Metta Bhavana Meditation
In metta bhavana meditation, we direct lovingkindness toward ourselves. Like other forms of mindfulness, metta bhavana meditation will help support more positive emotions and stress reduction. This track contains ambient sounds in the background.
Transcript
Okay.
So I'm just going to invite you to take your seat sitting upright in a dignified position with your feet planted on the floor.
I'm going to invite you to just slowly close your eyes and bringing attention to your breath.
And just notice the breath as you're breathing in and drawing your attention to the breath as you breathe out.
I'm going to invite you to just get a sense of your body sitting in the place that you're sitting,
Relaxing the jaw,
Relaxing the shoulders.
I'm just drawing your attention inward to just quickly scanning the body for any attention and relaxing into it.
Today's meditation is focused on metta,
Loving kindness,
And intentionally cultivating kindness and goodwill to ourselves and others.
And when we practice mindfulness,
Typically we're more clear about what's going on inside of us.
So the more we practice,
We've got to have kindness and gentleness towards ourselves.
And we can do this through metta or loving kindness meditation.
And it's really an expression of what you wish most deeply for yourself and bringing awareness to what you want in your heart for yourself and others in an enduring way.
So again,
Just bringing your attention to your breath,
Just noticing how you're breathing right now without judging or forcing our breath.
And then just notice how you're breathing right now without judging or forcing our breath.
Just noticing that the body knows how to breathe.
There's no right or wrong way to breathe.
So first I'd like to begin by asking you to call to mind somebody neutral in your mind.
To call to mind somebody neutral in your life.
Someone you might see every day,
But you might not know their name.
Just try to visualize and picture that person.
You may be thinking of a number of people,
But just try to focus on one person.
It might be somebody that you see in your neighborhood walking a dog,
Or it could be a grocery clerk,
Somebody that you see quite often,
But you don't know their name and they don't know yours.
Just visualize them and get a feeling of their presence.
Once you've picked your person,
Really just start visualizing them.
Get a feeling of their presence and direct the phrases of loving kindness to them as you picture this person by saying silently to yourself,
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
And may you live your life with ease.
So really get a feeling for their presence.
And as you direct these phrases of loving kindness to them,
Just picture the person.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
As you're doing this practice,
Your mind may be wandering off and that's okay.
Just when you catch your mind wandering off,
Just bring it back to the phrases of loving kindness.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
Next,
I'm going to ask you to call to mind somebody that you know,
Who may be going through a bit of a hard time.
Who may be going through a bit of a hard time.
Get a sense of their presence and a couple people may come to mind,
But just really just focus on one person at this moment.
Somebody you know who's going through a bit of a hard time.
And start wishing them well.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
As you picture this person who's going through a bit of a hard time,
Just continue offering your words of loving kindness,
Meta,
To this person as you visualize them.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
And again,
If your mind begins to wander off,
That's okay.
Just gently and kindly bring it back to the object of the attention,
Which is somebody you know who may be going through a bit of a hard time at this moment.
And we're wishing them our meta loving kindness.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
Next,
I'm going to ask you to call somebody to mind who's very,
Very dear to you.
It could be a family member,
A good friend.
It could just be somebody who's helped you in your life in some way.
Somebody that's had a real impact on your life and has helped you along the way.
And somebody where your relationship isn't too complicated but very loving.
Call that person to mind.
It could be you could be thinking of a number of people,
But just pick one.
I'm going to invite you to visualize them.
Say their name to yourself.
Get a feeling for their presence.
And direct the phrases of loving kindness to them.
As you repeat them slowly and silently to yourself.
As you picture the person.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you live your life with ease.
May you be happy.
Healthy.
May you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live your life with ease.
As you're visualizing the person and saying their name to yourself and wishing them well,
I'd like you to call yourself into mind,
Sitting there with them.
Maybe you're sitting next to them.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
And include yourself in the loving kindness.
As you're sitting there with your loved one.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
And may we live our life with ease.
And I'm going to invite you to just allow the person who is sitting next to you,
Just allow them to dissolve away.
And just visualize yourself and really get a feeling of your presence.
And everything that you are.
Who are you?
Who are you?
You can say to yourself,
Who am I?
And not focusing on things that you aren't,
Focusing on things that you are,
All of the things that you are.
And direct the phrases of loving kindness to yourself.
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy and content.
May I be healthy and may I live my life with ease.
Again,
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy and content.
May I be healthy and may I live my life with ease.
Again,
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy and content.
May I be healthy and may I live my life with ease.
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy and content.
May I be healthy and may I live my life with ease.
And as you visualize yourself and direct loving kindness to yourself,
Just repeat these phrases slowly and silently.
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I be happy and content.
May I be healthy and may I live my life with ease.
May I be healthy and free from harm.
And now I'm going to ask you to invite and call to mind somebody that you're mad at.
Not someone who's particularly traumatic,
But a person in your life who's who's been problematic,
Stressful to be around.
Just somebody that you're having a difficult time with at this point in time.
Visualize that person.
And as you picture the person that you're having a bit of a difficult time with,
I'd like to ask you to wish them well with words of loving kindness.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
Again,
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease.
Now I'm going to invite you to just visualize yourself.
Maybe sitting there next to the person that you're mad at.
And then I'm going to invite you to kind of picture a bird's-eye view and picture all of the people that you have visualized during this meditation.
Sitting there alongside all of you,
Almost like a bird's-eye view of everything that you've seen.
And then picture a bird's-eye view of everybody that you've called to mind sitting in the same room.
And then expand a little bit further out and picturing you all sitting in the room that's in the house or the building that you're in.
And then zooming out a bit further visualizing everybody sitting in the room in the house,
In the town that you're sitting in.
And as you visualize the town,
Expand your awareness to the city.
And keep zooming out expanding your awareness to the state that you're in.
And then just encompassing and zooming out to the universe and calling all beings to mind.
All beings in the universe.
From the solar system down to planet earth.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May you be happy and content.
May you be healthy and may you live your life with ease and including yourself in the universe.
May you be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
May we be healthy and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
And may we live our life with ease.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
And one more time,
May we be safe and free from harm.
May we be happy and content.
May we be healthy and may we live our life with ease.
Now I'm going to invite you to just bring attention to your breath.
Relaxing the jaw,
Relaxing the shoulders.
Bringing attention to the sounds that you're hearing.
Perhaps there are sounds in your room.
Perhaps there are sounds outside of the area that you're sitting in.
Bringing attention to the sounds that you're hearing.
Perhaps there are sounds outside of the area that you're sitting in.
Bringing attention to sound.
And when you hear the sound of the bell,
I'd like to invite you to just slowly and carefully blink open your eyes.
Now I'll invite you to open your eyes.
And thank you very much for allowing me to lead you in this loving kindness meditation.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Thank you.
