Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness) - Ksantikara

A guided Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness) practice with Ksantikara.
In this practice, we send well-wishing to ourselves, a friend, a neutral person, a difficult person, and eventually all other sentient beings. Taught by the Buddha 2500 years ago, the practice of cultivating Metta can help us learn to respond empathically with all people, recognising a common wish among us to be happy and free from suffering.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Kshantikara and I'm once again talking to you from the basement shrine room at the London Buddhist Centre.

Hopefully you've tried a few of these guided meditations by now so you'll know to sit comfortably perhaps on a chair and also to either turn your phone off or to put it on to do not disturb.

We'll be meditating together for about 25 minutes and this time we'll be exploring the metta bhavana.

So the metta bhavana is an ancient meditation practice handed down to us over thousands of years from the Buddha himself.

It translates roughly as something like the cultivation of loving kindness.

Metta could be translated as love,

Bhavana as the bringing into being or the making of.

The metta bhavana,

The making of love.

So what we'll be doing over this 25 minute meditation is bringing to mind different people in our imagination.

We start by coming into contact with ourselves and then we bring to mind a good friend.

Now some of us will have quite visual minds.

If I ask you to bring to mind a good friend you might really be able to see them in your mind's eye.

But even if you can't do that you can definitely bring to mind the presence of a good friend.

If I said to you now think of a red bus you are able to do it.

So in this way we bring to mind a good friend,

Hold them in our experience and notice the response.

I'll guide us through it while we do it.

So we start with ourselves then we bring to mind a good friend.

After that we bring to mind a neutral person.

So this is someone,

Perhaps a colleague,

Perhaps a friend of a friend,

Someone we know a little,

Someone definitely in our lives but we're not particularly interested in them.

We don't know them very well and neither do we really want to get to know them to be honest.

After the neutral person we bring to mind an enemy,

Someone that causes us pain,

Someone that hurts us,

Frustrates us,

Makes us angry,

Someone we maybe wish didn't exist.

Sometimes we call the enemy stage a difficult person.

So if that helps you can think of a difficult person in this stage.

As the metta bhavana comes to a conclusion we bring to mind ourselves,

The good friend,

The neutral person and the enemy.

We see if we can hold these people in our awareness all at the same time and wish them well.

And then we expand slowly to include more and more people.

Starting with ourselves,

Our good friend,

The neutral person and the enemy,

We can start to include the people we live with,

The people in our street,

The people in London,

The people in the world.

Perhaps you can start to think of your friends,

Your family,

Friends of friends,

Friends of friends of friends.

And in this way in the metta bhavana we actively bring to our awareness more and more people.

We notice our response and we wish them well.

So I'm going to guide us through this and all you need to do right now is close your eyes.

With your eyes closed you can immediately start to settle into your posture.

Sinking down into the ground,

Really allowing the floor or the chair to take your weight.

Sinking down into the ground while rising into the sky.

In a few moments I'll guide us through the metta bhavana meditation but for the time being let's start by coming into our bodies.

We can start with the muscles of our face.

Is there tightness around your eyes or your mouth?

Are you clenching your jaw?

See if you can smooth that out.

Let that go.

With your hands supported on your lap or on a cushion you can also really let go of the weight of your arms.

Widen the gap between your ear and your shoulder.

Allowing your shoulder blades to roll down your back slightly,

Opening up your chest a little bit.

Is there tension or a sense of holding on in your belly?

Many of us hold our bellies in and upwards slightly.

So just do what you can to let that go.

Combing through the experiencing of our body and letting go of tension and holding on where we can.

Notice also any tension in your legs and your thighs.

There's no need to go anywhere right now.

You can really allow the large muscles of your legs to sink into the ground.

What I'd like you to do now is to place your awareness,

To become aware of the sensations in the centre of your chest.

Here at the Buddhist centre we call this the heart centre.

Noticing the sensations,

The feeling tone of your heart centre.

What is it like to be you right now?

And then silently to ourselves we wish ourselves well.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

We drop these phrases into our experience,

Like dropping a pebble into a deep well.

And just like dropping a pebble into a deep well,

We leave a bit of space after each phrase to notice it as it drops into the waters at the very bottom.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

Dropping these phrases into your experience and noticing the effect.

Perhaps in particular noticing any sensations around the heart centre or to the development of any tension or relaxation in the rest of your life.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

And if we get distracted as we go through this meditation,

That's okay.

It's completely normal.

But when we notice we're distracted,

We congratulate ourselves for noticing.

And we could once again soften the tension in our body.

