Hello and welcome to A Journey to Mindfulness.
My name is Leticia and today I'll be guiding you through a metta or goodwill meditation which is a Buddhist teaching,
A beautiful practice originated from the Theravada tradition and it's a practice designed to cultivate loving kindness.
With this meditation we want to focus on generating feelings of warmth,
Of kindness,
Of compassion,
Beginning with ourselves and gradually extending to loved ones,
To acquaintances and even to those we might find difficult.
This metta practice is really designed to cultivate loving kindness for everyone and in this practice we'll not only cultivate kindness but also learn how to center your mind and relax into the present moment.
By grounding the mind we can more easily recognize and release judgment,
Fear,
Ego-driven responses,
Making room for genuine kindness and compassion to arise.
It's a really important point to help us connect with our own capacity for love and care and in turn extend that to others without the interference of habitual negative patterns.
So in this session I will gently guide you through sending love and kindness step-by-step to yourself,
To others,
Hopefully creating a ripple effect of compassion and remember that this is a practice of the heart.
Let go of any expectations and simply allow yourself to be present.
Make yourself comfortable as we'll get ready for the practice.
This meditation is traditionally performed in a seated position but if you prefer you can also lay down onto your back,
Take a short moment here to make yourself comfortable,
Either sitting onto your chair,
Onto the floor,
Perhaps against the wall so that you can have a long erect spine without leaning forward or backward and gently close your eyes if that's comfortable for you and start thinking of goodwill,
Thoughts of goodwill,
Thoughts of goodwill that will go first to yourself because if you can't think goodwill for yourself,
If you can't feel a sincere desire for your own happiness,
There is no way you can truly reach for the happiness of others.
So can you just tell yourself,
May I find true happiness?
Remind yourself that true happiness is something that comes from within,
So this is not a selfish desire.
In fact if you find and develop the resources for happiness within you,
You are able to radiate it out to other people.
It's a happiness that doesn't depend on taking anything away from anyone else.
Repeat to yourself,
May I find true happiness?
May I find true happiness?
And now can you start spreading goodwill to other people?
Perhaps first the people who are close to your heart,
Your family,
Your parents,
Your very close friends.
May they find true happiness as well.
Sending warmth,
Kindness,
Love and compassion to them.
As you repeat,
May they find true happiness as well.
And then slowly spread those thoughts out in even widening circles.
People you know well,
People you don't know so well,
People you like,
People you know and are neutral about and even people you don't like.
Don't let there be any limitation on your goodwill,
For if there are,
There will be limitation on your mind.
May all these people find happiness.
And now spreading the thoughts of goodwill to people you don't even know and not just people.
All living beings of all kinds in all directions,
East,
West,
North,
South,
Above and below,
Out to infinity.
To all living beings,
May they find true happiness too.
And bring your thoughts back to the present.
If you want true happiness,
You have to find it in the present moment,
For the past is gone and the future is an uncertainty.
So you have to dig down into the present.
What do you have right here?
You've got the body sitting here and breathing.
And you've got the mind thinking and aware.
Can you bring all these together?
Think about the breath and then be aware of the breath as it comes in and goes out.
Keeping your thoughts directed to the breath.
Being aware of the breath as it comes in and out.
Being mindful and being alert.
And try to breathe as comfortably as possible.
A very concrete way of learning how to provide for your own happiness in the immediate present and at the same time strengthening your alertness is to let yourself breathe in a way that's comfortable.
Experiment to see what kind of breathing feels best for the body right now.
It might be long breathing,
Short breathing.
Long in-breath,
Short out-breath.
Short in-breath,
Long out-breath.
Heavy or light.
Fast or slow.
Shallow or deep.
Once you find a rhythm that feels comfortable,
Stay with it for a while.
Learn to savour the sensation of the breathing.
The smoother the texture of the breath,
The better.
Think of the breath not simply as the air coming in and out of the lungs but as the entire energy flow that courses through the body with each in and out breath.
Be sensitive to the texture of that energy flow.
You may find that the body changes after a while.
One rhythm or texture may feel right for a while and then something else will feel more comfortable.
Learn how to listen and respond to what the body is telling you right now.
What kind of breath energy does it need?
How can you best provide for that need?
And if you feel tired,
Try to breathe in a way that energises the body.
And if you feel tense,
Try to breathe in a way that's relaxing.
