Welcome to our daily meditation.
In the Buddhist tradition,
The word metta means loving kindness.
And when you give loving kindness to yourself,
You're really in turn giving it to everyone else because of our interconnected nature.
And so in Buddhism,
They have very specific meditation practices all meant to do different things like the Shavasana is corpse meditation.
It's meant to connect you to the impermanence of the physical self of the physical body and therefore draw the focus from the self from the being to the universal love that permeates all things.
And in our metta meditation,
It is meant to draw the awareness into love for the one,
Love for the self,
And love for the many,
Love for the all.
So let's begin by finding a comfortable seat,
Placing something under the sit bones,
Finding a tall spine,
Soften the shoulders,
Relax the jaw.
Take a few moments here,
Look around,
And then close the eyes when you're ready.
Imagine yourself walking through a forest,
Imagining what the ground below your feet would look,
Feel,
And sound like,
Imagining the colors you may encounter,
What the edges of the trail would look like.
And then think about someone that's very important in your life,
Maybe this is a partner or a child,
And as you walk down this trail,
Some movement comes into view.
And as the person gets closer,
You realize it is your one great love,
Your significant important person.
And finally they make it to you and so you embrace in a big hug.
And when you part,
You look at them for a moment and say,
May you be happy,
May you be peaceful,
And may you be loved.
And slowly you begin to part.
You move down the opposite direction as you're walking and you continue down along your path,
Again noticing the ground beneath your feet,
The way the trees lean in towards the trail.
And up ahead again there's movement.
This time the person that comes into view is someone that you feel very neutral about.
You don't feel any strong feelings one way or the other,
But as they get closer you embrace in a big hug,
Feeling all sorts of feelings of love for this human being,
Experiencing the same struggle,
The same triumph,
And the same challenge as you.
And as you part,
You look at this person and you say,
May you be happy,
May you be peaceful,
And may you be loved.
As you part,
That person continues to move down the opposite direction.
And again you're walking on the same trail all by yourself,
Feeling the ground beneath your feet as you walk,
Noticing the trees that line the trail.
And up ahead again there's movement.
This time it's a child.
As this child gets closer and closer you realize it's a younger version of you.
When the child gets to you,
Give them a big hug.
Feeling this effect of pouring love from your body,
From your heart,
Into this small young more vulnerable version of yourself.
Then as you part,
You look at the child and you say,
May you be happy,
May you be peaceful,
And may you be loved.
Once you and the child part and they walk off into the opposite direction,
You're again walking down the trail by yourself,
Noticing the ground beneath your feet,
The trees that line the trail.
You come into contact,
Into awareness with your own breath.
Breathing in,
Letting go.
Breathing in and letting go.
Breathing in love,
Letting go fear,
And saying to yourself,
May you be happy,
May you be peaceful,
May you be loved.
Connecting the hands now on the heart.
The love we give to ourselves is the love that we can emanate beyond ourselves.
When we give ourselves love,
We fill our well so we have something to pull from to give to others.
Keep your wells full,
Keep your heart expansive,
And have a beautiful day.
Namaste.
