Loving Kindness Meditation

Cultivating the aspiration of peace, ease, and freedom from suffering for all beings (including ourselves).

Transcript

Loving-kindness meditation.

Begin by taking three long,

Deep,

And slow,

Intentional breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Next,

Bring your awareness into your heart center.

Don't think about this area,

Which is located in the center of your chest,

But instead simply place your awareness there.

And as you do,

You may begin to experience some semblance of warmth,

Maybe a tingling sensation,

Or any other qualities that can be attributed to love.

Or you might not feel anything at all,

And that's fine too.

But we're going to take a moment just to bring our awareness there and really anchor into our heart center,

Because the majority of this practice will be coming from this place.

So go ahead and just take a moment,

Again,

Not thinking about the center of your chest or your heart chakra area,

But rather just placing your awareness there.

Now,

As you continue breathing,

And with your awareness in your heart center,

Imagine that it's actually your heart that is doing the breathing.

This can be a little strange for people at first,

So I just suggest going to this with an open mind and a gentleness,

And just imagine that it is your heart that is doing the breathing in and out through your chest.

Some people have said that imagining there's a little nose on their heart has helped them to anchor into this part of the practice.

So feel free to try that or not,

But we'll just take a few moments and really holding our awareness in our heart center and imagining our heart is doing the breathing.

Now,

From our heart center,

We're going to send love to ourselves,

And as we do,

We are going to make the following aspiration,

May I be at peace,

May I be at ease,

May I be free from suffering.

May I be at peace,

May I be at ease,

May I be free from suffering.

We're going to take a moment or two to really anchor into this,

So we'll sit in quiet and just focus on sending love from your heart center to yourself and truly saying that aspiration,

May I be at peace,

May I be at ease,

May I be free from suffering,

From a sincere place as you possibly can.

Next in the practice,

We bring to mind what's considered a loving person,

And this can be,

For example,

A spouse or a parent,

A child,

Even a loving pet,

Someone that you have very strong loving feelings towards.

And if you're able to bring an image of this person to your mind,

Go ahead and do so,

Or if you find that it's difficult,

That's okay too.

Just bring in an awareness of who this person is,

And from your heart center,

Again,

We're going to send this person love,

Making the aspiration,

May you be at peace,

May you be at ease,

May you be free from suffering.

May you be at peace,

May you be at ease,

May you be free from suffering.

And we'll just go ahead and sit in this loving intention for a moment.

Next,

We're going to bring to mind what's considered a positive person,

And this is possibly a relative or a friend,

Someone that also would have the loving qualities of the last person we used,

But is not quite as close to us.

So maybe it could be a sibling,

Or maybe a cousin,

Or a dear friend.

Anyone that you attribute positive qualities to is completely applicable.

And so when you have that person in your mind,

We'll make the same aspiration from our heart center.

May you be at peace,

May you be at ease,

May you be free from suffering.

And we'll go ahead and sit in that for another moment,

Just sending love to this person as sincerely as we can.

Next,

We're going to bring to the practice what's considered a neutral person.

Now this could be,

For example,

A barista at our local coffee shop,

Or perhaps a mailman or woman,

Or someone we see somewhat frequently on the street or in a store.

Chances are we might not even know this person's name,

And that's fine.

We'll just bring our awareness to this person,

And again we'll make the same loving aspiration to them as we've made to everyone so far.

May you be at peace,

May you be at ease,

May you be free from suffering.

And we'll take another moment to rest in this loving intention,

Sending it to this person from our heart center.

Now we're going to bring to mind what's considered a difficult person.

And this does not have to be the most difficult person in your life,

Or your arch nemesis,

But anyone who,

When you think of them,

It does bring up some kind of negative or uneasy qualities in you.

This could be a co-worker or a boss,

It could be an in-law.

Again,

Anyone that elicits any kind of uneasiness in you is perfectly applicable for this part of the practice.

And as we make this loving aspiration towards this person,

It can be tough for a lot of people,

Especially when there is this negative connotation around them.

But I encourage you to do your best to try and send this loving kindness to them as sincerely as you have to everyone we've worked with so far.

And so from our heart center,

Again,

We extend the aspiration,

May you be at peace,

May you be at ease,

May you be free from suffering.

And we'll rest here for another moment.

Now we bring everyone that we've worked with in this practice into a room together.

So imagine we are standing there amongst the loved one,

The positive one,

The neutral one,

And the difficult one.

And as we do,

We make the aspiration,

May we be at peace,

May we be at ease,

May we be free from suffering.

And as we do,

We continue to send this loving kindness from our heart center,

And we'll rest here for another moment.

And now we're going to send this loving kindness out from just the people we've worked with to the entire world.

So you can imagine either a glowing white or yellow light coming out of your chest and slowly making its way so that it covers your entire city and then your entire state,

Then continuing to cover your entire country and the surrounding countries until the entire earth is covered in this white or yellow light.

And from there,

We're going to extend this light out into the farthest reaches of the universe so that all that's left is this light,

And from this place of pure loving awareness,

We make the final aspiration,

May all beings be at peace,

May all beings be at ease,

May all beings be free from suffering.

Om.

Reviews

Powerful! Thanks

Best metta I've found yet. Simple and effective. Great voice and energy.

I love your work so much. You have the softest voice. Just wish the recordings weren't so jammed and rushed.

Love this one. His voice is lovely and everything is just 'right'. Thanks Chris

Thank you for this beautiful space for loving kindness 🙏💟

This was really great. Thank you for sharing. 💝💔🦋💖🙏🏼🌺

This meditation has the helpful feature of loving kindness toward people we have difficulty with.
Thank you Chris Grosso for that feature.

Very nice! Such an important practice for oneself and all beings. Thank you!

Really enjoyed this one. Great pauses and instruction.

Wonderfully done.

Thank you- feel connected to myself and others 💜💚💛

One if the best Ive had the pleasure to follow along to.

Ends too quick but nice

My favorite loving kindness meditation so far!

Lovely. Just lovely. Thank you for your words.

I really felt it...really good short meditation :)

Very nice thank you Chris