Metta (Loving Kindness) Meditation

While living in a time of fear and uncertainty, we can only perpetuate peace + love by feeling and sharing it with every cell of our being. Join me on this live recording of a traditional Buddhist meditation from Northern India.

Transcript

Meta meditation. So meta meditation is I think really just needed right now with everyone feeling you know these really low frequency emotions lately with everything that's going on in the world. There's a lot of sort of fear and anxiety that everyone's feeling and the point of this meditation it translates its official name is meta bhavana and it's from the Pali language and it so has Indian origins and I learned it in my yoga teacher training and as a way of really cultivating these high vibrational feelings of love and kindness and compassion so that we can raise the vibration of the earth of ourselves of people around us and really cultivate more peace and more compassion and more love. It's really important to do this at this time because like attracts like and so if we can really live from our heart center if we can cultivate more of these high vibrational feelings we're going to attract more of that in the world and I know it can be hard with things happening the way that they are but living in fear is only going to perpetuate more fear. So yeah if you want to join me for this meditation maybe just take some time to grab a comfortable seat it won't be too long and maybe you sit cross-legged or you can even lay down if you're somewhere where you can do that and just slowly start to ground into where you are sitting connecting to the earth and slowly coming back to your breath maybe closing the eyes and putting one hand on your heart and one on your belly and just noticing the rhythm of your breath at this moment. Breathing deeply into the belly and then the chest and exhaling from the chest and then the belly. Again into the belly and the chest and then the chest exhales first and then the belly. On your own rhythm try to extend this breath breathing in as deeply as possible and exhaling as much as possible. Feeling yourself rooted to the earth through your sits bones. The earth the natural frequency that helps ground us and promotes feelings of peace and tranquility and so by connecting to the earth and visualizing her energy connecting to us we can feel more grounded and more at peace and as you sit here and connect your breath in the earth think about what love and kindness mean to you. You can use this simple meditation often to create and nurture more compassion in your life and it's short enough that you can use it as part of your daily life. Try to release any thoughts that may be coming to mind any anxieties or worries around what you need to do or where you need to be. Just breathe into the present moment. Don't try to control your mind just watch your thoughts come and release them slowly. So meta means love, Friendliness or kindness and bhavana means the development or the cultivation of that feeling. So at the first stage of this meditation you feel meta for yourself. You sit here connect your breath become aware of your body and of the earth and you focus on cultivating this feeling of peace and tranquility. Maybe it helps to visualize a place in nature where you feel at peace where you feel calm and grounded and as you feel this sense of peace visualize a light in your chest the golden light growing in your heart space. This peace and tranquility blossoms into feeling of strength and confidence and slowly this develops into a deep love for yourself within your heart. Feel this love flooding your body from your heart space flowing through your chest and your belly your arms legs and hands and either out loud or in your mind repeat to yourself may I be happy may I be healthy may I be safe may I live with ease. Feel the power of these words in your body. By saying them with intention you bring them into reality. Next think of a good friend whoever comes to mind first and bring them to your mind as vividly as you can picturing their face and thinking of the qualities that you love about them. Feel this heart connection with your friend or your family member whoever this person is and feel that glowing light in your chest again. Picturing their face in your mind's eye say to them may you be happy may you be healthy may you be safe and may you live with ease. You feel this golden light in your chest pour out towards them as a symbolism of the words that you are offering. Let the picture of this person fade away and next imagine a friend or an acquaintance someone you know that is in need right now. Again bring their face to mind picturing the things you admire about them feeling connected to them and again feel that warm golden light flow out towards them as you say to them may you be happy may you be healthy may you be safe may you live with ease let this image fade away this person Next think of someone that you feel neutral about whoever comes to mind someone you don't particularly like or dislike they could be someone you don't know very well but maybe you see them around and although you might not be connected with them or close with them reflect on their humanity. During this Pisces season we're all reminded of our connection to each other and to the divine. So as you picture their face in your mind's eye picture thy bold energy flowing out of your chest towards them again and say to them may you be happy may you be healthy may you be safe may you live with ease Take a deep breath and let that person's face fade away from your mind's eye Next picture someone that you dislike someone that's very difficult to deal with and although feelings of tension or maybe even hatred might come up try not to get caught up in these feelings Try to stay in the high vibration of love and kindness and compassion and peace think of their humanity and how we are all connected and as you picture them come back to that golden light flooding out of your chest towards them and say to them towards them and say to them may you be happy may you be healthy may you be safe may you live with ease and now bring the other three people to mind the friend the friend in need and the neutral person and then picture yourself with them along with the person that you dislike and think of this golden light encompassing all of you connecting you in love and kindness and compassion and then imagine this golden light extending further than the group of you picture it flooding your neighborhood your town your country the people that are suffering in the world right now the entire world and into the universe feel this energy as waves of this love and compassion pulsating out from your heart center reaching all beings everywhere take a deep breath into your chest and exhale slowly and try to keep this high vibrational feeling with you throughout your day and your weekend gradually come back to your body and your space coming back to your normal breath blinking the eyes open and relaxing out of the meditation thank you for joining me have a nice Saturday