Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

You may have noticed that you are not always a
center of love and kindness, even toward yourself. In
fact, in our society, one might speak of an epidemic
of low self-esteem. In conversations with the Dalai
Lama during a meeting in Dharamsala in 1990, he did
a double take when a Western psychologist spoke of
low self-esteem. The phrase had to be translated
several times for him into Tibetan, although his
English is quite good. He just couldn't grasp the
notion of low self-esteem, and when he finally
understood what was being said, he was visibly
saddened to hear that so many people in America
carry deep feelings of self-loathing and inadequacy.
Such feelings are virtually unheard of among the
Tibetans. They have all the severe problems of
refugees from oppression living in the Third World,
but low self-esteem is not one of them. But who
knows what will happen to future generations as they
come into contact with what we ironically call the
"developed world." Maybe we are overdeveloped
outwardly and underdeveloped inwardly. Perhaps it is
we who, for all our wealth, are living in poverty.
You can take steps to rectify this poverty through
loving kindness meditation. As usual, the place to
begin is with yourself. Might you invite a sense of
kindness and acceptance and cherishing to arise in