If your mind wanders off,
Gently bring it right back.
If it wanders off ten times,
A hundred times,
A thousand times,
Bring it back ten times,
A hundred times,
A thousand times.
Don't give in.
Let the mind settle down here in a good space,
In the present moment.
And when the breath starts feeling comfortable,
You can start exploring it in other areas of your body.
If you simply stay with the comfortable breath in a narrow range,
You'll tend to doze off.
So can you consciously expand your awareness?
A good place to focus first is right around the navel.
Locate that part of the body in your awareness.
Where is it now?
And then notice how does it feel there as you breathe in?
How does it feel when you breathe out?
Watch it for a couple of breaths and notice if there's any sense of tension or tightness.
Either with the in-breath or with the out-breath.
Is it tensing up as you breathe in?
Are you holding on to the tension as you breathe out?
Are you putting too much force on the out-breath?
If you catch yourself doing any of these things,
Try to just soften and relax.
Think of that tension dissolving away in the sensation of the in-breath,
The sensation of the out-breath.
If you'd like,
You can think of the breath energy coming into the body right there at the navel,
Working through any tension or tightness that you might feel there.
And then move your awareness to the right,
To the lower right-hand corner of your abdomen and follow the same three steps there.
Look at that general part of the body in your awareness.
Do then notice how it feels as you breathe in and how it feels as you breathe out.
And if you sense any tension or tightness in,
Just let it relax.
And then let your awareness move to the left,
To the lower left-hand corner of your abdomen and follow the same steps as previously.
Then move your awareness up to the solar plexus and then to the right,
To the right flank,
To the left flank,
To the middle of the chest.
After a while,
Move up to the base of the throat and then to the middle of the head.
And be careful with the breath energy in the head.
Think of it very gently coming in,
Not only through the nose but also through the eyes,
The ears,
Down from the top of the head,
In from the back of the neck.
Very gently working through and loosening up any tension you may feel.
Perhaps you feel tension around the eye socket,
Around the throat,
The back of your neck,
Around your face.
Move the energy around with a loving attention and let it dissolve all the tensions here.
From there,
You can move your attention gradually down the back,
Out the legs,
To the tip of the toes,
The spaces between the toes.
And as before,
Focus on a particular part of the body.
Notice how it feels with the in-breath and the out-breath.
Relax any sensation of tension or tightness you might feel there,
So that the breath energy can flow more freely.
And then move on until you've reached the tip of the toes.
You can then repeat the process beginning at the back of the neck and going down the shoulders,
Through the arms,
Past your wrist and out through your fingers.
You can repeat this survey of the body as many times as you'd like until the mind feels ready to settle down.
Let your attention return to any spot in the body where it feels most naturally settled and centred.
And you can simply rest there,
At one with the breath.
And at the same time,
Let the range of your awareness spread out so that it fills the entire body,
Like the light of a candle in the middle of a room.
The candle flame is in one spot,
But its light fills the entire room.
Be keen on maintaining that broadened sense of awareness.
You'll find that it tends to shrink,
Like a balloon with a small hole in it.
So keep broadening its range,
Thinking whole body,
Whole body.
Breathe in the whole body.
From the top of the head down into the tips of the toes.
Think of the breath energy coming in and out of the body through every pore.
Make a point of staying with this centred,
Broadened awareness as long as you can.
There's nothing else you have to think about right now.
Nowhere else to go.
Nothing else to do.
Just stay with this centred,
Broadened awareness of the present.
And when the time comes to leave your meditation,
Remind yourself that there's a skill to living.
You don't just jump right out.
Think over how much effort went into getting yourself centred.
Don't throw it away.
When you're ready to come out,
The first step in living is to spread thoughts of goodwill once more to all the people around you.
May they find true happiness.
And then before you open your eyes,
Remind yourself that even though you're going to have your eyes open,
You want your attention to stay centred in the body at the breath.
Try to maintain that centre as long as you can.
As you get up,
Walk around,
Talk,
Listen in whatever you are doing.
The skill of living meditation lies in learning how to not leave it.
Regardless of whatever else you may be doing,
Act from that sense of being centred.
If you can keep the mind centred in this way,
It becomes a steady point of reference to observe its movements and reactions to both internal and external events.
With this stable centre,
You can truly gain insight into the mind's fluctuations.
Take all the time you need to come out of this practice.
Thank you for joining me today and may you find true happiness.
