Intro To Metta Meditation

Join Kari Scott Meditation for an introduction to Metta Meditation. She walks you through a basic lovingkindness technique, encouraging you to share feelings of kindness toward yourself and others. This meditation is useful for beginning meditators or those with more experience.

Thanks to Chris Collins of IndieMusicBox.com for the soundtrack.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Keri Scott and today I'd like to guide you in a basic Metta meditation.

This meditation will be good for people who are just starting to explore the Metta meditation technique or for those who are more experienced as well.

Metta is a word that means positive energy or kindness toward others.

This meditation is often also called a loving kindness meditation.

It is designed to help cultivate kindness not only toward others but also towards yourself.

So before we get started I'll just let you know a couple of details to help us during our meditation.

First of all there's no prescribed position that you need to sit in or take in order to do this meditation.

So please make yourself comfortable if you want to sit or stand or even lie down.

If possible you can keep your shoulders wide and your back straight.

That will help you with breathing.

Otherwise I just think being comfortable is the most important part.

As we go through the meditation there will be several times where I will stop talking and let you meditate in silence.

Don't worry I'm still here and I will bring us back together after those periods of quiet.

So let's get started.

Go ahead and make yourself comfortable in whatever position that needs to be today.

Make sure that your shoulders are wide and your chin can be a little bit tucked just to give the back of your neck a bit of space.

And let's start with three nice deep breaths to sort of orient ourselves and bring our minds to bear in this present moment.

Let's inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

Last one.

Let's inhale one last time and exhale.

If it's comfortable for you I would invite you to close your eyes.

If you'd rather you can cast your gaze down and sort of let your vision go a bit unfocused.

Let's begin by thinking about our breath.

As you inhale I want you to think inhale and as you exhale think exhale.

Just establishing this anchor point that we will use throughout the rest of the meditation.

If thoughts intrude and they are likely to do so try and acknowledge them.

Recognize that they're there and then choose to let them go.

Let them float by like leaves on a stream or clouds in the sky.

Make a choice to not engage but instead return to the breath.

Now as we're focusing on our breath I want you to imagine that breath on the inhale going directly to your heart center.

You could even place a hand there if you wish on your chest above your heart.

Imagine the air going directly to your heart and feeding it and surrounding it and on the exhale you're letting that air go back out into the world.

The loving kindness or Metta meditation helps us use our heart center to generate feelings of kindness and love and send them out to those we know,

To those we don't know,

To any and all of the focus of our meditation.

So I like to start off by just breathing into that heart center for a moment.

We will begin with the first round of our Metta meditation with a focus on a friend.

Think of someone.

Bring them to mind.

Someone you love dearly.

Someone perhaps you see every day or maybe you don't see them enough.

Someone who is important and kind.

It could be a human or it could be an animal.

Someone that you love and we're going to recite some words and generate our Metta loving-kindness and direct that loving-kindness to that entity,

That person or pet.

May you be healthy.

May you be at peace.

May you be safe and at ease.

You can say these words out loud or keep them in your head,

Whichever is more comfortable for you.

You can use the person's name if you wish or just the general wish.

May you be healthy.

May you be happy.

May you be safe and at ease.

Now I'll be quiet for a moment and I'd invite you to repeat these phrases while thinking of the person you love for the next few moments.

May you be healthy.

May you be happy.

May you be safe and at ease.

Now I'd invite you to think of a group of people who are close by to your heart or to your life.

Maybe it's co-workers.

Maybe it's family.

Maybe it's cousins you don't see for a long time or friends that you like to visit with on the weekends.

Think of several people that you'd like to send some loving-kindness to and we'll repeat our wishes as you hold them in your mind.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

Again I'll leave you in silence to repeat these words of loving-kindness out loud or in your head.

If any thoughts intrude,

Remember to acknowledge them and then let them go on by like leaves on a stream and return to your focus on your group of important people in your life and your focus on sending them some loving-kindness.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

As you are thinking these thoughts of loving- kindness and sending them out into the world,

If you begin to feel some warmth and some emotion attached to it,

That's okay.