Noticing any tension in the face or the shoulders,

The belly or the thighs.

Smoothing our tension.

Returning to the sensations of our heart centre.

And once again dropping in these phrases and noticing any effect.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

May I be happy.

May I be happy.

So now we can bring to mind our good friend.

Doing what we can to evoke a sense of their presence.

Calling to mind a good friend.

But before doing anything in particular,

Notice if it has any effect on your experience.

Do you suddenly feel more interested?

Disinterested?

Does your emotional world feel buoyant or shallow?

Are there pleasant or unpleasant sensations in your heart centre or the rest of your body?

Or maybe you just notice that there's not much going on at all.

Calling to mind your good friend and taking a few moments to notice the effect.

And with this sense of our good friend very much alive,

We wish them well.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

Like dropping a pebble into a deep well and noticing the splash at the bottom.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

Using these phrases sparingly and being aware of the effect.

You don't need to try and make anything happen.

We just call our friend to mind and we wish them well.

So now let's bring to mind the neutral person.

Someone we know.

Someone in our life.

Someone in our life.

But someone that we feel indifferently towards.

Someone who provokes not much feeling at all.

Someone we don't really know.

Doing our best to call to mind a sense of this person's presence.

Staying with that presence as much as we can.

Once again taking a few moments to notice the effect and to give yourself some time to build up a sense of the neutral person's presence.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

Wishing the neutral person well.

Using these phrases sparingly in our own time and sensitive to their effect.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

May you be happy.

It's time to bring to mind the enemy.

Somebody we find difficult.

Someone that causes us pain or frustration.

A chance for us to acknowledge that we have the potential for love just as much as we have the potential for hate,

For dislike.

Calling to mind someone we dislike.

Someone who angers us,

Frustrates us or that we find difficult.

Making sure it's someone you know personally.

Somebody in your life.

Once again giving yourself a few moments to build up a sense of their presence.

Noticing the effect and then once again in your own time wishing them well.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

Holding the person in our mind,

In our hearts and wishing them well.

Maybe in this stage you find this particularly difficult or perhaps confusing.

That's fine.

Stay with the sense of the person.

Wish them well as best you can.

And notice the effect with no real need to change it or to force something into being.

And now moving into the final stage of this metta-bhavana meditation.

We gather together a sense of all four persons.

Ourselves,

Along with a sense of presence of our good friend,

The neutral person and the enemy.

Calling all four people to mind at the same time.

Seeing if we can be aware of all four persons at once.

And once again wishing them well.

May we be well.

May we be happy.

May we be free from suffering.

With all four people to mind.

May we be well.

May we be happy.

May we be free from suffering.

And then with these last few minutes,

Expanding our awareness to include more and more people.

The people we live with.

Our family.

Our friends.

The neighbours surrounding us.

The people in the street.

Expanding your awareness to include more and more people.

And as you do so,

Wishing them well.

May we be well.

May we be happy.

May we be free from suffering.

With these last few minutes,

Seeing if you can find a way to expand your awareness to include more and more people.

As you wish them well.

May we be well.

May we be happy.

May we be free from suffering.

Expanding to include more and more people.

Cultivating meta and noticing the effect.

Good.

So when you're ready,

Opening your eyes and sitting comfortably.

Good.

So when you're ready,

Opening your eyes and sitting comfortably.

Good.

So when you're ready,

Opening your eyes and sitting comfortably.

Reviews

Wonderful teaching and session

Wonderful

Perfect Loving kindness meditation as the instructions are not too intrusive and leave space for us to get a sense of the instructions. Feel so good after it. Thank you 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Safe, clear & supportive 🙏💜

I’m grateful that we included my enemy. I’ve always said I don’t wish her harm, but I still felt more free from her influence after wishing her well, happy and free from suffering. Thank you.

Really peaceful. Thank you

Great instructions and pace. Very soothing for my nervous system too. ❤️

Excellent, makes a Differenzen to my meditations before. Thanks a lot for this fresh and soft indroduction.

A very clear introduction to this practice with lots of space. Thankyou.

Thanks! Loved it! ❤️ Greetings from the Helsinki center ❤️

Love this guy!

As always, the LBC has given me more insight into my regular practice. You always enrich me and i am grateful to the Sangha and to the Dharma for these valuable gifts .

Wonderful, thank you. I especially like the way you encourage the cultivation of loving kindness by imagining a pebble dropping into a well. It made me feel a deeper connection to the energy 🙏

That was so lovely. I got a real feeling of warmth at my heart centre 💞