Welcome to this practice of extending loving-kindness and compassion to yourself and other living beings.
You're invited to welcome and accept whatever has brought you to this practice,
Allowing all that's here to be here.
Allowing yourself to be comfortable in your chair or on your cushion.
Sitting with a relaxed but as erect as available posture,
With your shoulders relaxed.
Sitting in a posture that allows you to be still.
Allowing your hands to rest comfortably in your lap.
Perhaps gently closing your eyes or allowing an unfocused gaze.
Settling into awareness of the body and,
If not activating,
The breath.
In this practice,
You may experience emotions.
Be open to experiencing whatever arises and allowing it as it happens.
Connecting to the seat or the floor or perhaps to the breath.
In this practice,
You're cultivating unconditional friendliness or loving-kindness,
Something we all have within us.
A sense of friendship that is unconditional.
Open.
Gentle.
Supportive.
Now allowing yourself to remember and open up to your own basic goodness.
You may recall times that you've been kind or generous.
You might recall your natural desire to be happy and not to suffer.
If acknowledging your own goodness is challenging,
Consider looking at yourself through the eyes of someone who loves and cares for you.
What does that person love about you?
Or you may recall the unconditional love you felt from a beloved pet.
It may also help to use the imagination.
Perhaps picturing yourself as a young child standing in front of you.
Perhaps when you were four or five.
If that allows tender feelings of kindness to flow more easily.
And as you experience this sense of love,
Noticing how you feel in your body.
Perhaps you feel some warmth in the body or in the face.
Perhaps a sensation of a smile.
A sense of expansiveness.
These are sensations of loving kindness.
This natural feeling that is available to all of us,
Always.
Resting with this feeling of open,
Unconditional love.
Allowing yourself to bask in the energy of loving kindness.
Breathing it in and breathing it out.
Inviting feelings of peace and acceptance.
So beginning now to wish yourself well by extending words of loving kindness to yourself.
I'll be offering the phrases that I use in my own practice.
You're invited to use whatever words express your wishes of loving kindness towards yourself and others.
I invite you to say aloud or to yourself each phrase in the pause after I say it.
May I be safe,
Free from inner and outer harm.
May I be healthy,
Free from pain and suffering.
May I be happy,
Filling with joy and gratitude.
May I live with ease.
Now you can open the circle of loving kindness by bringing to mind someone who is dear to you.
Someone whom you care about.
Someone who's always been supportive.
Bring that person to mind now.
Reflecting on this person's basic goodness.
Sensing what it is in particular that you love about this person.
In your heart,
Feel your appreciation for this dear person.
And with that person in mind,
Begin your simple offering,
Repeating after me.
May you be safe,
Free from inner and outer harm.
May you be healthy,
Free from pain and suffering.
May you be happy,
Filling with joy and gratitude.
May you live with ease.
And now you can widen the circle of loving kindness even further by bringing to mind someone who you are familiar or an acquaintance with.
Someone you might see from time to time or often,
But don't know very well.
It can be anyone you've met or interacted with.
Bring this person to mind now.
And repeat the words of loving kindness after me.
May you be safe,
Free from inner and outer harm.
May you be healthy,
Free from pain and suffering.
May you be happy,
Filling with joy and gratitude.
May you live with ease.
Now,
Allowing your awareness to open out in all directions.
Yourself,
A dear one,
An acquaintance,
A stranger.
Out to any and all beings,
Humans and all living things everywhere.
Living in richness or poverty.
In war or peace.
In hunger or abundance.
With awareness of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience,
Repeat after me.
May all beings be safe,
Free from inner and outer harm.
May all beings be healthy,
Free from pain and suffering.
May all beings be happy,
Filling with joy and gratitude.
May all beings live with ease.
And now,
Bringing this practice to a close by coming back to extend loving kindness to yourself.
Sitting for a while and basking in the energy of loving kindness that may have been generated here in your practice.
At the sound of the bells,
May you find the energy remains even as the rings fade.
