This meditation is to help us to manage or deal with the coronavirus that is taking over the world at present.
So in order to do this meditation,
First you need to sit upright.
Make sure your hands are in your lap.
Left,
Right hand over left hand with the thumbs,
With the palms facing upwards,
And your thumbs just touching.
So it's important to keep your spine straight,
Not too tight.
This just helps the energy to move up and down your spinal column with ease.
Make sure your head is resting at the top of your spinal column and your chin is slightly tucked in.
You can sit on your cushion or on a chair as long as you are comfortable.
Now close your eyes and relax.
Relax your entire body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
You can do this by scanning your body up and down.
Now relax your mind,
Calming your feelings,
Calming your thoughts,
Calming your memories,
And bring your attention or your focus to your breathing.
Breathing in,
Know that you're breathing in and breathing out,
Know that you're breathing out.
So your object of meditation is your breathing.
So you can place your mind or become aware of the sensation of the air as it passes through your nostrils or the movement of your body as you breathe in and breathe out.
Become very interested in your breath.
When it's long,
Know that it's long.
When it's deep,
Know that it's deep.
When it's shallow,
Know that it's shallow and so on.
Now when your mind becomes distracted by a sound or thought or a memory,
First you recognize that it's become distracted.
Second,
You let go.
Release the distraction.
Then you tell your mind to relax.
You smile and return to your object,
Which is your breathing.
And you can repeat this.
So first you recognize that you've become distracted.
Let go or release the distraction and return to your breathing.
Relax your mind.
Smile,
Just a small internal smile and return to your object of meditation,
Which is your breathing.
So let's try that for a little while to calm your mind.
Good.
Okay.
Now,
This is a meditation about how to deal or manage coronavirus in today's world.
First,
We acknowledge the difficulties that we are facing with the closures to schools and various businesses,
Distance,
Social isolation,
Social distancing,
Hand hygiene.
There are many things that are coming into our world,
Changing the way that we live.
So we acknowledge that,
That that is the situation at hand.
The second thing you do is you let go of the situation.
First you acknowledge it,
Then you let it go.
So it's at arm's length to you.
Now you do this by sending loving kindness or metta,
Developing the mental state of metta.
Metta bhava or metta meditation is very,
Very important.
So you stimulate your metta,
Your loving kindness in your own heart by thinking of a time when you were completely happy and content.
It could be from your childhood,
Anytime,
It doesn't matter.
Could be towards a pet or a toy.
And you say to yourself,
May I be well and happy.
May I be free from harm,
Free from worries and concerns.
May I be happy hearted.
And you put a smile in your heart.
And you allow your metta to grow,
Your loving kindness to grow within you,
Filling your entire being.
And now we're going to send it out to all the people that you are concerned about first,
Wishing them to be well and happy.
So to your loved ones,
To the people most closest to you,
Your partner,
Your children,
You send loving kindness to them.
So visualize them and wish them to be well and happy.
Free from harm.
Free from disease.
Free from suffering.
May they be well and happy.
May they have the strength and the determination.
May they be happy hearted.
Now to our parents,
To our relatives.
Wishing to visualize them and wish them to be well and happy.
Sending loving kindness to them.
May they be happy hearted.
May they be free from harm.
Free from diseases.
May they be happy hearted.
Now we send metta to our friends.
Visualize your friends.
Wishing them to be well and happy.
Free from harm.
Free from disease.
May they be happy hearted.
We send them our loving kindness.
See them happy and free from suffering.
Now we send our metta to our acquaintances.
Wishing that they be well and happy.
Free from harm.
Free from worries and concerns.
Free from disease.
May they be happy hearted.
We send our loving kindness to them.
That washes over them completely.
Now we send our metta or loving kindness to all those people that we don't really know.
We see them but we don't really know them.
Strangers if you like.
May they be well and happy.
May they be free from harm.
Free from worries and concerns.
Free from disease.
May they be happy hearted.
And now we send our metta to all beings.
Our loving kindness to all beings.
Above,
Below and all around us.
Beings who are far and near,
Those that are seen and unseen.
Beings that are born or yet to be born.
May they all be well and happy.
Free from harm.
Free from worries and concerns.
Free from diseases.
May they be happy hearted.
And we visualise our metta,
Our loving kindness,
Surrounding the entire globe.
The entire world.
We strongly wish,
We strongly wish that all beings be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
Now we come out of the meditation.
But keep your smile in your heart.
And remember.
To send loving kindness to yourself.
May you be well and happy.
May you be free from harm.
Free from worries and concerns.
May you be well and happy.
Come out of the meditation now.
Take rest.
Become aware of your cushion or your seat.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes.
This is another augmentation.
