffering, her suffering, their suffering and do not want to see the suffering drags on. I do not want to feel any feeling of hatred, of anger in myself regarding that person, regarding these persons. I do not want that person suffer; I do not want them suffer. I channel my energy of love and understanding to him, to her, to them and ask all my ancestors to help him, to help her, to help them.
vi
In gratitude and compassion, I bow down to my ancient spiritual roots.
I see myself as a child sitting in a church or a synagogue, ready for a sermon. I see my priest, my pastor, my minister, my rabbi and the people in the congregation. I know it was difficult at times to be there and to do the things I did not understand and did not want to do. I know communication was difficult and I did not get any joy or nourishment from the teaching, the rituals. I was nervous and impatient; because of the lack of communication and understanding between my spiritual family and me, I have left my rabbi, my pastor, my synagogue, my church and I lost contact with my spiritual ancestors and disconnected from them. I know there are jewels in my spiritual tradition and the spiritual life of that tradition has contributed greatly to the stability and joy and peace of my ancestors in several generations. I know many people who embody my spiritual tradition have not succeeded in transmitting to me/to us the values of the tradition. I want to go back to them sometime in the future to help discover/rediscover the spiritual values in my ancient tradition for my own nourishment and for the nourishment of my children and their children. I want to connect again with my ancient spiritual ancestors and get the spiritual energy flow freely back to me again. I see Moses, I see Jesus as my spiritual ancestors and I see teachers of many generations in the traditions also as my spiritual ancestors. I want to bow down to all in this present moment.