‘There are never endings, only separations and new beginnings.’ Separations can be bumpy, and often we move away from the uncomfortable feelings by latching on to an old coping mechanism. Over these past three weeks you have hopefully begun to cultivate some positive coping mechanisms. You can always go back to some of your favourite meditations and listen to them. We give you this final meditation in this series, to set you up on track for your journey that will...

Day 20 is the Amitabha mantra. Amitabha is a deep red archetypal Buddha. He is particularly associated with love and loving kindness, and with meditation. When we chant the Amitabha mantra you could imagine feeling connected to a great red sun of love and stillness; to the heartbeat of loving kindness. You could visualize or feel rays of ruby light streaming towards you and filling you with love, easing your suffering and stilling your heart and mind. The mantra is...

Day 18 is the Green Tara mantra. Like Avalokitesvara, Tara is especially associated with compassion – the quintessence of compassion. Remember she was born from his tears. When we chant the Tara mantra we can feel that we are contacting deep compassion. This compassion may be expressed in tears, in the feeling of your heart opening up, in the painful or pleasureable tone of your thoughts. You may feel that you are feeling nothing at all - this is okay...

Day 16 is a meditation on breathing, in which we can think of the breath as a Higher Power. When we connect to the breath our lives can change without us trying to change it. Although the Buddhist tradition has no place for God as a creator divinity as understood by the theistic traditions, there is nevertheless a clear and definite understanding of a supra-personal dimension, an “Other Power” in Buddhism. The breath can act as the groundwork for connecting...