Loving Kindness (Metta Bhavana) Meditation

Metta Bhavana, also known as Loving-Kindness Meditation, is a meditation practice that focuses on developing feelings of loving-kindness, compassion, and goodwill toward oneself and others. It involves a systematic approach to cultivate these positive emotions.

Transcript

Welcome my name is Riju Siddha and I will be leading you today on our Loving-Kindness Meditation.

So make sure you are seated in a nice comfortable upright relaxed position.

Make sure the legs and the arms are well supported and the spine is upright and you are relaxed.

If you wish you may also lie down that's fine.

And starting with I invite you to gently close your eyes and take a few long deep breaths into the belly and with each out breath you take just allow yourself to relax,

Let go of your day and as much as you can any concerns and worries taking this time for you feeling your weight of the body in contact with the chair or the cushion or if you're lying down whatever you're lying on just feeling the contact of the body bringing the awareness into the sensations here and now.

Okay so before we formally start the practice it's always a good idea to set an intention so just set an intention to yourself around the lines of today I am going to cultivate loving-kindness and compassion so to start with bring your awareness to your heart center,

Center of your chest the seat of our emotions and just notice how you are feeling in this present moment.

What is your emotional landscape?

You don't even have to put that into words just get a sense of it and anything and everything is fine if you're feeling angry just accept that there's something today that's made you angry or you're angry in this moment if you're happy great if you're joyful you might be feeling a bit numb or neutral just accept that with interest,

Curiosity and acceptance.

With our attention resting in the heart I invite you to repeat either aloud or to yourself a series of phrases may I be happy,

May I be healthy,

May I be safe,

May I live with ease and these phrases are just like dropping a pebble into a still pond just notice the effects dropping those phrases into your awareness have on your emotional heart center.

Has that changed anything?

Notice if there is any resistance and again turning curiosity love and attention towards that just accept that.

The likelihood is there might be a mixed bag going on in there.

If you notice any positive emotions within your heart center just let your awareness rest on those.

What we turn our attention to will generally grow so for the next few minutes it's just a matter of letting our attention rest abiding with any positive emotions we feel as a result of dropping in those phrases.

They're not necessarily to be used as a mantra but you can drop them in again if you want.

May I be happy,

May I be healthy,

May I be safe,

May I live with ease.

These phrases are an affirmation for yourself we always start with ourselves and if you can enjoy just the gentle sensations of being with your heart.

Okay so for the next stage just bring someone to mind that you love and care for such as a family member,

A friend,

A mentor,

Someone who is easy when you bring them to mind to feel positivity,

Friendliness,

Love towards.

Notice how that connection with that person when you bring them to mind notice what that does in the sensations in and around the heart area.

How does it make you feel and just resting the awareness in those sensations that bringing that person to mind generates.

Again drop these phrases in this time directed at them.

May they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they be safe and may they live with ease.

Again get a sense of your affirmation,

Your love,

Your care flowing from the center of your heart out towards them.

You are wishing them well,

Feeling the warmth and love you have for this person as you do this and if the mind wanders off it will do that's what it does.

Just gently notice when this happens again with kindness with understanding,

With acceptance.

Bring your awareness gently back to your heart center and reconnect with the person you have brought to mind and again you may repeat the phrases may they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they be safe,

May they live with ease.

That's good and again just enjoy this time and space that you have staying with the connection with your own hearts and this connection with your friend,

Loved one.

Appreciate them,

Appreciate yourself.

So we just let the image or the awareness of that person fade away and now bring to mind what we call the neutral person.

So this will be someone that you are aware of but you don't really have any particular strong feelings for or against that person.

So it might be a co-worker,

It could be the postman,

It could be someone you see on the bus going to work every day.

You don't in a way really know them but just try to imaginatively connect with them.

So the postman is not just a postman.

He will have a whole life,

Maybe family and friends who love him and who he loves.

He will have dreams,

Hopes,

Fears just the same as us.

Try to look behind the categorization and the labeling and just see if you can connect with that person at a heart-to-heart level,

At our basic humanity and then with that person in mind again you can drop the phrases may they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they be safe and may they live with ease.

