Metta Or Loving-Kindness Meditation

Welcome to The Journey You Own Meditation Series with Dr. Jyothi V. Robertson.
For this guided session, Jyothi shares a metta or loving-kindness practice. Loving-kindness meditations cultivate generosity towards ourselves and others. We offer a series of phrases to ourselves, a neutral being, a challenging being, and the larger community or all beings. Over time, this practice leads to self-healing, wholeness, and kind feelings toward others.

Transcript

Hello.

Today we are going to work with the Metta practice.

In the last session we talked about Samatha,

Which is a calm,

Abiding meditation practice.

In much of the meditation that we will be doing,

We will be noticing our thoughts as they arise.

Not judging them,

Not claiming them as good or bad thoughts,

But just noting them,

Noticing them as they come.

And then returning to an anchor.

For many practices the anchor has been the breath,

The rise and fall of the chest moving,

Or the sensation of air entering and exiting the nostrils.

Sometimes it looks like counting the breath,

Counting exhalations.

But there are other anchors as well that we can turn to.

We can focus on our hands and sensations in our hands and other parts of our body.

A separate anchor may be sounds,

What we hear in the room.

Without labeling or thinking about the meaning of the sounds or getting caught up in a story about the sounds.

Just being aware of them and returning to the presence of them without the thought process related to them.

So some of these other anchors we will work with in other weeks.

Today the anchor that I would like to work with is a series of phrases.

These phrases can be modified.

They're part of a traditional practice called Metta,

Which roughly translates to loving kindness.

It is a practice which is 3,

000 years old and has become quite popularized in the 1900s and 2000s by people in the United States.

Probably the most well-known person is Sharon Salzberg and her work on loving kindness.

So Metta practice is a repetition of phrases.

It's a repetition of phrases offering generosity.

It's a giving practice and a replenishing practice.

In the traditional form of Metta,

Generosity or these phrases are repeated first for yourself with the idea that we can most easily love or show compassion towards ourselves first.

And then we move in outer rings,

Sort of away from ourselves to offering these phrases of kindness to someone we love and to a benefactor,

Teacher,

To a neutral person,

And then to someone more challenging in our lives,

And then to all of society.

The phrases are kept relatively simple.

If they are too complex,

They might not apply to the people and the beings that you are generating these phrases for.

And if they're too complex,

You might not remember them either.

So the traditional phrases that are used are,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be safe,

May you live a life of ease.

Happy,

Healthy,

Safe,

Live a life of ease.

And there are many others.

If you have practiced Metta before and there are particular phrases that resonate with you,

I do encourage you to use those.

These are starting phrases that will have us thinking in those directions of generosity.

Now for this practice and the way that I would like to practice today,

We're not going to start with ourselves.

I find that it can actually be quite difficult to generate this level of compassion and love towards ourselves,

And that it is often simpler to choose other beings in our lives with whom we already have a relationship where we're offering these kind and generous thoughts first,

And then turning back to ourselves.

The interesting thing about Metta,

I think,

Is that it utilizes the same art of concentration that other meditation forms utilize.

And the difference is that we're resting our attention on certain phrases,

Not on the experience within our bodies.

Today,

We're going to work with this structure,

Sort of to give ourselves a container to channel energy towards giving.

And I am going to lead us first through a brief shamatha practice where we will begin with using the anchor of our breath and our body so that we have some calmness and stillness in our minds first,

So that we're present to being here in this space.

And then we will transition from the anchor of the physical world,

Right,

Of the breath and the body,

To an anchor of the mental world,

Which is imagining a loved one or benefactor,

Someone who we think highly of,

Who has maybe supported us in the past,

Who we may or may not know,

But who we've always felt a strong affinity for.

And this could be any being.

It can be a human,

It can be an animal in our lives.

Choose a being that makes you smile when you think about that being.

So it's someone you feel that sense of generosity naturally towards.

So we will bring up the image of that being,

And then I will ask you to choose a neutral being,

Someone you may have passed at the grocery store or that you saw,

You know,

At the dog park.

And while you're thinking of these phrases,

And while you're repeating the phrases,

The practice is really taking your time with them and connecting with them.

From a neutral person,

Today we will go to all beings,

Sort of a universal community that you may choose or something more expansive.

