A guided meditation on the Padma Buddha family

[settling in guidance. We can’t go on this journey until we are all together.]

Imagine that you are seated in a beautiful outdoor pavilion. There are marble arches and roofs above you. The spring breeze is blowing through. The smell of begonias and poppies, incense, drifts through. And you are seated as you are now, but you are on a couch, or some kind of poolside veranda.

The air is warm. There are other people all around you. There are beautiful people. Attractive people. The most attractive people that you’ve ever seen are seated nearby. The sun is warm. The smells of the flowers are sweet and thick.

Waiters and waitresses circulate carrying trays of drinks and little bites of food. Tapas. The smell of the roasted garlic. They wear these outfits with slits so that as they move you see little glimpses of skin. You see a belly button or a thigh ever so briefly.

You can hear the conversations of the people around you as they murmur to each other and laugh. As you reach out to take a glass from the most beautiful waiters you’ve ever seen, he catches your eye and holds your gaze for just a beat longer than what is comfortable, and smiles. And then he moves on.

Across the veranda you catch the eye of another beautiful person, and you both raise your glasses to each other. You raise your glass and take a sip of this pomegranate drink. It’s so exquisite.

You just want to pull it all towards you. You just ache. Your heart is just aching to be touched.

It’s killing you it’s so poignant. It’s the feeling of unrequited love.

Of yearning.

But just as your heart is about to burst, the wind picks up a little bit. There’s a sense of freshness in the air. Some of the cloud of perfume blows away.

You see that waiter who brought you the pomegranate dash off into the back. It looks like he was sobbing.

You catch eyes with the person across the pool again. And just hold them.

You feel as if a veil has been dropped. A lens has been removed. You just see clearly now.

You see this person as a whole human being, not just an object of desire.

You see yourself as a whole human being.

Gradually, as the imaginary world starts to fade and you come back into your body, your “normal” life, you maintain a little sense of that clarity. That discriminating awareness. That helps you see things as they really are.