Week 1
The Freedom of Compassion Home Practices – Week One (10/30/25)
See PDF of the Home Practice here.
The Freedom of Compassion allows us to meet every experience with strength, balance, resilience, steadiness of mind/heart. Now, more than ever, we may benefit from cultivating this quality of heart and from the support of being with others in practice.
- Begin your day and/or your daily sitting: by taking a few moments to bring to your heart/mind your intention or aspiration to live a wakeful, engaged, compassionate life. (Or whatever intention resonates with you – or simply form the intention to open to compassion for the next 7 weeks. Then do your part to open to where tenderness, caring, compassion are in you.)
- Sitting: For a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day (more if you are able). Please practice your meditation in silence (If you use apps-use them only a few times this week). Do your best! Keep your meditation simple.
- Gratitude Practices: Gratitude is the capacity to take delight, to let ourselves feel joy, wonder. Our life is the gift of many lives!
- Text or email your buddies from class, 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything.
- Cultivate a sense of appreciation each day.
- Thank someone every day.
- Please write down and bring to our next class: One thing about compassion that you noticed or explored each day. For example: Noticing what compassion is or isn’t in daily life. Or what allows compassion to arise? Or what allows you to be compassionate? And notice what stops you from being compassionate?
- For those who wanted the phrases used in class: May I find healing, May I find peace or ease in this moment, May I rest in caring, tenderness, compassion.
Week 2
The Freedom of Compassion Home Practices – Week Two (11/06/25)
See PDF of the Home Practice here.
For those who want more Q & A time-I will log on at 6:50 and of course, there will also be Q & A during the class as well. Class will start at 7:00.
Our journey and skill as a human being is to discover how encompassing our hearts can be- anger, hatred, judgments, bias, cruelty as well as kindness, forgiveness, caring-compassion, understanding, live as possibilities within all of our hearts. Our capacity to be a cause of suffering and our capacity to end suffering live side by side within us. The challenge and invitation of every human life is to discover the compassion, the wisdom, the freedom- to nurture all that contributes to the end of suffering and to the well being of all who live (including ourselves).
LET OUR HEARTS BE A FIRST RESPONDER!
- Begin your day & your daily sitting: by taking a few moments to bring to your heart/mind your intention, aspiration to live a wakeful, engaged, compassionate life.
2. Sitting: For a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. Keep your meditation simple —Try silence (if you use no apps- try only using tem a few times/week)
3. Gratitude Practice: E-mail or text your buddies 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything. (If you don’t have a buddy- let the office know)
4. Pause Practice: at least once a day
Stop. Tune into your heart. That is where love, wisdom, grace & compassion reside.
With loving attention, feel what matters most to you.
Yes, there may be anxious thoughts, worry, grief, trauma, but don’t let your heart be colonized by fear.
Take time to quiet the mind & tend to the heart.
Go out, or look outside a window at the sky.
Breathe in and open yourself to the vastness of space. Sense the seasons turning.
Breathe out and rest in loving awareness.
Practice Steadiness-Learn from the trees. From nature-The trees are still in the center of it all- they are nature-you are nature. Be still in the center of your life.
5. Please notice: compassion within yourself or in another each day this week.
6. Take a moment or two of quiet sitting outside, or standing, pausing, walking down the street: Genuinely notice everyone around you. Do you see anyone who is exempt from sickness, aging & death? Do you see anyone who is exempt from uncertainty, loss & disappointment? Is there anyone you can see who has been successful in building defenses powerful enough to offer protection from change, sorrow & pain? This exercise is not meant to depress you or deny the many moments of joy, happiness & delight that are a part of your life. It is meant to encourage you to reflect on what truly matters in this precious life you have and to encourage you to truly live it! (same with #7)
7. Be aware of suffering and your relationship to dukkha- (just information)
a) The pain of pain- Gently turning toward reality & the difficulties of aging, sickness & death with tenderness- Life continues to teach us about loss & to do our best to find grace within all the losses. We are allowing ourselves to live guided by compassion rather than denial or fear Pain hurts & can be met with tenderness, caring- Mindfulness & Compassion (just for moments at a time- what did you learn?)
b) The instability of a world of conditions and processes that we cannot control. We can lose everything we count on for security & certainty. Everything- is always shifting, ungraspable, even the ground we stand on- Truth is there are no exceptions–Gain & loss, praise & blame, pleasure & pain, fame & shame-happiness & sadness all change– At times we welcome change-or we mourn change or resist change- Impermanence is woven into every aspect of life-our bodies, hearts, minds. Change, instability, uncertainty disturb us & can be deeply sorrowful. This too can be met with understanding of life’s undeniable rhythms. The only way is to find our way through is with compassion, caring, tenderness and understanding.
c) The last aspect of suffering- dukkha is concerned with understanding & caring for- this world of reactivity- which arises out of confusion that sets us on a path of constant argument with the first 2 aspects of dukkhka. Learning to bring compassion to the world of our emotional reactions is the beginning of releasing ourselves from this suffering that we create and recreate through confusion with life’s as it is- changing, at times painful and always uncertain- Reminder-The two darts-the first the initial injury, the second injury being the world of despair, anguish, aversion born out of our reactions to the pain of the dart with our reactions of aversion, fear, shame, contempt-we shape and pattern our world of the moment. Our mind, heart, relationship to life are shaped by habitual & repetitive reactions. The second dart is the source of the greatest suffering.
Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Is Not Breaking- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Week 3
The Freedom of Compassion Home Practices – Week 3 (11/13/25)
See PDF of the Home Practice here.
For those who want more Q & A time – I will log on at 6:50 and of course, there will also be Q & A during the class as well. Class will start at 7:00.
- Begin your day & your daily sitting: by taking a few moments to bring to your heart/mind your intention, aspiration to live a wakeful, engaged, compassionate life.
- Sitting: For a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. Keep your meditation simple —Try silence (if you use no apps- try only using tem a few times/week)
- Gratitude Practice: Send your buddies 3 things you are grateful for each day. It can be anything.
- Pause Practice: at least once a day.
- Be aware of suffering & your relationship to it.
- Please notice compassion within yourself or in another every day.
*** New Home practices below:
- Notice in your sitting & in daily life, how the states of anger, rage, aversion, fear, guilt, grief feel in the body, heart, mind? Best way to notice is to be mindful of them in the body. Recognize them. Allow them to be here. Investigate & explore them with care. Do they lead to suffering? We don’t want to deny, suppress or make them go away- Simply do your best to understand them for what they are. None of these states are bad or wrong – just understand their function: how each works, how each affects you. Do they change? Are you in control of their arising or passing? Do you blame yourself or others when you cannot control things? With Anger-Does anger give you the energy to make change in a sustained way? Does anger burn you? Does anger give you skill in making change? Or does anger prevent effective change?
- What is compassion? What is this mysterious force that is not anger, not rage, not aversion, not fear, not guilt, not grief?
- Nurture Mindfulness, Compassion, Caring, Tenderness. Open to return to what is here-the body and its posture-sitting, standing, walking, lying down or the listening to sounds around you, or mindful of breathing in the body. Ahhhh.. Present moment.
Notice any moments of wholeness within & gently open to it. Notice the moment you are overwhelmed or flooded by suffering- then offer caring & tenderness. Can you notice when it changes?
- Contemplations or Reflections:
- What do I need to cultivate, in this moment, to open my heart with connection?
- What do I need to let go of, in this moment, to be free of the inner torment of
separateness or separation? - What do I need to learn about compassion, in this moment, to be free?
Thank you! You All Are Amazing!!! Heart Wheels to all!
Week 4
The Freedom of Compassion Home Practices – Week 4 (11/20/25)
See PDF of the Home Practice here.
For those who want more Q & A time – I will log on at 6:50 and of course, there will also be Q & A during the class as well. Class will start at 7:00.
- Begin your day & your daily sitting: by taking a few moments to bring to your heart/mind your intention, aspiration to live a wakeful, engaged, compassionate life.
- Sitting: For a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. Keep your meditation simple —Try silence (if you use no apps- try only using them a few times/week)
- Gratitude Practice: Send your buddies 3 things you are grateful for each day. It can be anything.
- Pause Practice: at least once a day.
- Be aware of suffering & your relationship to it.
- Please notice compassion within yourself or in another every day.
- Notice in your sitting & in daily life, how the states of anger, rage, aversion, fear, guilt, grief feel in the body, heart, mind? Best way to notice is to be mindful of them in the body. Recognize them. Allow them to be here. Investigate & explore them with care. Nurture Mindfulness, Compassion, Caring, Tenderness. Notice any moments of wholeness within & gently open to it. Notice the moment you are overwhelmed or flooded by suffering- then offer caring & tenderness. Can you notice when it changes?
*** New Home practices below: - Plant seeds of caring actions –We can only begin-now- where we are-That is now.
Now becomes the seed for all that lies ahead. Each action is like breathing, a practice of expanding our heart. Be the Dolphin! Be The Whale! - Explore: If it’s possible to transform your own heart & mind in the moment. Can you understand the difference between connection & separation? Can you find the steadiness, patience, generosity, & commitment not to abandon anyone or anything in this world- including yourself? Can you learn how to listen deeply –not to gather information, but rather listening in order to understand-that we listen to learn. Remember: To cultivate the willingness to listen deeply to sorrow is the first step on the path of compassion. Can you find the commitment to stay connected & to listen deeply? What is most needed is the presence of a person who can be wholeheartedly receptive .Can you discover the heart that trembles in the face of suffering?
- Compassion is cultivated one step and one moment at a time. Each, lessens the mountain of sorrow in the world
Thank you! You All Are Amazing!!! Heart Wheels to all!