Hello,
Paschal Indy here.
First,
I invite you to make yourself comfortable and sit and settle for a short while.
Bringing your attention to your body,
Checking that you're upright and relaxed and seeing if it's possible to let go of all thoughts and concerns.
We simply relax and just sit.
Leaving the eyes open and looking down slightly,
The gaze relaxed and natural.
And letting the mind rest in its natural state,
Open,
Spacious,
Calm and yet completely aware.
Gently following the natural flow of the breath.
Breathing in,
We simply know that we're breathing in and breathing out,
We simply know that we're breathing out.
Letting thoughts and emotions or whatever arises come and go without clinging.
And when we get distracted by our thoughts,
We notice,
We let go and we gently come back to the breath.
So sitting like this for a moment or two.
And taking a moment perhaps to reflect on why we wanted to practice loving kindness today and the benefits we hope it might have for ourselves or for others.
And now we'll begin the practice of loving kindness.
So first,
To help us evoke our own feelings of love and kindness,
We remember a person,
Pet or place that made us feel very loved.
It could be a friend or relative who's loved you very much,
Either now or in the past.
It could be a pet or a favorite place in nature.
It could be a great spiritual teacher such as the Buddha or Jesus.
It could be the warmth of sunshine or simply rays of light.
Locating the perfect loving relationship is not so important,
We're just looking to evoke an atmosphere or a feeling of being loved.
We could simply trust that we're surrounded by love.
So spending a few moments to get a clear sense of this love.
Feeling the kindness and warmth coming to us from that person,
Pet or place.
Perhaps imagining their warm wishes and their love radiating out from them and into us.
Perhaps receiving their love in the form of warm rays of light and basking in the warm wishes and the love coming to us from all sides.
Allowing these feelings of love to surround and fill the whole body and slowly and silently repeating the phrases,
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live in ease and in peace.
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live in ease and in peace.
And imagining this love flowing into our body,
Our heart,
Our mind,
Into all our fears,
All our resentments or any other feelings.
And slowly repeating those phrases,
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live in ease and in peace.
Really taking time to enjoy and savour the meaning of the words,
Allowing the meaning to go deeper,
To awaken our own feelings of love and kindness.
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live in ease and in peace.
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live in ease and in peace.
You might like to imagine some specific ways that you could benefit from this love.
For example,
May I have more inner peace,
More contentment,
May I have more joy,
May I be able to give and receive love,
May I be able to nourish myself and meet my own needs,
May I accept myself fully,
Even my flaws and weaknesses,
May I have the best health imaginable,
May I always be thoughtful,
Warm-hearted and generous.
So taking a moment to personalise the practice for ourselves,
And imagining that we receive everything that we wish for.
If we're finding it difficult to imagine receiving everything we wish for,
We might like to try and encourage a feeling of appreciation for the generosity and kindness of this vast wish.
And spending a few moments now with yourself,
Resting in this love and care.
Now bring to mind a loved one.
You and this person are similar,
Just like you,
This person wishes to be happy.
So sending them all our love and warm wishes,
Just as I wish to.
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live in ease and in peace.
Next we can picture somebody towards whom we feel neutral,
Perhaps a neighbour,
A colleague or someone we don't know so well.
They too wish to be happy and avoid suffering.
So we send them our warm wishes,
Saying,
Just as I wish to,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live in ease and in peace.
And then extending our love to everyone in this neighbourhood,
Just as I wish to,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live in ease and in peace.
And then we can embrace everyone in the entire country with our love.
Just as I wish to,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live in ease and in peace.
Now expanding our awareness to include the whole world,
Perhaps picturing the globe in front of us like a little ball.
And recognising that all living beings are struggling to find their way through life.
Just like us,
They wish to have a good life.
So wishing them well and sending them our love with the phrases,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live in ease and in peace.
All living beings includes us.
May we all be well,
May we all be happy,
May we all live in ease and in peace.
And now letting go of the practice and coming back to the breath and the body.
Resting in awareness of the present moment and any feelings of open-heartedness.
And noticing our state of mind and how we feel after this practice.
And perhaps reflecting on our motivation again and wishing that any benefit we feel from this practice might be of use to ourselves or to others.
Finally,
We can open our eyes if they've been closed and stretch.
