When I was a small boy my dad left the family … he abandoned my sister and me and came back just often enough to rub salt in the wounds he had cut in our hearts. There is a chapter about him in my book called “My Father was an Asshole.”

And yet I know better than that. I know there is much more to him than the feelings of abandonment I experienced as a small boy wishing I had a dad to play catch with. There was a time shortly after my mom died that I thought about trying to locate my dad, in hopes of working through all the complicated feelings together. But in keeping with my flawed relationship with him, just as I was about to reach out I learned he had died … just a few months after my mom.

Consequently, like so many of my life’s issues, I was left to sort out these feelings in therapy, with my spiritual father Guru Singh, and in the depth of my heart in meditation. One of the ways I approached this process was in the form of loving kindness meditation as taught to me by the wonderful teacher, Sharon Salzberg.

Loving kindness meditation is the practice of sending love and kindness first to yourself, then to those you love, to people you don’t know, to those you have grievances with, and eventually to all beings everywhere. In many ways it’s similar to prayer, so it’s a form of meditation that I’ve found is easy for our culture. I sit quietly and, beginning with myself, I quietly send myself a message of love. Something like … “May I be loved … May I be healed … May I know peace.” Sharon taught me to use the word “may” because sometimes “I am loved” doesn’t feel real, and by using “may” we can make it valid for ourselves versus the affirmation “I am.” As the meditation begins to warm my heart I then move to others — my wife and children, my sister and nephews, my friends, then people I don’t know. Then to people about whom I feel hostility. And eventually I complete the circle by sending love to all beings everywhere.

The hang-up came for me with my dad. Saying may he be loved was an intellectual exercise that wasn’t truly landing in my heart. I knew it was right to send him love. I knew that was a holy act. But it wasn’t coming from my heart. How did I know? Because it should have made me cry — breaking down the walls of abandonment I had felt for years — and instead I was just sitting there on the floor saying words that made sense but weren’t connecting in my heart. Does that resonate with you?

...And I Breathed

Then one day I was listening to a chant by Deva Premal and Miten called the Kumara Mantra, which is a sacred blessing for the children of the world. As I was meditating to the mantra I began to say silently the names of my children. Slowly repeating their names … over and over and over again until they began to circle around me … like a wheel of beautiful energetic blessing for my children. The experience was powerful and amazingly peaceful so I added in the names of my nephews. Then the children of my closest friends. And then without thinking I included myself — not the adult me, but the little boy who lives deep inside. As I continued the blessing I began to feel a real glow of love in my heart. So I continued, adding my family and friends — again, not the adult versions of them but the children in them. And then without thinking I added my father. Unlike wishing the adult version of him love, sending a blessing to the child in him was easy. Of course I wanted the little boy in my dad to be loved; after all, that probably would have led to love for little me. And as I added his name to the circle alongside all the people I love so dearly, I began to cry … really good cleansing tears from deep inside my heart in the place where the hurt little boy resides. I slowly began to connect with the child in my father and I imagined the kind of fear and insecurity it would have taken to create a man who abandoned his kids … and bit by bit I saw that his fear wasn’t much different from my own insecurities. As I said the blessing and the names over and over and over again I began to feel a shift. I felt loved at the deepest level and, for the first time, I felt love for my father.

Sharon says that “loving kindness is the ability to see the humanity in people who we don’t know and the pain in the people we find difficult.” In other words, we become one even with the people who have caused us the most pain … like my dad. And in seeing beyond our pain, and finding ourselves in others, we learn to love ourselves at the deepest level. That is what this meditation taught me.

In seeing beyond our pain, and finding ourselves in others, we learn to love ourselves at the deepest level.

This week I invite you to join me in connecting with the child inside. Comfort your fears and anger with a blessing of love for the little you. And then, as it feels right, share that blessing with the child in all people who have caused you harm. Find the hurt child in them and give them love. This is the deepest form of self-love … and compassion for all beings.

Big hugs of loving kindness,

Jason

  1. wendy st.john-devereaux says:

    this was such a beautiful, loving article…………and very timely for me, as one of the issues I have been working on, and struggling with, is the deep feeling of abandonment and separateness I have always felt ( I was an adopted child–adopted by abusive parents)……

    .I realize that I have come a long way, but still have a long way to go…..but after reading this, I think I can take my search for closure and forgiveness in a new direction….

    once again, thank you so much for your openness…you have no idea how helpful it is to others, such as myself…..

    much love xxoo
    wendy

    • Thank you for sharing Wendy. As you know from reading my book, my grandma was adopted and I adopted my daughter as well. I’m so blessed to be on this journey with wonderful people like you and Ian. Sending you big hugs and the knowing that you are not alone.

  2. My father’s birthday is next week. We haven’t spoken in over 7 years. Thanks to your message, I am now on my way to get him a birthday card to send in the mail….perhaps i’ll pick out a children’s card and send it with as much love the envelope will hold. Thank you for your help in my healing process and I applaud you for the father you are.
    Big hugs back to you,
    Melissa 🙂

    • What a beautiful note. Thank you for sharing. It touches me deeply that my experience has inspired this healing. Big hugs.

  3. I have been reading and re-reading your latest posts and today I gave myself the time to reply. This post is profound. I often say to my clients ‘If you were a small child standing in front of yourself right now, what would you say and do for that hurt and frightened child’…the answer is naturally to hug them. Hugs for you Jason, thank you. <3

  4. Mr. Garner, thank you for giving your gift of honest, truthful, insights resulting from difficult self work. I too have been on a similar journey of healing the self so that I may radiate God’s love as we are all one with God. Freeing the self by peeling back all the illusion is everyone’s responsibility so that we each become. In truth, we all have a beautiful inner child who in the beginning was joyfully innocent, uninhibited, curious, and gifted…our truer self. Thank you for being authentic as I believe this allows everyone to feel less alone and more connected.

    • Jason Garner says:

      Thank you Jay. I love the advice Neem Karoli Baba gave Ram Dass — “be honest.” It’s our authenticity that allows us to know all the aspects of each other and ourselves. Thank you for sharing yours. Big hugs. – Jason

  5. Thank u for this article it is so real and true. Forgiveness is so powerful when we understand. Do u have a script for inner child whispering meditation circle? Thank u Terri

  6. Ray Khelawan says:

    I agree….people say that the ability to be empathetic is the most healing and revealing. I will try to engage with my inner self

  7. Each human being has a mental handicap,like the physical one;We provide that handicap for we can see it n adjust accordingly.Seeing that mental handicap is loving kindness allaround.

  8. Thank you once again for sharing your wisdom. I was upset with someone in my life recently and didn’t know how to respond to them without anger coloring my words. Your blog post popped up in my facebook feed just when I needed it. It was like, as I read, the clouds cleared from my mind and I was able to find a response based in loving kindness. I communicated with that person and cleared things up in a way that led to comfort and relief.

    I think what I love most about your posts is how you don’t mind reaching into the past, into the darker parts of your life, and allowing people to relate with you. It’s also nice knowing sometimes that you fall back into past thinking, the not so healthy ways to look at life. I think I’m in a back and forth thing right now. Trying to stay in loving kindness, but falling out, then having to find a way back to it. It’s especially challenging right now with all the craziness going on in the country.

    Thanks for being a part of the things that help me find a way back to loving kindness. I will never stop striving to be there.

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