Welcome to this morning metta meditation.
Starting our day with a meditation practice sets us up to flow our peace and our stillness and our love into our day,
Into every interaction we have,
Into everything that we do.
I like to start my mornings off with some metta.
Metta is the first of the brahma viharas and it means loving kindness in Pali.
Let's start by finding a comfortable seat or lying down position and grounding ourselves in the present moment.
Taking a deep breath in and releasing.
Breathing in again,
Feeling the sensation of breath enter into your body,
Feeling your belly move and the breath go all the way down.
Releasing the breath,
Feeling the air leave your body.
You can always tether back in to the breath,
To the sensation of breathing.
Let's start by awakening our bodhicitta,
Awakening our heart-mind.
We can say to ourselves,
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.
We can sing it too.
This chant was taught to me by Jonathan Relucio and it was taught to him by Kyra Jewell-Lingo.
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.
Now turning your attention towards someone who is close to you,
Who you love in your life.
Bring them to your heart-mind and sing to them either out loud or inside your head.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
May now including a larger group of people,
Perhaps your family or your work colleagues,
Whoever you're going to be in close contact with today,
Bring them to your heart-mind and extending metta,
Loving-kindness,
Feeling it spread from your heart to theirs.
Sing or say inside your head.
May we be filled with loving kindness.
May we be well.
May we be peaceful and at ease.
Peaceful and at ease.
May we be happy.
And now bringing to your mind someone with whom you have a grievance or a grudge.
Someone you have an aversion to.
Someone who you don't like.
Maybe this is a group of people.
Maybe this is a specific person.
Picture them at a safe distance from you.
Just bring them into your heart-mind.
If you're having any arising reactions,
Just notice.
Practicing loving-kindness is the antidote to aversion,
One of the three poisons.
Imagine this person or this group of people or this type of person as completely innocent.
Maybe even imagining them as they were as a child.
Understanding that they have their own set of worries and struggles.
Understanding that they have people in their lives that they love and care for.
Imagine them as innocent and unknowing.
So with them in your heart-mind,
Sing or say out loud or in your head.
May they be filled with loving kindness.
May they be well.
May they be peaceful and at ease.
May they be happy.
May they be filled with loving kindness.
May they be well.
May they be peaceful and at ease.
May they be earth,
Mammals,
Reptiles,
Sea creatures,
Bugs,
The living bodies of water,
The mountains,
The sky,
The sea,
And all of the people on the earth at this time.
You can imagine that you're looking down at the earth as if you were sitting on the moon and wrap the earth in a blanket,
A bubble of your well-wishes,
Extending from your heart to the entire earth surrounding the earth in love.
You can sing or say out loud or in your head.
May all be filled with loving kindness.
May all be well.
May all be peaceful and at ease.
May all be happy.
Now you can move your attention to your teachers.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
May you be happy.
And lastly,
One more time to yourself.
Feel what it feels like to receive loving kindness by being comfortable,
By taking this moment out of your day to start your day.
You are extending loving kindness to yourself by working to transform your grudges,
Your hatred.
You are showing yourself loving kindness by removing the poison.
So one more time for ourselves in gratitude for this practice.
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.
Thank you for your practice.
