Loving-kindness meditation or metta,
As it is said in the Pali language of the Buddha,
Is a meditation that cultivates our intention to meet people and the world with a sense of kindness and friendliness as the baseline for how we relate to the world and ourselves.
Love,
Kindness,
Friendliness,
And compassion are all an implicit part of mindfulness practice.
With the loving-kindness meditation practice,
Our focal point of the meditation is on placing our attention on what it's like to be fully present with ourselves and our sense of others with an intention,
A wish,
Of relating to ourselves and to others with warmth and kindness.
It's not that we're trying to feel differently or trying to achieve a specific result,
But rather it's the intention that we wish to behave in that way that can help cultivate that to come naturally to us.
It's important to remember with the loving-kindness practice this fact that there's no right way to feel.
That as we go through this practice and say to ourselves different phrases that are intended to help put us in touch with the wish or the intention for kindness and goodwill,
That if there's resistance or if a feeling of warmth or kindness doesn't arise,
We can simply notice,
Maybe we notice what gets in the way or we can just settle on the intention and we can notice as we do in the mindfulness practice body reactions,
Sensations,
Emotions,
Thoughts,
And just open to the experience of them.
Over time,
If you work with this practice regularly and experience these reactions in a kind-hearted attention,
The energy will gradually transform into loving-kindness.
So the way this meditation will be taught is to use some traditional phrases coming from the Buddhist tradition of loving-kindness.
You can feel free to alter these phrases in any way that you like to make them your own and use whichever phrases resonate with you.
The basic phrases are,
May I be safe from harm?
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
And may I live with ease?
So perhaps beginning with ourselves,
Even though it's sometimes most challenging to offer kindness and friendliness to ourselves,
Still in the spirit of this practice,
In the spirit of how helpful it is to develop love for ourselves and caring for ourselves,
Let's start with ourself.
So bringing yourself to mind and maybe an image of yourself,
Could even be an image of yourself as a child,
And offering yourself these wishes.
May I be happy?
May I be safe and free from harm?
May I be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible?
And may I live with ease and well-being?
And just allowing those words to resonate with you and saying them silently to yourself or your own version of those words.
The four key qualities are of safety,
Happiness,
Health,
And ease and well-being.
And now shifting to bring to mind someone who you love or you have loved.
They may be alive or they may no longer be with us,
But someone who you could easily feel love towards.
And this may be someone like a pet.
So allowing that being to come to mind as fully as you can,
Imagining that they are right here with you.
And then silently offering these phrases to them and noticing what effect it has in you.
May you be safe and protected and free from harm.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you live with ease and well-being.
And so just whatever your responses are,
Just noticing how it is.
Perhaps enjoying the sense of warmth and love and care or noticing there's some neutrality or lack of feeling and knowing that's okay.
It's just how you're experiencing it right now.
And then bringing to mind someone who is neutral to you.
Maybe it's someone that you see who delivers the newspaper or your mail or you see on the bus.
Someone who you don't really speak with that in any detailed way.
So you're kind of neutral towards them.
Bringing this person to mind and offering them these wishes.
May you be safe and protected and free from harm.
May you be happy just as you are.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you live with ease and well-being.
Just noticing how it is to offer this being.
These wishes of well-being and care.
And then if you'd like to perhaps offering these wishes to all beings in the city that you live in.
Just expanding it in any way you wish.
Your neighborhood,
Your city,
Your country or even the whole earth.
May you be safe and protected from harm.
May you be happy just as you are.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you live with ease and well-being.
Noticing how offering these words to this expanded group of beings affects you.
And perhaps coming back to yourself.
Or if you wish coming back to someone who you love.
And again offering these phrases.
May you be safe and protected and free from harm.
May you be happy just as you are.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you experience ease and well-being.
Just bringing to mind anyone you wish to offer these wishes to.
One being,
All beings.
May you be safe and protected and free from harm.
May you be happy just as you are.
May you be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May you live with ease and well-being.
And in closing this practice,
No matter how it has been for you,
Acknowledging this intention that you're setting to approach yourself and approach all beings with a sense of kindness and care.
And knowing that with regular practice,
These feelings and intentions will shift and change how you feel and how you are in your life.
I wish you well.