Sometimes people feel happy and loving and kind.

Sometimes people feel their heart soften a little.

You may even feel some sadness or some grief and those are signs that your heart is softening and that your mind is ready to send some loving-kindness into the world to use your energy and your thoughts and your place in the universe to help others find some peace.

Next let's think of an even larger group.

Maybe it's the school you attend.

Maybe it's the business you work for.

Maybe it's the people of your town.

Let's find a little bit of a larger group to generate these thoughts of loving-kindness to picture them.

They might be people that you see acquaintances but people that you don't know very well and let's send them the same loving-kindness that we've sent to others.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

Again I'll be quiet for a few moments as we all focus our attention on our loving-kindness thoughts.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

Next will be a challenge.

I want you to bring to mind someone that you don't get along with very well.

Someone that is challenging to be around.

Someone that you struggle with for whatever reason.

Someone that you maybe don't often think of in a loving or kind way.

But today we're gonna send them loving-kindness thoughts as well.

So let's do that.

Once you have your person in mind,

Focus on them what they look like or what it feels like to be around them and then let your heart send them warmth and kindness.

Even if they're hard to be around.

Even if they're challenging and you don't like them very much.

Send some of that loving-kindness energy their way.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and truly at ease.

I'll be quiet now so you can focus on sending out those loving-kindness thoughts.

May they be healthy.

May they be happy.

May they be safe and at ease.

Let your heart soften and allow those tender thoughts to go out into the universe toward even the people that we don't often feel kind towards.

And now this might be the biggest challenge of all.

We're gonna send our loving-kindness thoughts directly to ourselves.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

May I be safe and at ease.

Repeat these words out loud if you can or quietly in your mind if that's more comfortable for you.

However you choose to do it,

Do it with feeling.

Say these words because you mean them.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

May I be safe and at ease.

Maybe even try and put a small smile on your face as you feel the warmth in your heart center toward the amazing person you are.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

May I be safe and at ease.

It doesn't matter what kind of day you've had or week or month or year.

These wishes are things you deserve.

So let's spend a few moments thinking these words and meaning these words for ourselves.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

May I be safe and at ease.

If thoughts intrude,

Remember to acknowledge them.

Let them go like leaves on a stream and return to your kindness and loving thoughts to yourself.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

May I be safe and at ease.

If feelings arise at any point during a metta meditation,

Acknowledge them and if they're strong feelings,

Maybe sit with them for a moment.

Just say to yourself,

This is what happiness feels like,

Or this is what loving warmth feels like,

Or this is what sadness feels like.

And when you're ready,

Return to the metta meditation words and thoughts to focus again on sending out your loving-kindness.

Our last group that we'll think of today will be all the creatures in the universe.

Let's see if we have the power in our hearts to send out loving-kindness thoughts to all the creatures in the universe,

To everyone and everything.

May they all be happy.

May they all be healthy.

May they all be safe and at ease.

And let's not forget to include ourselves as well.

May we all be healthy.

May we all be happy.

May we all be safe and at ease.

May we all be healthy.

May we all be happy.

May we all be safe and at ease.

May we all be healthy.

May we all be happy.

May we all be safe and at ease.

Let's take a moment now to just focus on our breath coming and going from our heart center again as we close our metta meditation.

Focus on how your breath feels on the inhale,

Directing that breath directly to your heart center,

And then how it feels on the exhale.

Quiet your mind and come to stillness.

Together let's take a deep inhale all the way down into your belly and exhale.

Let's do that again.

Inhale and exhale.

And when you're ready,

Bring a little movement to your fingers and toes,

Maybe a little movement to your shoulders by rolling them back just a bit.

And when you feel ready to join the room again,

Slowly open your eyes or focus your gaze on your current environment.

Thank you so much for meditating with me today.

I'll see you soon.