Metta Loving Kindness - Meditation for Modern Life

Join Manisha Dudley to explore a contemporary version of the ancient Metta tradition. This offering includes meditation, reflection, and commentary.

Transcript

Welcome to Meditation for Modern Life.

I'm Anisha Dudley.

The meditation I'm going to guide you through today is a mindful meta meditation,

Often referred to as a meditation on loving-kindness.

The word meta,

Spelled M-E-T-T-A,

Itself comes from an ancient language of India called Pali.

And Pali is the language in which much of Buddhist scripture was originally written.

Translations of the word meta include benevolence,

Well-being,

Friendliness,

Loving-kindness,

And the like.

Meta,

When practiced often and with sincerity,

Can help us realize our boundless capacity for compassion,

Our humanity.

Just realizing these qualities of our nature can be extraordinary.

And continued focus through meditation can allow us to move from simply knowing our true nature to feeling our true nature to fully embodying and living our true compassionate nature.

For me,

Meta is really an exploration of the relationship of the self to everything else.

So today I'll offer my own contemporary version of meta.

And I also recommend that you seek out other renditions of this beautiful practice as well.

And eventually you may even compose your own.

So go ahead and find a comfortable seat.

For this meditation,

It is less important that you sit fully upright as we do traditionally in meditation.

Instead,

Indulge yourself with comfort.

Take extra support.

Sit in a big comfy chair by the fireplace.

Wrap your favorite blanket around yourself and curl up on the couch.

Or if you prefer,

Take the traditional seat on a meditation cushion or a straight back chair.

Your choice.

As always,

If your intention is to follow through to the end of the meditation,

Take care not to choose a position that you're likely to fall asleep in.

And when you're ready,

Begin by noticing the breath.

Start with your attention on your breath at the nose.

Just feel the air moving into the body through the nose and out of the body through the nose.

Now,

Notice the breath at the chest,

Feeling your lungs fill as you inhale and empty as you exhale.

Finally,

Feel the rise of your belly as you breathe in and feel the fall as you breathe out.

Let your attention stay on the breath wherever it is most evident for you today.

And slowly come to act as simply a witness to the current activity of your mind.

Watching thoughts come and go,

Noticing emotions without taking any action to address them.

Remain fully present Now,

I will guide you through four steps of a meta meditation.

Step one involves the self.

As you sit here in stillness connected to the breath,

Begin to sense your full self,

Your physical body,

The range of your emotions,

Your character,

Your spirit,

Your whole being.

Sense the vastness of your being completely,

All that you know,

Feel,

Believe yourself to be.

Let any thoughts or emotions that come up just be as they are and begin to welcome a feeling of reverence and benevolence toward yourself,

Your complete self,

Exactly how you are in every way without need or desire to change anything.

Be here now,

Allowing everything to be just as it is.

Remain in this present moment only with a very real sense of respect and loving kindness for your personal truth,

Whatever you may believe that to be today.

Knowing that you are whole and complete and perfect as you are,

Exactly as you are right in this moment and in this moment and in this moment.

Now,

I invite you to take an intentional inhalation breath.

Let it be a full and deep breath that fuels your sense of wholeness and of complete rightness.

And as you exhale,

Let any insecurity,

Uncertainty or doubt you hold diminish as you breathe out to the very end of the exhalation.

Again,

Inhale deeply,

Filling the lungs completely.

And exhale completely,

Drawing the breath out as far as you can.

Repeat these self-affirming breaths as many times as feels right,

Eventually returning to your normal rhythm of breath.

Remain with a strong and true sense of benevolence toward yourself.

For yourself is indeed perfect just as it is in all ways.

It's true in this moment now and in this moment and in this moment and in this moment.

As we conclude step one,

Repeat the following to yourself.

May I be happy?

May I be healthy and well?

May I be free from mental and physical suffering?

May I live without fear and with peace in all ways?

And now we move on to step two.

Step two involves the people in your life that you hold closest to your heart,

The people who you love and care for the most.

You could consider all of the people you love as a collective or choose to bring your attention to just one person.

You might even bring an image to mind that reminds you of this person or persons.

If it feels right,

Go ahead and focus your attention on this image.

As you sit here in stillness with your mind on those you love,

Notice any thoughts that arise.

Just notice without getting involved and let everything be as it is.

Your focus only on the love,

Reverence,

Benevolence and kindness you carry for the person or persons you hold in your mind's eye in this moment.

Allow these emotions to expand and take up space,

So much space that there is little room for expectations,

Conditions or judgments.

Even letting go of aspiration or hope for now.

Accepting those you hold closest to your heart exactly as they are right in this moment and in this moment and in this moment.

Keep your focus on those you love as you repeat the following.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be free from mental and physical suffering.

And may you live without fear and with peace in all ways.

And now Step 3.

Step 3 is about the people we come across in our daily lives often enough that we remember their faces,

But we don't know their names or really anything about them at all.

For me,

These people would include the guy that delivers my mail,

The cross guard at the corner of Boston Avenue and 4th,

The young lady that catches the bus many mornings at the bus stop right outside my house.

