When meditating about the kindness of our mothers, the kindness of our parents, and the kindness of sentient beings, it is important not to develop attachment especially for our present-life parents. Rather we see that all sentient beings have been our parents before and that we have had this very close and intimate relationship with all of them. When we contemplate that, it takes away the usual perceptions we have that other people are different from us, or they are strangers that “I do not know them, they are separate, I cannot understand them, and they cannot understand me.” Instead we realise that they are not strangers that are unknown to us after all. That enables feelings of closeness to arise in our hearts, and when we feel close to others and see their kindness to us, automatically the wish to repay them and wanting them to be happy comes to our mind.

When we really think of the kindness of our parents, we acknowledge that since we were born, we have been the recipient of a lot of kindness. Recognising that is very important because it helps us feel connected and related to others. Otherwise, we go through life with this chip on our shoulders, thinking, “Nobody has been kind to me. I have always been pushed away and neglected. I cannot relate to anybody.” That is just rubbish in the mind. There is no benefit in holding onto those kinds of thoughts, interpretations, and stories that our mind has made up. It is better to bring our mind back to the more realistic picture of actually being the recipient of a tremendous amount of kindness in this life and infinite previous lives, and we will continue to have close relationships and receive kindness from others in future lives from now until awakening.

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