So because we don't know this person as well as our friend,

It might take a little bit more imaginative to try and keep the connection going.

Just try to keep them in mind,

Sending love,

Friendliness,

Kindness,

Appreciation towards them.

Even just bringing them to mind with a loving kind attitude will have a positive effect.

Cultivate kindness and goodwill towards them even though you don't know them that well.

We all have hopes and dreams,

We all have fears,

Triggers,

Trauma,

Positive experiences,

Joys.

We are all beautifully connected and unique in our own way.

Again if the mind wanders just bring it back with kindness to the heart and reconnect with that person and again if you wish you may drop the phrases in again may they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they be safe and may they live with ease.

Noticing how that connection feels,

Keeping the awareness gently resting in the heart center.

Okay so just gently letting that person fade away from our awareness.

Now bring someone to mind that you might have a conflict with or difficulties.

Now the idea here is not to dwell too much on the story or the negative emotions and I would suggest if you're just starting this meditation,

You've not done it before,

Don't bring someone to mind who you have a real seething hatred for or you know it's just too painful at this time to bring them to mind.

Otherwise you might just get lost a little bit in the negative emotions in the story.

So just someone who really you have a conflict with,

It could even be a friend who you're having a difficult time with at the moment,

But just bring them to mind and it's okay if you know to move them a little bit further away from you or maybe you know to see them a bit further distance away that they may not be aware of you,

That's also fine.

But again this person will have friends and family,

Loved ones,

People who love them and people who they love in turn.

They will have hopes and dreams,

Fears just like you do.

So what we're trying to do is see past our stories and just connecting heart-to-heart on a human level and the level where all beings can connect.

First principles of love,

Understanding and compassion.

So against what is often our better judgment,

We either want to fight or flight,

Just stay with the seat of the heart.

We've spent some time building up some positive emotion and just staying with that and as much as you can turning that towards this person and using the phrases,

May they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they stay safe,

May they live with ease.

So we're not necessarily expecting them to become a positive influence,

A friend from where they stand at the moment.

We're not asking them to do anything,

All we're doing is sending them positivity at a basic human-to-human level.

We don't want people to be hurt,

We want people to be safe and well.

Just sit with that positive intention in your heart.

This stage is about softening our hearts and starting to develop compassion for all beings and noticing if the mind spins off into stories about whatever the situation is.

Just see if you can let the story go like a cloud passing across the sky and just come back to your heart and maybe drop the phrases in again.

May they be happy,

May they be healthy,

May they be safe,

May they live with ease.

So now bring all of the people that we've had in this meditation to mind,

Standing or sitting around us in a circle and just seeing if we can give appreciation,

Love,

Friendliness to each one of those people equally in our shared humanity.

This might not happen equally but that should be our intention and then you can either leave these people there but start to expand your awareness wider and wider.

So maybe people in the same building as you,

In the same street,

In your city or town.

You can either do this imaginatively bringing the people,

More and more people in or geographically.

Just have whatever feels easiest for you,

Just widening your awareness out to bring more and more people into your field of loving awareness and sending that loving awareness out into the world.

Everybody in your country,

Everybody in the world,

All beings,

Not just humanity,

All beings on this planet and beyond if you wish to do that as well.

And again drop in the phrase into your field of awareness,

Your loving awareness.

May all beings be happy,

May all beings be healthy,

May all beings be safe,

May all beings live with ease and imagine waves of loving kindness spreading from your heart to touch all living creatures and not excluding yourself.

You are part of the world,

You are as much as an intrinsic value as everybody and everything else in this world.

All is sacred.

So as we start to bring this meditation to an end,

Gently bring your awareness that's expanded out to the world back,

Back,

Back,

Back,

Back,

Back,

Back,

Back,

Back to yourself.

Just you and your awareness now.

Awareness of your body,

Again feeling the weight of the body on the seat or if you're lying down,

The contact with the ground,

Getting a sense of the room around you,

Sounds coming in.

Take a couple of deep breaths just to ground yourself and when you're ready you can slowly open your eyes,

Taking as much time as you need and taking that positive energy out into your day.

Blessings on your day.

Thank you for joining me in this meditation.