Hello and welcome back to our loving kindness meditation.
Just as our mindfulness meditation helps us to develop focus and is like a muscle that we can improve with practice,
Our metta meditation,
Loving kindness,
Helps us develop compassion.
The more we exercise our compassion muscle,
The stronger it becomes.
And as we start sending love through our practice of meditation,
We start seeing all beings as deserving of love.
All beings are our brothers and all beings are our sisters.
Even those we may feel challenged by are our family.
So let's keep this level of compassion at the forefront of our practice today.
So as you come to take your comfortable seat,
Go ahead and ground down through your sits bones and feel yourself connecting down into the earth.
Allow that energy to start to flow up through your spine all the way up to the top of your head,
Feeling yourself grounded and lifted at the same time.
Begin to draw the lower belly in slightly and begin to allow the chest to open and expand.
Lengthen through the back of your neck and allow your chin to draw back slightly so that the ears may rest over the shoulders and then feeling the shoulders relax down the back body.
Feel free to take a mudra of your choice and as you are ready,
You may close down your eyes if you haven't already.
Make any adjustments now so that for the rest of your practice,
You may stay still.
From this place of alignment and stability,
See if you can track your next couple of breaths entirely,
Feeling every part of every inhalation and every part of every exhalation,
Feeling how the breath moves through the body without any particular breathing technique.
Use your natural breath to deepen your state of relaxation.
Notice if there's any tension anywhere in the body and allow that tension to move with the breath,
Perhaps dissolving,
Releasing,
Letting go.
Now take a moment to feel your body without scanning and without concentrating on any particular part of your body.
See if you can feel the entirety of your body simultaneously.
Be aware of your whole body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
Your whole body is sitting and you are aware of the whole body sitting.
Stay in this place of stillness and maintain your concentration for the next few moments on the whole body together.
Now allow all observations to merge into one unified experience.
Merely observe.
Pay attention to your entire field of awareness.
Notice any thoughts,
Any feelings,
Any sounds,
Or any sensations that appear for you.
Know that you are not identifying with anything that arises,
But you are simply observing everything,
Everything in the field of consciousness.
Simply observe.
As we prepare to move into our Metta meditation practice,
We will consciously dedicate this practice to all beings everywhere.
Now we begin by visualizing a ball of light at our heart center.
See clearly in your mind's eye a ball of light radiating from your heart.
See the light in detail.
See its brilliance.
Perhaps it has a particular color.
Notice your sensory experience of this light.
Feel its illumination.
Look closely.
Experience the feeling of light resonating at your heart.
Now with each inhalation,
Imagine the ball growing within your heart space.
And with each exhalation,
See the light relaxing and settling in.
As you inhale again,
The ball of light grows a bit larger than before.
And as you exhale,
It relaxes into its new expanded state.
Inhaling,
The ball of light grows larger.
Exhaling,
The ball of light settles into its present state.
Inhaling,
The ball of light expands through every cell and tissue of your body.
Exhaling,
You feel the light vibrating in each cell of your being.
Inhaling,
The light now encompasses your entire body.
And exhaling,
This light settles into your entire auric field.
Stay here for a few breaths as you feel the essence of love at the heart center as the nucleus of this growing globe of light.
Continue to visualize the ball growing with each inhalation and settling and relaxing with each exhalation.
See the light expanding from your heart.
As you imagine this ball growing even bigger,
See it now encompassing your entire home.
Grow the ball of light even bigger now to encompass your village or your town.
Allow your light to grow out to the whole country in which you live.
Imagine every being,
Every human,
Every animal basking in this light that emanates out of your chest,
Out of your heart.
Bathe the entire country with love and light.
Let the ball grow even bigger now.
With each inhalation,
It soars around the globe until the entire planet is covered in the light emanating out of your heart.
See the light cascade down upon all beings like rain falling from the sky.
Imagine how much joy these beings are receiving as they are encompassed by your love.
Let every inhalation allow you access to encompass more space,
To expand even more light.
Keep breathing in,
Expanding your light,
And breathing out,
Settling in to that expansive state.
Now leaving the ball of light right here where it is in place,
Pulsating gently with each breath,
This vibrant,
All-pervading light can stay here and continue to do its work.
At this time,
You will bring your awareness back,
Back into your heart center.
Feel your center.
Feel the glow from your heart.
Feel your body centered,
Strong,
And present.
Know that you are the center of the central sun.
Stay connected to this light.
Feel the essence of this light decree.
I am light,
Glowing light,
Radiating light,
Intensified light,
Consuming any darkness,
Transmuting it into light.
This day,
I am a focus of the central sun.
Flowing through me is a crystal river,
A living fountain of light that can never be qualified by human thought or feeling.
I am an outpost of the divine.
Any darkness that has used me is now swallowed up by the mighty river of light that I am.
I am.
I am.
I am light.
I live.
I live.
I live in light.
I am light's fullest dimension.
I am light's purest intention.
I am light,
Light,
Light,
Flooding the world everywhere I move,
Blessing,
Strengthening,
And conveying the essence of pure,
Pure light.
I am.
As we close today's metta meditation,
Please know that this can be practiced regularly.
The more we practice,
The more compassion we will cultivate within ourselves.
This,
In turn,
Will cascade out of us and bring greater well-being to ourselves and to all living beings everywhere.
You are welcome to slowly open your eyes here or you may continue to sit with this metta meditation for as long as you would like.
May the light of compassion that we have cultivated today continue to penetrate the souls of all beings and may all beings everywhere be happy,
Peaceful,
And free.
Loka Samastah Suki no Bhavantu.
Thank you so much for your practice today.
Thank you so much for sharing your light,
And I will look forward to sitting with you again in our next session.
Namaste.
