All of Us - Guided Metta Meditation

Bhante Jayasara leads a thirty minute guided meditation using "exalted metta". Read more about Metta here on my website.

Transcript

As always,

We take time to set ourselves up physically in a comfortable position.

Whatever comfortable position works for you for an extended period of time.

Making sure that the back is erect but not tight.

Following the natural curvature of the spine.

And while we're putting ourselves into this position,

Bring our awareness to the body.

Observe the feeling of your body as you move to set yourself up for this meditation.

Look at the balance of your upper body.

Are you already leaning?

Something very small in the beginning becomes very large 30 minutes from now.

So we want to be aware of how our body is positioned.

We don't want our body to take up too much of our time taking us away from our object of meditation.

So we take three deep breaths.

As we tear on in,

We let our breath go.

Let it do what it does naturally.

We only wish to spend time with our breath.

Observe it.

We don't wish to control it.

We just want to observe breathing in,

Breathing out.

Put your awareness onto that activity.

We remind ourselves to put down our responsibilities,

Our burdens.

As we hold our world on our back,

On our shoulders.

Just for the time of this meditation,

We let go and put the burden down.

If any fear or anxiety arises from letting go,

It's okay.

It's showing you your craving.

Remind yourself that you're only doing this for this meditation.

There will be plenty of time to pick the burden back up after.

When a thought arises,

Normally when we're unmindful,

We just get swept away.

When we're mindful,

We can observe this thought arising and make the choice not to become attached to it.

Not to try to push it away either.

It arose of its own accord.

And we can let it go away of its own accord.

And continue focusing on our breath,

Our home.

As we practice coming back to the breath,

We might begin to notice calm arise.

Then we may begin to see the different characteristics of the breath.

Is the breath long and deep?

Short and shallow?

You investigate the breath in this way.

The more you see,

The more interesting the breath is,

The less likely you'll be taken away from it.

Try to follow the full cycle of the breath.

Breathing in,

What is happening in the pause between?

Breathing out,

What is happening in the pause between?

Try to follow that full cycle.

Wherever it leads you,

The nostrils,

The chest,

Diaphragm,

Wherever.

Breathing out,

What is happening in the pause between?

Breathing out,

What is happening in the pause between?

Continue to follow your breath as I speak of how to practice metta.

In metta practice we use words and visuals.

You may find that words work for you and visuals do not,

Or the opposite.

The words and the visuals do not matter.

They bring you to the feeling of goodwill.

Feeling that you would not want to harm any being.

A feeling of safety,

Security,

And friendship.

In your own practice you use the words and visuals however you wish to develop this feeling.

To develop this mind state.

We begin by practicing metta for the person we most often criticize.

We most often judge.

We most often have negative feelings towards.

That person is ourselves.

We always practice developing feelings of goodwill for ourselves first.

We cannot have goodwill for others if we hate ourselves.

For many people this is the hardest part of metta.

It's very easy in our lives to get lost in fixing other people,

Helping other people.

Distracting and avoiding helping ourselves while we help others.

We need to spend time helping ourselves.

Taking care of ourselves.

Becoming our own best friend.

When this happens you're never lonely.

Because you're never with company you don't like.

And you can have that goodwill and share it with others.

So we can say these words of metta for ourselves.

May I find happiness.

May I find peace.

May I live in friendship with all beings.

May I find release from suffering.

Positive self talk is very important.

And developing that friendship with yourself.

Remind yourself of the good things that you do.

You don't have to remind yourself of all the negative things.

Because you never forget those.

You harp on yourself about these all of the time.

If you'd like to use a visual I like to use like looking at myself in the mirror seeing an image of myself smiling in front of me.

In your own daily practice or whenever you practice metta I suggest spending a good amount of time in this initial stage.

Here our time is short so we must move on.

You can imagine from yourself a sphere.

A sphere that grows ever larger.

Pervading your goodwill limitless goodwill.

To all beings at this monastery.

From the smallest to the largest.

Human beings.

Animals.

Even non-human beings.

Whether you believe in them or not it doesn't matter.

Don't limit your goodwill.

Whatever beings are in this monastery.

May they find happiness.

May they find peace.

May they live in friendship with each other.

May they find release from suffering.

