Welcome to this meditation on warm-heartedness and loving-kindness.
We will be practicing generating warm-hearted wishes for happiness,
First for ourselves,
And then for others.
To start,
I invite you to take an upright posture,
Lifting up as tall as you can,
And with your spine strong and extended like a tree trunk that you can lean back against,
Letting the soft parts of your body,
Your muscles and ligaments hang limp and loose,
Deeply relaxed.
And now,
I invite you to imagine yourself breathing in and out of your heart,
Resting your awareness in your heart,
And generating a feeling of authentic warm-heartedness.
And you start to feel a portal open up within your heart,
Maybe to a depth of love deep within you,
Maybe to a love that's all around you,
And maybe to a love that is beyond this world.
You start to feel a warm glow of love shining out of your heart,
In whatever color feels right to you.
And if you feel armor or stone covering up some parts of your heart,
That's perfectly okay.
You can allow and just let that be,
Feeling a sense of trust.
And you start to feel a sense of warmth,
Well-being,
Relaxation,
And comfort,
Spreading slowly from your heart throughout your whole body.
And with each inhalation,
Letting this feeling grow outwards,
Filling you up with happiness and goodwill,
Allowing the center of love in the middle of your chest to expand and spread throughout your body and being,
Filling every cell with loving vitality.
As you feel this warm glow spread,
You relax even more,
Letting it completely embrace your body,
Feeling the positivity flowing,
Even letting it spread out like a cloud into the space around you,
Basking in its warm glow,
Feeling safe and comfortable,
Nourished and empowered,
Offering care from this heart space,
Offering your prayers,
Wishes for good things.
This nourishing glow coalesces into words,
Focusing your attention on your heart and also on the words,
Deeply feeling them.
May I be happy.
May I be at ease,
Centered,
Peaceful,
Free,
And optimistic.
May I be healthy.
May my body be healthy,
Full of wellness and vitality.
May my emotions be healthy,
A source of actions that I later feel good about.
May my thoughts be healthy,
Accurate,
And useful.
And may my deepest essence,
My soul,
Be untangled and unfurled.
May I be friendly,
Patient,
And forgiving with myself as I move through my day.
May I be friendly,
Patient,
And forgiving with myself,
Even when I make mistakes or others have issue with me.
May I be compassionate and accepting of the human that I am.
May I live my life with a relaxed body,
An open warm heart,
And a clear mind.
May I live with dignity,
Serenity,
And empowerment.
May warm-hearted love manifest throughout my life.
Whatever goodness I find when I meditate,
May I have more of that in my life.
Openness,
Presence,
Simplicity,
Insight,
Calm,
Clarity,
Depth,
Aliveness,
And dignity.
May good things come my way,
And may I have contentment and ease in my life.
May I be successful at the noble goals I set for myself.
May I take care of myself fully.
May I grow stronger from and be resilient with my challenges,
Whatever suffering I have in my life.
May I resolve it positively.
May I also have patience,
Courage,
Understanding,
And determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties and problems in my life.
May I consciously grow.
May I be ever deeper,
More alive,
More clear,
And untangled as the years go on.
May I do good for others,
And may others do good for me.
May my happiness and may my daily activities of body,
Speech,
Heart,
And mind contribute to the happiness of all others.
May I know the joy of my own true nature,
The satisfaction of being my own real self.
May I experience the radiance and spaciousness of full spiritual liberation.
If there are any other positive wishes you'd like to set for yourself,
Please feel free to do that now.
Whatever feels right and feels true to you.
And resting in your warm heart,
Expanding these good wishes out geographically,
Feeling the people directly around you.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
Feeling the people in your neighborhood.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
Feeling the people in your town or city.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
Feeling all the people in your state or province.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
Feeling your heart expand out to all the people in your nation.
May you all be happy.
You all be healthy.
Feeling all the people all over the world.
All the animals and plants,
All beings in all realms.
May you all be happy.
May you all be healthy.
Feeling that warm portal open in your heart.
May all beings live with openness and die with peace.
Sending out benevolence to the entire world.
Feeling your heart space as boundless,
Extending in all directions.
Feeling all beings included in your heart.
And then thinking of some people that you like,
That you feel good towards.
They can be people you know personally,
Family,
Friends,
Co-workers,
Some of your favorite people.
Maybe public figures from TV and the internet that you are especially fond of.
From your warm heart sending out good wishes.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
And then thinking of people you don't have much of a feeling towards,
You're relatively neutral towards.
Those billions of relatively faceless masses.
May you all be happy.
May you all be healthy.
And then thinking of people you have negative feelings towards.
Again people you know personally or public figures.
People you dislike,
Fear,
Resent,
Maybe sometimes wish pain towards.
As you think of these people,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
Maybe if they are truly happy,
They wouldn't do the negative things they do.
Thinking of all people all over the world.
Just like me,
This person is seeking some happiness for his or her life.
Trying to avoid suffering.
All people have known sadness and loneliness,
Confusion and despair.
And all people have known joy and hope and love.
Sending out compassion that people are doing their best just to fill their needs and live the best life they can.
If there are any other good wishes that you would like to send out to the world,
I invite you to do that now.
And then opening yourself to receive positivity in return.
Allowing yourself to feel love back from the world.
And letting it into your heart.
People's judgmental minds may say all sorts of things,
But when they're rested in their deepest heart,
All they have to say to you is,
I love you.
And as we wrap up,
Tuning into that portal we opened up in your heart at the beginning.
You can close it up and return to how you were,
Or you can keep it open,
Connected to a deeper love.
Whatever feels right to you.
May all beings be well and happy.
