I have an appreciation for Stoicism and meditation. I put together this Stoicism based meditation script that is based on the Lovingkindness meditation theme.
Script:
In this meditation, we’ll be cultivating the practice of extending our natural self-love to include all mankind.
We begin by acknowledging our love for ourselves. Think about the way you take care of yourself. The way you love and take care of your own bodily needs. Think about the way you treat yourself with fairness and benevolence.
Think to yourself:
May I flourish and achieve true fulfillment (Eudaimonia)
May I accept love and care from others
May I experience equanimity in all situations
May I know the joy of being alive
May I experience the pleasure of making progress towards moral perfection
May I be physically and mentally well
May I experience the joy to be found in each moment
May I live in harmony with the community of all mankind
Now you can open the circle of your self-love by bringing to mind someone who is dear to you. Someone whom you care about and who has always been supportive. Reflect on this person’s basic goodness, sensing what it is in particular that you love about him or her. In your heart feel your appreciation for this dear one, and begin your simple offering.
Offer up these thoughts to your loved one:
May you flourish and achieve true fulfillment (Eudaimonia)
May you accept love and care from others
May you experience equanimity in all situations
May you know the joy of being alive
May you experience the pleasure of making progress towards moral perfection
May you be physically and mentally well
May you experience the joy to be found in each moment
May you live in harmony with the community of all mankind
Now bring to mind a “neutral” person. This is someone you might see regularly but don’t know well...It might be a neighbor, a grocery store clerk.
Bring this person to mind now, and repeat these words:
May you flourish and achieve true fulfillment (Eudaimonia)
May you accept love and care from others
May you experience equanimity in all situations
May you know the joy of being alive
May you experience the pleasure of making progress towards moral perfection
May you be physically and mentally well
May you experience the joy to be found in each moment
May you live in harmony with the community of all mankind
And now, if it’s possible for you, bring to mind someone with whom you’ve had a difficult relationship. Perhaps it’s someone you don’t like to feel sympathy or compassion for. See if it’s possible to let go of feelings of resentment and dislike for this person. Remind yourself to see this person as a whole being...deserving of love and kindness. As someone who feels pain and anxiety...as someone who also suffers.
See if it’s possible to extend to this person these thoughts:
May you flourish and achieve true fulfillment (Eudaimonia)
May you accept love and care from others
May you experience equanimity in all situations
May you know the joy of being alive
May you experience the pleasure of making progress towards moral perfection
May you be physically and mentally well
May you experience the joy to be found in each moment
The discipline of action, is the virtue of living in harmony with the community of all mankind, which means benevolently wishing all of mankind to flourish and achieve “happiness” (eudaimonia) the goal of life, while accepting that this is ultimately beyond any individual’s direct control. It’s tempting to see this discipline as particularly associated with the cardinal virtue of “justice”, which the Stoics defined as including both fairness to others and benevolence. This discipline is called “action in the service of mankind”, because it involves extending the same natural affection or care that we are born feeling for our own body and physical wellbeing to include the physical and mental wellbeing of all mankind, through a process known as “appropriation” (oikeiosis) or widening the circle of our natural “self-love” to include all mankind. This can be described as “Stoic Philanthropy”, or love of mankind, a term they employed themselves.
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My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonise with my aspirations. T.H. Huxley
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