It's often a good idea to start with a few minutes of shamatha.
Before we launch into love and kindness.
Having taken that time,
I'm going to lead us into.
.
.
The form of loving-kindness itself.
You can do the shamatha at your own pace.
To begin,
We start with offering loving kindness to ourselves.
If it's helpful,
You could bring to mind an image of yourself.
Perhaps how you recently saw yourself in the mirror,
How you imagine yourself to look or even.
You suspect you might have a hard time with this,
How you appeared when you were a young child.
When you have this image in mind.
See if you can soften your heart.
Towards yourself.
And we'll offer some phrases of loving kindness.
Holding this image in.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I feel safe.
May I feel peaceful.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I feel safe.
May I feel peaceful.
Once more,
Let's do this.
And then just,
Again,
Letting these phrases resonate,
Let them rest in the space.
We don't have to come up with ideas of what this means.
Just make the aspiration.
A-I-P May I be healthy.
I feel safe.
Yeah,
I feel peaceful.
Let's take a deep breath.
And as you breathe out,
Let this image dissolve for now.
We'll bring it back in a moment.
But instead we bring to mind at this point the image of someone we really love.
Family member,
Close friend,
A partner.
An animal.
Similar to before we make this role in our own mind.
Thinking of the details of it.
The way that they look,
The way that they stand or sit.
Color of their eyes,
Whatever is helpful for you to make it feel like they are in the room with you.
Holding this image of this loved one in mind,
We make the same aspirations for them.
If you would prefer to use the word.
Their name.
Way that you refer to them,
A nickname,
A David,
A Nancy.
Sweden.
Instead of that word,
You feel free to substitute that in.
But we make the same aspirations.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
May you be happy.
You be healthy.
May you feel safe.
And you feel peaceful.
One more time for this person.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
We take that deep breath and as we breathe out,
We let this person's image go.
Instead bring to mind someone.
That we don't know very well.
Someone we've sort of seen around,
Maybe they've been in our neighborhood.
Ran into them at work.
We don't have a particular affinity for them.
We don't have any gripe with them.
They just sort of seem to exist.
But even those beings,
Of course,
Want to be happy.
They want these same things.
So we bring their image to mind.
The best of your ability.
You may not know this person,
So you don't have to use it.
And just repeat after me.
And you be happy.
May you be healthy.
You feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
And you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel safe.
You feel peaceful.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
And you feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
Letting this person's image go as we take a deep breath.
We go into the difficult territory,
Bringing to mind someone that we're having a hard time with.
Might be helpful to imagine this person in a relaxed posture,
So it can still feel visceral.
Maybe they're smiling,
Maybe they're complaining.
We're not on the attack.
We can even in this moment acknowledge that.
If they weren't suffering so much,
They probably wouldn't be acting in the ways that they are.
Would be acting from a place of confusion and horror.
So we can make the aspiration that they are free of their suffering.
If you'd like to use their name instead of the word you.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
And you feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
And you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel safe.
May you feel peaceful.
Once more for this person.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel safe.
And you feel peaceful.
Taking that breath and we.
Tended to let that person's image go.
In fact,
We're going to bring everyone into focus at this point that we've contemplated thus far.
So bringing to our mind the images of ourself,
Our loved one,
Our neutral person,
And this difficult person together as a group.
Hanging out in space,
In your living room,
Whatever feels right to you as a image that you want to hold.
But we dissolve the boundaries of opinion.
Between I like you,
I don't like you,
I don't know you,
And it becomes us.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we feel safe.
May we feel peaceful.
Taking another breath.
At this point you can let everyone's image go and just come into noticing how you're feeling in this moment.
Any feeling of open-heartedness,
Tenderness.
And allowing that raw feeling,
Love,
Openness,
To begin to expand beyond your body.
To begin to radiate it in all directions.
Sending the sense of love in 360 degrees to everyone in your home.
Out to everyone in your neighborhood.
To everyone in your town or your city.
Just letting this love flow in all directions.
Of course,
In these areas,
There's a lot of people we like,
A lot of people we don't.
Indeed,
Some people we dislike,
But to all of them.
Offering this impartial sense of love.
To everyone in your state.
Or your products.
To everyone in your country.
Even the people you disagree with,
Even the people you celebrate.
Ultimately to everyone throughout the world.
Letting your love flow in all directions to them.
May all beings.
Be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings feel safe.
May all beings feel peaceful.
When you're ready,
You can either open your eyes or raise your gaze,
Beginning to transition out of the formal meditation practice.
But of course,
Taking this feeling of open-heartedness,
Of loving-kindness with you into the rest of your day.
Thank you.
For practicing with me.
