Loving Kindness Meditation (With Music)

Inspired by the traditional Buddhist practice of Loving Kindness or Metta, this is a timeliness meditation to open the heart and channel peace and well wishes to all sentient beings everywhere. This Loving Kindness meditation has background music. If you would prefer no music, please see the other Loving Kindness meditation on my page.

Transcript

Loving-kindness or metta meditation this is a timeless practice to open and expand the heart and channel peace and well wishes to all sentient beings everywhere meta meditation was taught by the Buddha several thousand years ago and is still practiced in many Buddhist communities to this day following meditation is based on this ancient wisdom tradition so we begin by taking a few moments to relax into a comfortable position lying down or sitting up and gently close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath noticing where you feel it most prominently entering and exiting the body and seeing if you can deepen both your inhale and your exhale long slow inhale through the nose and a gentle release out through the mouth and another long slow inhale through the nose really feeling the belly and lungs expanding outwards and then relaxing and slowly exhaling out through the mouth really feeling into the sensation of the breath as it leaves the body and one more time slowly inhaling through the nose just holding it the breath at the top here for a moment and gently release letting go letting go and coming back into a regular breath just trusting your body knows exactly how much air to let in and how much to let out bringing your attention to the top of your head see if you can give yourself a little massage with your mind's eye just relaxing all of your facial muscles softening the eyes the brow I'm clenching the jaw seeing how much you can soften all of your facial muscles really relaxing into this present moment bringing your awareness now to your heart space just taking a few intentional breaths here in and out of this space focusing your attention on the breath as it enters and exits from your heart space perhaps you can feel it expanding maybe even smiling back at your warm and loving attention you can even put your hands on your heart just want to add a little gentle touch and we begin by calling to mind visualizing someone that you love very dearly with all of your heart this can be a family member a friend or perhaps even a child or a pet and as you imagine this precious soul just take a moment to reflect on their positive qualities and attributes and with their image and likeness in your mind's eye or recite the following phrases inwardly these intentions of loving kindness towards this this dear one may you be filled with loving kindness may you be healthy peaceful and well and body mind and spirit may you be safe and protected and may you be happy and at ease and continuing to hold this this loving image of your dear one will mentally repeat these these well wishes towards them one more time may you be filled with loving kindness may you be healthy and well and body mind and spirit may you be safe and secure may you be happy truly and deeply happy and may you live with ease notice your feelings as as we're whispering softly inwardly these kind wishes towards our loved one and now we imagine that this person is looking back at us and wishing us these same loving intentions may you too be filled with loving kindness may you too be safe and protected may you too be well and healthy and body mind and spirit may you too be happy truly and deeply happy and may you live with ease and we receive these these well wishes just noticing our grateful hearts these loved ones want these same kind things for us or they're wishing us these same intentions of loving kindness and so we take them now and we direct them from ourselves towards ourselves may I be filled with loving kindness may I be safe and protected may I be healthy and well and mind body and spirit may I be happy truly and deeply happy and may I live with ease now as we've established these loving intentions for ourself we widen our circle of compassion to include others I'm calling to mind now someone whom you respect perhaps a caregiver or someone who has supported you emotionally maybe a teacher a coach and we silently repeat these same intentions of loving kindness and well wishes towards this person may you be filled with loving kindness may you be safe and secure may you be healthy and well in mind body and spirit and may you be happy truly and deeply happy and may you live with ease and now we imagine a neutral person someone you may know but have no special feelings towards perhaps say a local barista or your male person somebody at the grocery store or in a hospital a neighbor an acquaintance or someone you admire from afar and we extend these well wishes towards this person may you be filled with loving kindness may you be happy and well in mind body and spirit and may you live with ease next we imagine a difficult person in our life someone with whom we may have a more complicated relationship and as we visualize their face and extend these well wishes this circle of compassion towards them we silently wish that they too be filled with loving kindness may you be filled with loving kindness may you be safe and secure may you be healthy and well in mind body and spirit and may you be happy and may you live with ease and with our hearts expanding open even further we extend these wishes of loving kindness to all beings on the earth all sentient beings everywhere imagine almost as though you're a lighthouse just beaming out rays of sunshine and loving kindness may all beings in all forms be filled with loving kindness may all beings be safe and secure may all beings be healthy and well in mind body and spirit and may all beings everywhere be happy truly and deeply happy and may they all live with ease