Loving-kindness meditation,
Heart-focused.
As this guided loving-kindness meditation has many progressive stages,
I thought that it might be useful to give a short introduction,
Explaining these stages briefly.
It is important to generate some mindfulness in the body and then to truly establish awareness upon the breathing before moving on to the meta component of the meditation,
Because the degree to which one can generate some mindfulness and collectedness will be the degree to which one will be able to truly open the heart to metta.
Similarly,
It is very important to establish the meta of acceptance in the body and mind before trying to radiate loving-kindness outwards from the heart throughout the rest of the body,
And it is necessary to have generated a genuine quality of pure metta within one's own body and mind before trying to radiate it outwards towards others.
Each of these important stages necessarily takes some time.
If you find that you only have the time and energy for the first few stages,
Do not feel disheartened,
Because developing true metta for yourself will definitely be having a positive effect upon others around you as well.
If you can be patient and also determined with this practice,
As many meditators before you have been,
You will definitely be able to receive the wonderful benefits of this beautiful practice.
Try to give the meditation a fair chance and return to it repeatedly.
As the meditation is quite long,
Feel free to mindfully change postures from time to time.
There is quite a lot of instruction throughout the meditation,
As many people do need a lot of encouraging and reminding here.
It is important to stay primarily with your own meditation.
Hear the voice as if in the distance,
Having the volume quite soft if you like.
Once you have become adept at all of these steps,
You will be able to do it alone at your own pace.
For our purposes here,
Try to sincerely apply your mind to each step in the moment,
Moment by moment.
If you can do this,
You will find the meditation very pleasant and time will seem to go by quite quickly and you may well be able to accomplish more than you expected.
I wish you a lot of patience and determination,
Boundless loving kindness and every success.
And now we will begin the meditation.
Firstly,
Bringing your attention to your sitting posture.
Simply aware that you are now sitting with an upright yet relaxed posture.
At first,
Simply feeling the physical feelings of the buttocks pressing against the surface underneath,
The mat or the cushion or the chair.
Grounding awareness in the present moment.
Now allow a broad awareness to embrace your whole body,
Simply knowing that you are sitting.
And now,
I suggest taking three slow and deep in and out breaths,
Releasing any tension you may be feeling with the out breath.
Breathing slowly and deeply in,
All the way into the abdomen,
And then breathing out,
Putting things down,
Relaxing.
Once again,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Letting go.
And one more deep in and out breath at your own pace,
Bringing a sense of being present,
A freshness into this new moment.
Now allow your breathing to become relaxed and natural,
Breathing ordinarily at your own pace.
We acknowledge that we are doing a session of meditation,
Loving kindness meditation.
And other than meditating now,
We don't need to do anything or go anywhere.
Not pursuing thoughts,
Allowing thoughts to simply drop away.
Taking relaxed,
Natural breaths.
Before we move into the loving kindness component,
We will establish body-based mindfulness by doing a body sweeping as per usual,
Followed by some breath meditation.
We do this to prepare the mind.
Now with mindful awareness,
Feel the area around the top of the head,
Becoming aware of the various feelings on the surface area of the skin.
Now include the face,
And then the ears,
And the neck.
Relaxing any tension as you embrace these parts of the body with gentle,
Natural awareness.
Now include the upper shoulder area,
Simply aware,
Simply feeling,
Becoming more aware,
More alert,
More settled,
And at the same time relaxing.
Relaxing into mindful awareness,
And also bringing a quality of loving kindness to your awareness.
Or rather allowing an inherent loving kindness to flow through and pervade awareness.
Aware of the shoulders,
Relaxing the shoulders.
Now gently include the area of the chest in this awareness.
Sweep your awareness over this area slowly,
And then include the stomach area,
Moving natural awareness down over the stomach.
With no evaluations or judgments,
Just this simple body-based awareness that knows things as they are.
Then bring this gentle knowing awareness to include all of your back,
Sweeping down from the top to the bottom.
Now gently expand awareness to include both of your arms,
Embracing the whole upper area of the body with gentle awareness,
Not judging,
Not discriminating.
Accepting the body as it is,
With an alert,
Yet kind knowing.
