So,
Today's request was for the Loving-Kindness Meditation,
Otherwise known as the Metta Meditation.
It's a very powerful meditation that I've found to be very helpful over the years.
I'll explain it first,
And then I'll guide you through it.
You're going to need four things,
Or four people,
Including yourself,
For this Metta Meditation.
So,
There's you.
Person number two is a loved one.
Person number three is a stranger,
Or someone that you don't have a strong connection to.
And then the fourth person is an enemy,
Or someone that,
In your mind,
Troubles you.
So,
You're going to need to decide,
First,
Who those four people are going to be.
So,
The first one's you,
So that's easy.
Second one is a loved one,
So that can be your spouse or partner or a family member or someone that you're in love with,
Or someone that you love deeply.
The third one is a neutral person,
So a lot of the times when I'm doing this meditation,
The neutral person for me will be somebody that I've perhaps interacted with in the previous 24 hours.
It could be someone in a store that helped me for a minute or two to find something,
Or the cashier at the grocery store,
Or just a person that I ran into in the coffee shop who I didn't know,
But we may have had a brief interaction,
So a neutral person.
And then the fourth person is,
For lack of a better description,
Someone that you despise,
Or someone that you perceive as an enemy.
Yeah,
So I'll leave it at that.
So,
When we go through the meditation,
We're going to have to recall those four people.
You begin with yourself,
Then you move to a loved one,
Then you move to the neutral person,
Then you move toward the tough person,
You know,
The enemy,
A person that you perhaps despise,
And we go through a set of four,
Let's call them well wishes,
For each individual person beginning with yourself.
So just take a moment to identify in your mind,
You know yourself,
A loved one,
Bring a loved one to mind,
Think of a neutral person,
And then think of an enemy.
Once you have those four in your mind,
Then you can begin the meditation,
And I will lead you through the meditation next.
So I'm going to close my eyes,
I suggest that you find a comfortable seat and close your eyes also.
And we begin by taking a deep inhale,
Filling up the lungs completely,
And then exhaling,
Relaxing completely.
And then all of the things that I say,
You'll just repeat them silently in your mind.
So person number one is you.
So you would say,
May I be safe.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Relax.
May I be happy.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Relax.
May I be healthy.
Inhale,
And as you exhale,
Relax.
And then may I be free from suffering.
Take an inhale,
And exhale,
Relax.
Now for person number two,
You're going to bring to mind a loved one.
So again,
It can be a spouse,
Partner,
Family member,
Or somebody else that you feel love for.
Bring that person to mind,
And then silently in your mind,
I'm going to use the word or the name Barbara for my loved one.
And then in your mind,
You'll say,
May Barbara be safe.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Relax.
And again,
To be clear,
You're using your loved one,
Not mine,
Not Barbara,
Unless it's a coincidence.
And then in your mind,
May Barbara be happy.
Inhaling,
Exhale,
Relax.
Next,
May Barbara be healthy.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Relax.
And finally,
May Barbara be free from suffering.
Inhaling and exhaling.
Next we'll move on to the third person,
That neutral person.
Person who you don't necessarily love,
Or you don't necessarily despise.
Just a neutral person.
Perhaps today I'll use the person that made my coffee at the coffee shop yesterday,
Chuck.
And we begin silently in your mind.
May Chuck be safe.
Inhaling and exhaling.
May Chuck be happy.
Inhaling and exhaling.
May Chuck be healthy.
Inhaling,
Exhaling.
And finally,
May Chuck be free from suffering.
Inhaling and exhaling.
Next we come to a person that we despise,
Or an enemy.
So perhaps you feel that someone has wronged you,
And you may be angry,
Or maybe someone that perhaps holds a completely different political view from your own.
Just bring to mind that that's someone that's a problem,
Let's say.
And then we'll move to the fourth part of the meditation with this person.
Once you have that person in your mind,
And you have their name,
May so-and-so be safe.
Inhaling,
Exhale,
Relax.
May so-and-so be happy.
Inhale,
And as you exhale,
Relax.
May so-and-so be healthy.
Inhale,
And exhale.
And may so-and-so be free from suffering.
Inhaling,
And exhaling.
Just sit quietly for a moment,
Noticing how you feel right now,
And then maybe blinking the eyes open.
So meditation is quite simple.
It might take you a few times to memorize the order of yourself,
A loved one,
A neutral person,
And an enemy.
But once you have that memorized,
It becomes a pretty easy meditation to do.
It does not take a lot of time,
But it's very powerful.
And the loved ones can change day-to-day if you're doing this meditation every day.
It takes just a few minutes,
But it is extremely powerful.
So the loved one can change every day.
If you've got different,
Perhaps,
Family members or people that you love dearly,
Those people can change every day.
Again,
The neutral person can change every day,
And you don't even have to know the neutral person's name.
It might have just been someone you had a brief interaction with that you can call an image in your mind of them.
And then finally,
The person you despise or your enemy,
And sometimes those people can change too.
I've got a short list of half a dozen people that irritate me one way or another,
Or have for many years.
And I just rotate through them for that fourth part.
So I hope you enjoyed this.
If you have any questions,
Please get in touch,
And I'm happy to work with you on any aspect of your meditation practice.
