Adapted from Jack Kornfield script. You can read more on how we created these meditations in our article.
Welcome
Hello, and welcome. I'm glad you're here.
In this practice, we'll work with two of the most nourishing qualities the heart can cultivate — gratitude, and what the Buddhist tradition calls mudita, or sympathetic joy. The joy that arises naturally when we recognize goodness in our own lives, and in the lives of others.
This meditation is adapted from a practice by teacher and author Jack Kornfield.
For now, let's set everything else aside. Wherever you are, let this be your moment to arrive, to soften, and to open.
Settling In
Let yourself sit quietly and at ease.
Allow your body to soften — shoulders dropping, hands resting, face relaxing.
Let your breath find its own natural rhythm. No effort needed. Just breathing.
And let your heart be easy. Whatever you carry into this moment, you can set it down for now.
The Long Line of Care
Begin by feeling how, year after year, you have been cared for.
Just as you have tended to your own life, life has also tended to you.
Let yourself begin to acknowledge the many gifts that have been given to you — not in a hurried way, but slowly, as if opening them one by one.
Sense the long line of care that stretches back through time. A thousand generations of ancestors and elders who came before you. People whose lives made yours possible.
Open now to the earth itself — the ground beneath you, the air you breathe, the water that sustains you.
The measure of health you have been given. The food that has nourished you. The shelter that has kept you safe.
Family, Friends, and Teachers
Feel the blessing of family — of those who loved you first.
Feel the blessing of friends — those who have walked beside you, who have seen you, who have stayed.
Acknowledge the teachers who have contributed to your well-being. The healers who helped restore you. The spiritual teachings that led you to this very moment.
And let yourself feel gratitude for your own good heart — for the sincerity of your path, for the learning and growth you have achieved.
Let yourself feel how your life itself is a gift. Not always easy. And still — a gift.
Shifting Into Joy
And now, let gratitude shift — gently, naturally — into joy.
In the Buddhist tradition this is called mudita — sympathetic joy. The capacity to rejoice in the happiness of others.
Bring to mind someone you care about whose life is blessed in some way. Let their presence come gently into your awareness.
Allow yourself to feel glad for them. A wholehearted yes to their happiness.
Silently offer these words:
May your happiness and good fortune continue. May your good fortune grow and never leave you.
Expanding the Circle
Now let the circle widen.
Bring to mind someone more neutral — an acquaintance, someone you pass in the world without knowing well.
May your happiness and good fortune continue. May your good fortune grow and never leave you.
And finally — all beings, everywhere.
May all beings know happiness. May all beings know joy. May all good fortune grow and never leave them.
Closing
Slowly, let the practice soften and rest.
Feel the quiet that is here. The openness that gratitude creates. The warmth that joy leaves behind.
Gratitude is a way of seeing. Joy is a way of meeting the world. And both are available to you — not just in meditation, but in the midst of an ordinary day.
When you're ready, take a gentle breath.
And carry this with you.
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