Now include the lower abdomen,
And then the area of the groin,
And then the buttocks.
Feel the feelings of your bottom pressing against the harder surface underneath.
And now slowly include the legs,
And then the feet,
In this awareness.
Gently,
Mindfully,
Knowing the whole body,
Simply sitting.
In order to begin establishing awareness upon the breath,
Move your awareness now to the more localized area of the nose,
And then gently bring your awareness to your in and out breathing,
Being mindful of each in and out breath.
Try to feel the entire in-breath in three distinct places,
The tip of the nose,
The chest,
And the abdomen.
Know the feeling of the breath as it comes in,
In these three points,
Nose,
Chest,
Abdomen,
While mentally recollecting the syllable,
But.
And as the breath leaves the body,
Knowing at these same three points,
Abdomen,
Chest,
Recollecting the syllable,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
But,
Knowing the in and out breath.
But,
Though,
But,
Though.
Knowing the entire in-breath,
Each in-breath,
And knowing the entire out-breath,
Each out-breath,
Recollecting the word,
But,
Though,
Which means knowing,
Awakened knowing,
To assist us in being mindful of each in and out breath.
But,
Though,
But,
Though.
Loving-kindness or metta can have several modes of expression.
There is the outwardly radiating type of loving-kindness,
Which is warm and uplifting,
Dynamic or active.
And then there is the more inward-flowing loving-kindness,
Which manifests as a deep and genuine acceptance of the way things are.
The metta of acceptance is cool and comforting.
It is receptive.
As you are being aware of each breath now,
Try to bring a simple quality of loving acceptance to your awareness.
Aware of each in-breath,
But,
And aware of each out-breath,
Though.
Dropping all sense of expectation and any kind of judgment or assessment,
Simply bringing a gentle interest to the experience of the breath and accepting it as it is,
With an attitude of kindness.
But,
Though.
Bring each breath intimately,
Attentively,
Welcoming it,
And offering an attitude of natural and ordinary loving acceptance to each in and out-breath,
Not forcing anything,
Simply relaxing into the safety of the kind and accepting attitude of metta,
And dropping,
For the time being,
Any other attitude which might be present in the mind,
Generating now the benevolent and refreshing attitude of kind acceptance,
In conjunction with the in and out-breathing.
Actually,
Within the process of developing loving kindness,
It is very important to become familiar and accustomed to the natural and kind attitude of acceptance,
For it is this attitude which is the necessary foundation of the more outward-flowing forms of metta.
Oftentimes there are other,
Less benevolent attitudes and feelings affecting the mind.
This is of course quite normal.
We do however need to address this,
Before we attempt to radiate metta outwardly.
Using key phrases which remind us of our intentions can be very helpful.
While still being mindful of each in and out-breath,
And bringing an attitude of loving acceptance to this simple experience of breathing,
We will change our method of mental noting now.
In conjunction with the in-breath,
You can mentally recite,
Softly and gently,
May I be well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
May I be well.
And in conjunction with the out-breath,
You can mentally recite,
May I be happy.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
When we generate inwardly the attitude of loving acceptance,
It is similar to cleaning out the space of the mind,
And preparing it to incline towards generating even greater goodness and benevolence.
And so expanding our attitude of loving acceptance now,
While still being aware of each in and out-breath,
Try to bring this attitude of kind,
Non-judging acceptance to the felt experience of the entire body.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
Allowing an awareness imbued with loving acceptance to rest within the parameters of the physical body.
However your body is,
Relaxed or tense,
At ease or sore and aching,
Strong or weak,
Fat or thin,
Healthy or sickly,
Whatever you could say about your body for the time being,
You may simply drop any sense of judgment or assessment,
And accept the perception and experience of the body exactly as it is now,
However that may be.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
Bringing an attitude of loving acceptance to this body and mind.
Try to see the experience of the body as being perfect just the way it is.
And offer this body an all embracing attitude of acceptance.
You can affirm your experience by mentally repeating,
I completely allow this body to be just the way it is now.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
I allow this body to be precisely the way it is,
With loving acceptance.