Continue to grow your sphere pervading metta to encompass the entirety of this state.

Visually you can if you know what this state looks like wherever you're at you can put that state in your mind.

And encapsulated by your sphere of metta.

May all of us in this state find happiness.

May all of us find peace.

May all of us live in friendship with each other.

May all of us find release from suffering.

Grow your metta to encompass the entirety of the United States.

All beings.

Race doesn't matter.

Gender doesn't matter.

Political affiliation does not matter.

Nothing matters.

This is limitless goodwill.

All beings in the United States.

May they find happiness.

May they find peace.

May they live in friendship with each other.

May they find release from suffering.

Even those little spiders and bugs that you don't like.

Don't limit your metta.

Metta does not mean that we want to love and to hug everybody.

It means that we would not want to harm them.

We want to wish them to have peace and happiness.

To find this.

And to do good things that lead to peace and happiness.

We don't expect that the world will change.

Everybody will hold hands across the world.

That's not what metta is about.

Metta is about abandoning all ill will in your mind.

Every deep dark little corner.

May all of us on this planet earth.

You can visualize the earth in your mind.

Totally encompassed by this metta.

May all of us on this planet from the largest to the smallest.

Visible and invisible.

Anywhere in any kind of existence.

Find happiness.

May they find peace.

May they live in friendship with all beings.

May they find release from suffering.

We continue to spread our metta out past the earth.

To encompass the entirety of our galaxy the Milky Way.

To encompass the entirety of our universe.

To encompass the entirety of anywhere there are beings in existence.

May all of us in existence anywhere.

In any form of existence.

Find happiness.

May all of us find peace.

May all of us live in friendship with each other.

May all of us find release from suffering.

We create categories and barriers in our lives.

Us and them.

Important and unimportant.

This type of person,

That type of person.

Metta breaks through all barriers.

It is limitless if you allow it to be.

If you only have goodwill for some people or some beings and not others.

That is not metta.

That's going along with our likes and dislikes.

Letting go of these categories allows us to let go of ill will.

Slowly and gradually in our minds.

If we practice this regularly.

Over and over again.

We will see the benefits.

No matter what is going on around you.

You can feel peace.

Safety.

Friendliness.

Friend of ill will and hatred and anger.

It's too heavy a burden for anybody to bear.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Reviews

A wonderful metta practice. Very helpful for my morning setting intention. Thank you, bhikkhu. ☺️🙏

I particularly enjoyed his wording of the metta phrases (may I find happiness, may I find peace...) and extending good will so broadly. Lovely voice and pace, too.

Great meditation. Has inspired me to start practising in a daily situation that often triggers impatience and ill will. Much Metta to you!

Great

very soothing & calm

wonderful thankyou 😊🙏

Beautiful.... really felt connection with goodwill and a oneness with life. Will practise this regularly x

Wonderful thank you.

Very calming and beautiful. A discernible ending would be nice. Still excellent.

Amazing metta practice. Grateful for this.

Soothing. Loving.

Very calming and deep meditation

A different, insightful Metta practice that gave me a new perspective on letting go of Ill Will.

This one truly challenged me because I'm someone who gets so fired up about inequality and oppression. I find that my compassion more easily flows towards marginalized people. It's hard to put aside distinctions of gender, race, class, geography, etc. But when we look at the world through a lens of suffering, all beings do suffer. Yes, certain types of suffering are disproportionately experienced by certain groups, which can be compounded by their intersecting identities, affecting how they are -- and are not -- able to exist and move around in the world. Nonetheless suffering is a common denominator for all of us. I do want joy and peace for all. I truly need to keep working on cultivating Mettā for all. How can we work towards cultivating universal Mettā while also holding space for the suffering of the most exploited and oppressed in the world? I truly struggle with this. I will revisit this one and more of Bhante J's talks and guided meditations. Thank you and much Mettā to you, Bhante J, and to anyone else who happens to read this! 🕊

Beautiful, freeing, heart opening.
Thank you🕉☯️☮

Goodwill to all. Namaste 🙏🏼🌱

Great..thank you 🙏🏻

Nice mellow Metta. Calm instructions. Breath.

Great. A sound marking the end would be nice. With Metta

Beneficial and relaxing.