And then I will ask you to turn that back in towards yourself.

And we will end our practice by offering these same phrases to ourselves.

Now,

Just another word about metta is that I have heard in classes and courses that I've taken over the years that,

You know,

It often feels very superficial to be just repeating these series of phrases.

You know,

We may or may not connect with the words.

And what I've learned over the years is that when you're in the practice,

It may not appear to be something transformative,

Something that's actually making you feel like you're connecting with those beings or with yourself.

It may feel like a repetitive mantra or something that you repeat over and over.

And at the same time,

Many people have talked about how it's impacted their lives outside of the sitting meditation.

So when they're in their everyday lives,

How it shows up that by having practiced this in their homes,

This idea of giving generosity,

That it really creates and emphasizes the interconnected nature of all our lives and of our beings.

And I think this is especially important for those of us who are working in these mission-driven areas,

Who are working with animals and humans alike,

Who see that interconnected nature and have this innate generosity and compassion,

And also sometimes that overwhelm that shows up.

So this practice helps create that container to channel some of those thoughts,

Those energies in the sitting practice,

Which then can show up when we are practicing in our day-to-day.

So let us begin.

Let us begin by taking three deep purging breaths,

Inhaling through your nose and on exhalation,

Settling into your body,

Into being here in this space.

Notice any areas of tension and breathe into these areas,

Adjusting your posture as necessary so that you can balance having energy and also being relaxed.

Allow your breath to return to a natural rhythm.

Choose an area of the body to focus on as you breathe.

It may be the rising and falling of your chest.

Our practice is to see our thoughts as they arise,

Letting go of them and then returning to the breath or the body or your anchor.

So let us take a moment together to sit and breathe while maintaining a relaxed,

Interested attention on what arises and discovering what the breath is like as a changing experience of sensations.

I invite you to be gentle with yourself as you notice the thoughts arising.

Return to the sensations in your body.

Relax the area around your jaws and your neck,

Your eyes,

If they are closed,

The area under your eyes.

Notice any tightness in your shoulders or your back and breathe into those areas.

If you find your thoughts to be pervasive,

You may consider counting your exhalations to offer you more focused attention and awareness on the present moment.

You can count to ten and then return back down.

Well,

Now let us transition from the anchor of the body to the anchor of the mind and phrases of medha.

We will begin by bringing to mind a benefactor or loved one.

This is a being that has always supported you or whom you admire.

It can be an animal in your life or a person who has been a constant companion.

Someone that brings that lightness and smile to your face.

When you have that image of this being in your mind,

I invite you to offer the following phrases or phrases that you have chosen.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe and may you live a life of ease.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live a life of ease.

Continue to repeat these phrases slowly and with intention.

Now allow that image of this being to slowly dissipate and bring to mind a neutral person.

Someone whom you may have passed in the street,

Whom you saw at the coffee shop and offer the same phrases to this neutral person.

May you be happy,

Healthy,

Safe and live a life of ease.

If you notice your mind telling stories about this being or other thoughts arising,

Bring your attention and awareness back to the phrases and back to the sensations you're experiencing with generating these phrases.

And now allow this image of this being to also dissipate and bring to mind a community of beings,

Perhaps all beings.

You may see it as the world,

As a neighborhood and offer these same phrases to this community.

May all beings be happy,

Healthy,

Safe and live a life of ease.

Now imagine this group,

This community,

The world surrounding you.

This can be you now as an adult or if it's easier for you,

You can imagine yourself as a child or an adolescent.

You can see yourself looking at yourself and offer these same phrases to yourself.

Feeling the warmth and the generosity that you have generated for others and turning that now inwardly.

May I be happy,

May I be healthy,

May I be safe,

May I live a life of ease.

Repeat these phrases for yourself.

Let go of any judgment or thoughts that might be arising and generate these phrases authentically in a gentle and soft manner to practice that generosity of spirit to yourself as you have done for others.

May I be happy,

Healthy,

Safe and live a life of ease.

Notice any physical sensations in your body as you repeat these phrases for yourself.

In a moment you'll hear the bell ring designating the end of this meditation.

I ask that you sit even after hearing it for a few moments and allow yourself to come back slowly.