Mantra?

 Love all of it; be attached to none of it.

me

Hmmm! Those words came to me as I began meditating and they became the perfect mantra.  I was using the mala, as I often do for breath meditation when I am feeling a bit too agitated to just slip away from monkey mind, and I found myself breathing in with "Love all of it!" and breathing out with, "Be attached to none of it." And it just seemed so perfect...a bit like Tonglen.  I mean with the breath in, while I  lightly gripped one bead,  I was visualizing breathing in all Life had to offer: the 10,000 joys ( and so many images of joy came to me) and the 10,000 sorrows ( and so many images of other suffering came to me as well)...I just breathed it all in , as if my heart was big enough to handle all of it, while I recited "Love all of it!"   Then when I breathed out, releasing the bead to grab another, I felt as if I was letting it all go, releasing all of it...clinging to none of it ....as the air left my lungs with the words, " Be attached to none of it."  It was very nice.

I mean...mantras  are just a bunch of words, right? "Love" is just a word having different meanings and connotations for all of us. "Attached" may have different meanings too.  So, if you are going to use a mantra,  do not get too hung up on the words themselves but on what they symbolize for you, what they "point to",  and what feeling they evoke in you.  

Love to me means an open, accepting, non judgemental and compassionate heart. Attached , to me, means a clinging and an expectation, a dependency on things being a certain way.  So I breathe all of Life in, openly accepting all of it...being compassionate  for all of it.  I am not judging and  selecting only  bits and pieces that please me. I am accepting all of it. When I breathe out...I release it all ...and everything feels so cleansed without any clinging or sticking.

It was  a lovely meditation and I thought I would share it. This mantra, or something similar that resonates with you.  may not only help us with our sitting practice but with Life.  Having an open heart that accepts all and clings to nothing would serve us all well, would it not? 

All is well.