Guided Metta Meditation

Ajahn helps you set up and reinforce a calm presence and guides a metta experience.

Transcript

We've been practicing this Metta,

Which is goodwill or benevolence,

To some extent every evening this reflection.

And it's always there because it's always a good way to look back.

You have to look back to look around so that your perceptions are more kindly and giving and critical and holy.

It's a radiant quality,

It's a fusing or a giving quality,

Benevolence.

If you take this from self-view it becomes very difficult,

Like anything does.

Because I have to do this or I have to be nice and kind and loving and I don't feel like that at this moment.

And it just becomes either very contrived or I feel even more critical.

I can't only concentrate,

I can't even be nice.

So it's not,

It actually kind of starts off with just a concert,

Bringing yourself into the moment,

Just the way you're at.

And then an opening to that,

A tolerance to that.

So it works from anatta,

From the non-self,

A response to ourselves,

To what we are,

To our situation,

To our memories,

To our world,

To our friends,

To our enemies,

To our relatives.

We're not holding,

Not taking any of it personally.

You concentrate,

I'll bring your mind into the present moment on the breathing sign.

Just a simple feeling of the breath in the chest and the abdomen as your body,

As your chest expands,

Contracts,

That steady rhythm.

So you're breathing and the beginning of the sensation is in the chest,

So you're breathing in through the chest,

Breathing out through the chest.

And the brightness of the in-breath and the soothing of the out-breath.

After reflecting,

May I be well,

May this being be well.

May I be at peace with myself as I am.

May I be at peace with myself as I am.

There's an attitude and the rhythm of the sensation flowing through the body where you can discern body,

Consciousness of the body,

Down into your legs,

Out into your arms,

Up into your head.

Keep spreading,

Opening the frame of reference through the whole body,

What you can discern,

Visualize,

Reach your mind to through your whole body.

Breathing in,

Breathing out through the whole body.

And the rhythm of the in-breath and the soothing of the out-breath.

Breathing in,

Breathing out through the whole body.

Rather like running your hand over,

I say,

A beautiful object,

Feeling out a tactile sensation like the coolness of pottery or the textures of wood.

Feeling out with an appreciating quality of attention to just how it is,

The fingers,

The palms,

The arms,

The neck,

The head,

The face,

Particularly areas where you feel any tension or dizziness or sensitivity,

You're very soft.

And spreading your attention there,

Wherever there's contraction.

And work around areas like the back,

Where you have the tightness in the shoulders or the core.

Pain in the lower region or the pain running down the back.

Realize those points and send a light,

Warmth,

Spreading around sensation,

Where sensation is a neutral and sharpness,

Brightness,

Clarity.

Feeling out feelings as they are,

Sensations as they are,

With a mind that is inclining in with kindness.

Somehow.

Oftentimes.

And mind states the idea of what we are in the present.

Whether it's negative or optimistic,

Or we sometimes feel maybe we're being complacent or selfish.

And looking at that notion without aversion,

Without tolerance and kindness,

We think we haven't done well enough.

Or that we can't do it.

Just that very idea and feeling in the mind,

Looking at that without trying to get rid of it.

Just relaxing it,

Being peaceful with that.

The ideas of what we could or might be in the future.

Memories of the past.

The nostalgia or the guilt or fear from the past.

The most painful or poignant memories,

You can contemplate them as memories with no aversion.

Kindness,

Patience,

Well-wishing,

Forgiving,

Starting again.

The most painful or poignant memories,

You can contemplate them as memories with no aversion.

The reflections of others,

Of those who have helped us towards awakening.

Teachers of some kind,

Those who have helped us awaken,

Given us guidance,

Or so they're encouraged or set an example to us.

It's the teachings and reflecting on them with gratitude.

The mother and father who gave us the physical birth,

Requisites for physical existence and support.

No matter what else they gave us,

They gave us that.

Even if they were not very wise or whatever,

Still to have given us birth and looked after us.

People who maintain this society with its imperfections and flaws,

But so that we live in a protected society that has some order in it.

And some possibility for this teaching to be allowed and to take place.

So that we consider how we can help the society rather than feel totally negative about it.

Associates in practice,

People you associate with,

People on this retreat,

Staff,

Management,

Teachers,

The people you're practicing alongside,

Whether unknown or neutral,

Develop a sensitivity to how one can incline the mind towards them with benevolence.

So that we can work together.

The associates in other walks of life,

People you hear about,

People you know about or half know,

Those who are suffering,

The sick and the dying and the hurt,

May those beings who are corrupted or deluded with minds perverted,

May they awaken or may they become free from that rather than just judging and condemning.

And they let your mind go freely to where it inclines,

Sweeping around,

Spreading peace,

Kindness,

Tolerance,

Non-aversion.

Bass 99.

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Reviews

Lovely gentle practice with nice quiet pauses. Many thanks dear teacher. Peace and Metta. ☮️💖🙏🖖

I really appreciated this approach to Metta practice , some of the qualities encouraged here, and the guidance with longer quiet spaces to practice. 🙏🏼

I enjoyed the way you are guided with moments of space to work with.

🙏🏼 metta and wise reflection 🌸🌺🌸

Thank you so much. I am deeply relishing your meditations.

A realy good and simple reminder. Well worth listening to now and again. I enjoyed it.