Take a moment to identify some of these individuals in your life.

And again,

Notice any thoughts that are arising in this moment.

Simply letting go and drawing your attention to focus on acknowledgement and recognition of all the people who surround you in your daily life that you really don't know much about.

Yet all human beings equally worthy of all of life's riches as anyone.

And again,

Focus on the benevolence,

The loving kindness that can connect all people.

Letting these emotions expand and expand in space so there is little room for assumption,

Little room for fear or aversion to that which we do not understand,

That which is unfamiliar or unknown.

And now with acknowledgement and recognition of really all the people you don't know,

Repeat the following.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be free from mental and physical suffering.

May you live without fear and with peace in all ways.

And now,

Step four.

Step four involves the people in your life for which you find it most difficult to cultivate reverence or benevolence for.

Possibly the people who have hurt you in some way.

People for whom you have disdain,

Contempt,

Hatred.

If it feels alright,

Focus your attention on any person that fits this category for you.

Again,

Just notice.

Just notice your thoughts as they arise as you direct your attention to whoever it is that you've chosen to focus on.

And remember,

Be only a witness to these thoughts,

Not an active participant.

Just watching the scenes from the wings of the stage.

Go ahead and permit yourself to detach and extricate yourself from all thoughts and emotions that may be coming up.

And allow.

Fully allow light and liberation to be present in this moment and in this moment and in this moment.

In light,

Without confinement and with freedom,

May you experience now in this very moment your true compassionate nature.

Compassion expanding and expanding and expanding,

Taking up space until there is room for nothing else.

And with compassion expanding to a space where before it was not.

Repeat the following.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be free from mental and physical suffering.

May you live without fear and with peace in all ways.

When considering step four myself,

A passage from a novel I read many years ago came to mind.

My memory was a bit fuzzy and I couldn't remember the exact quote,

So I went back and re-read the novel.

It's titled Demian and was written by the German Swiss author Hermann Hesse almost a century ago.

And reading it a second time,

I found the novel still quite powerful and the following quote from it extraordinary.

So here it is.

If you hate a person,

You hate something in him that is part of yourself.

What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

If you hate a person,

You hate something in him that is part of yourself.

What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

So you may or may not accept this statement as absolute,

But if it rings true on any level,

Then things become very simple.

We are now back at step one.

If we can embody step one with genuine and complete loving kindness,

Reverence,

Benevolence,

And compassion for our self exactly as we are,

Then steps two,

Three,

Four,

And beyond flow automatically without need for consideration.

So I end at the beginning and all I need to offer anyone else are these sentiments to myself.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy and well.

May I be free from mental and physical suffering.

May I live without fear and with peace in all ways.

And may I know the compassion of others.

Until next time,

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

Absolutely amazing. I expecially loved the part at the end and your re-interpretation of Metta. Thank you so much for sharing this with us 🙏🏻 Namasté

The metta meditation is beautiful and Manisha has done a great job of describing the different levels, eventually bringing it back to the beginning and emphasizing how self love is of paramount importance.

Thank you very much.

Really like the style and overall production - thank you

Always find this a lovely reminder of how things are,thank you

I almost let the comments of others keep me from this meditation; I am eternally grateful for the pull towards it this morning, as the meditation and delivery were, and are, perfect for me in this moment. In this moment. And in this moment.

Notice how the repetition of the phrase, "in this moment," invites understanding, awareness, acceptance, and embodiment of the truth that in each moment, in each interaction, with each breath we can choose to live from a place of benevolence, compassion, lovingkindness towards self; those dearest to us; those we find most challenging, almost antithetical to these expressions; and those with whom we share our space and our awareness (even peripherally), but don't actually know.

I look forward to utilizing this meditation routinely; my multilayered self is more fully integrated for having done so this morning.

This was my first time trying Metta. The guidance she offers throughout the meditation is very clear & warm. I highly recommend it!

Thank you for sharing. Wonderful Meditation so inspiring. 💜💜💜💜

Very nice and relaxing! 🙏🏻

Remember anger at another is anger at yourself

Be kind and loving to yourself and to others

Loved it- thank you!

I love this!!! Manisha, beautifully put together! I love the four parts and how the end wraps around to the beginning. I love your Hermann Hesse reference; that quote resonates with me too.
Thank you.

In this moment...
And in this moment...
And in this moment.....

🙏🏻

Very needed. I will return to this meditation often. Thank you! ❤️

Just wonderful. Thank you x

Excellent from beginning to end. Love the quote. Thank you so much.

A beautiful voice, thank you very much

Thank you for taking the time to create this meditation for us. I am so thankful for your work!

Wow. I hadn't expected to get into this meditation fully but before I knew it there were so many tears (both of compassion and pain). While I thought I was living compassionately, I was reminded that there is no finish line to growing in love and kindness. Highly recommend this and will be adding this metta meditation to my weekly practice. So many thank yous.

This was lovely and comforting in the sadness I am experiencing right now. I like very much that she gave the meditation her own special touches. That made it fresh and real. Thank you