Loving-Kindness For Neutral Person

When cultivating loving kindness, it's helpful to experiment with a range of relationships. The Neutral Person is someone you don't know well on a personal level. However you may cross paths with them regularly in your life. The person who sells you coffee, or who cleans the streets, picks up the garbage, or maybe it's a parent at your school. It doesn't really matter who it is - the intention is to open our heart equally to everyone.

Transcript

Loving kindness for the neutral person. Deep down we're all the same. Next we'll focus on offering loving kindness to someone who we don't know well and don't have strong feelings for. You might ask why bother? Cultivating loving kindness and compassion for a quote neutral person is an opportunity to fall in love with everyone. Instead of simply sticking with the people who you care most about, You can embrace everyone equally. Regardless on how close your personal relationship is, Regardless of their skin color or a socioeconomic class, Regardless of where they live or how much money they make or even how they make their living. What if you truly loved everyone you met all the time? How would it be to live a life of limitless goodwill and connection? Why not give it a try? For this exercise, Bring to mind someone who you run into periodically but don't really know. Maybe you know their name, Maybe not. Perhaps you buy your coffee from them in the morning or they deliver your mail or they drive the bus that you get on or they live nearby but you have never spent time together or maybe it's someone at work that you cross paths in the hallway but you don't really know where they exactly work in your building and what their name is and what their job is. Choose a specific person for this exercise so that you can clearly bring their image to mind. This person is neither your friend nor your enemy. Bring their image to mind offering them loving kindness, Wishes for their well-being. You can try doing this through imagery envisioning them as happy and contented at ease in their life. Imagining that everything's going well for them and that that may continue and grow more. So it's not coming from a place of envy or jealousy, It's coming from a place of open-hearted goodwill wishing the best for them. May they know ease in this lifetime. Or you can simply share the feeling of boundless love as in the previous exercise with the mentor, The friend. Or you can return to the phrases saying to them internally, May you be safe, May you be happy, May you be peaceful. Adjusting the phrases as feels appropriate. With the neutral person sometimes we get bored easily so try and stay with it for a few minutes. Recognizing that all living beings have the same aspirations. Somewhere we all wish to be safe, To be happy, To be peaceful, To be at ease. We don't need to limit our wishes for well-being to those we are close to. We can open our hearts to allow for all beings to be at ease. Focusing on the neutral person, This person that you come into contact with can be even daily but you just don't really know them. Offering them wishes for their well-being. May you be safe, Happy, Peaceful. May you know ease in this lifetime. And we'll end there.