Try to establish or rather relax into this kind and embracing attitude,
While maintaining an awareness of your breath and also using your breath to generate and expand this quality of loving,
Kind,
Accepting attention,
Allowing it to flow through and embrace or to bathe and wash the entire body and mind.
May I be well,
May I be happy.
May I be well,
May I be happy.
May I be well,
May I be happy.
May I be well,
May I be happy.
And now bring to mind the perception of yourself as a spiritual practitioner,
Aspiring to liberation,
And without thinking about it too much,
Simply offer this attitude of loving acceptance to this perception of yourself as well.
After all,
At the very least,
You are a person who aspires to virtue and goodness.
Drop any sense of judging yourself in relation to extremely lofty goals,
And simply accept with true kindness your current level of goodness,
Understanding that this attitude will nourish your efforts.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
And now,
Hopefully having established a suitable inner mental environment,
We can move on to the next stage of radiating loving kindness towards oneself.
Try to maintain a clear awareness of each in and out breath as we continue along with our loving kindness meditation.
When we radiate loving kindness,
Essentially what we are doing is generating a focused quality of positivity or goodwill,
A pure type of love,
And then consciously directing this towards ourselves and others.
Once we understand what metta actually is,
Learning to radiate loving kindness towards oneself is fairly easy.
Because with metta,
All we really have to do is to have,
Or to make,
A simple and kind wish,
And to hold this wish in the heart.
The same wishes which we have already been mentally recollecting as an aid to staying mindful of each in and out breath.
Breathing in,
Wishing,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
Wishing,
May I be happy.
Having set our intention clearly and having prepared the mind,
Now that we are moving into the more dynamic mode of generating metta,
We consciously try to intensify our wish of loving kindness,
Or rather,
We wish with even more sincerity.
Remember though that loving kindness is a subtle mental quality.
We needn't push or try too hard.
Bringing to mind this wish,
We generate,
Concentrate,
And direct our goodwill in the area at the very center of the heart.
We can do this quite easily in conjunction with the in and out breathing,
Generating genuine heartfelt goodwill in the area of the heart.
With each in breath sincerely wishing,
May I be well.
May I be well.
May I be well.
And on the out breath,
Allowing this goodwill and concentrated positive energy of metta to spread out and fill the area surrounding the heart.
Breathing out,
Wishing,
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
At this stage,
Many people will be experiencing a pleasant warm feeling in the area of the heart.
Not everyone will experience this in the beginning,
But many people will.
If you can feel this warm feeling of positive goodwill in the area of your heart,
As you continue to make the effort to radiate loving kindness towards yourself,
Try to maintain this pleasant warm feeling.
Refreshing or regenerating it on each in breath and allowing it to suffuse the entire heart and chest area with each out breath.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be well.
If you cannot feel a pleasant warm feeling in the area of the heart yet,
Never mind.
Trust that your pure intentions and skillful efforts are definitely having a powerfully positive effect upon your mind.
Try to focus upon your intention that whether or not you can feel or notice any particular results,
You are still sincerely wishing yourself well.
You are acknowledging your potential,
Affirming it,
Blessing yourself.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
For some people,
The words well and happy might seem somewhat vacuous or empty.
As we are meditating,
You can consider for a few moments what we might actually mean by these simple words,
Well and happy.
What would it mean to you to be truly well?
And what would it mean to you to be truly happy?
For our purposes here,
Try to invest these words with particularly relevant or pertinent meanings.
Empower them.
As a dedicated spiritual practitioner,
Happiness might mean a growth in beautiful qualities such as peacefulness,
Contentment,
Energy,
Patience and forgiveness.
Or it might mean wishing that we may meet with excellent training situations and guiding influences in this and all subsequent lives until we are completely free.
Or it might simply mean maintaining well-being throughout all of the vicissitudes of life.
Wish for yourself whatever it is that would be a true blessing in your life.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
As you wish yourself well,
Remember to try and generate warmth,
Positivity and radiant goodwill in the area of your heart.
For some people it is more helpful to simply think in terms of love.
Pure love.
Giving the heart to oneself with pure love.
Radiating love through the body and mind without any wishes or hopes or expectations at all.
With pure goodwill and loving kindness.
Giving loving kindness to arise and expand or to imbue and embrace your body and mind in the area of the heart with each in and out breath.
Breathing in,
Generating warmth,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
Radiating goodwill,
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
If you can,
Try now to allow a feeling of warmth and metta to spread out from the heart and fill the entire chest or upper body area.
Or even to suffuse the entire body.
Only try to do this if it seems possible.
On the in breath,
Generating goodwill,
May I be well.
And on the out breath,
Radiating it outwards,
Suffusing the body with loving kindness.
And remember,
If you cannot yet feel a warm feeling in the heart,
Never mind.
Keep laying the foundation and sowing the causes.
For some people,
Metta may very well be present in the mind,
Even if one cannot feel it.
Trust that focused pure intentions are very,
Very powerful.
Likewise,
If you can only generate a little feeling of loving kindness,
This is fine too.
Remember to be kind and patient with the meditation as well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
As you practice loving kindness meditation more and more,
It will definitely become possible to generate and expand the heart of metta.
To embrace more and more of your experience and to embrace others with this beautiful quality of pure goodwill.
All good results come with practice,
Effort and time.
It is recommended to become skilled at this initial stage first,
Holding a genuine heartfelt feeling of loving kindness towards oneself before moving on to the next stage.
There is no hurry.
If you would like to work on the initial stages of the metta practice a little more,
Learning to truly hold this positive mind state within your own heart,
With your body and mind and life as the object,
It's fine to end the meditation now.
You could turn off the guided meditation and carry on on your own for some time,
Simply breathing in and breathing out,
Wishing yourself well.
If you feel ready to move on to the next stage of generating loving kindness towards oneself and a friend,
Please continue listening.
While still being aware of each in and out breath and maintaining the heart of loving kindness,
We will now move on to the next stage of the meditation.
Having established some metta in our hearts,
We will now try to radiate this loving kindness outwards towards another person.
Looking to mind now,
Somebody for whom you can easily feel goodwill.
Think of a person who it is easy to like.
It is best if this person inspires a filial feeling in the mind,
A father or mother,
Sister or brother like sense of caring.
Once again we will change our mental noting a little.
Breathing in still wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out,
Say this other person's name,
May be well.
Breathing in,
Still generating a feeling of positive goodwill in the area of the heart.
And when breathing out,
Share this positive energy with your friend.
Breathing in,
May I be well,
Breathing out,
May,
So and so my friend,
Be well.
Rather than think about where this person is and trying to send this energy to them,
Simply try to picture this person's face before you and send this energy to the perception of this person,
Trusting that your goodwill will be received.
You can feel confident that the mind empowered by pure altruistic intentions is a very powerful thing.
The person who you are sending goodwill to may very well be able to experience some benefit from your practice.
And so once again generating the heart of positive goodwill with each in-breath,
Breathing in wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out radiating loving kindness to your friend,
May say your friend's name quietly in your mind,
Be well.
Breathing in,
May I be well,
Breathing out,
May,
So and so my friend,
Be well.
Breathing out,
May,
Be well.
Breathing in,
May I be happy,
And breathing out,
May,
Be happy.
Breathing out,
May,
Be happy.
If you have some experience with metta meditation,
You might now wish to include more beings in this category.
Include as many beings in the category of those for whom it is easy to generate metta towards now as you like.
Or you can try alternating between different people on the out-breaths.
Or stay with just yourself and this one other friend as your meditation objects if you prefer.
Breathing in,
May I be well,
Breathing out,
May,
You can either visualize or say the names,
Be well.
Breathing in,
May I be happy,
Breathing out,
May,
You can either visualize or say the names,
May I be happy,
Breathing out,
May,
Be truly happy.
Breathing in,
May I be happy,
Breathing out,
May,
You can either visualize or say the names,
May,
You can either visualize or say the names.
Soon we will move on to the next section of the metta meditation.
Once again,
Only continue if you feel ready to include more beings in your metta meditation practice.
It is most effective to become proficient at each stage before moving on.
The next category will be neutral beings,
Or people for whom you might ordinarily feel indifferent or neutral towards.
Before we go on,
Return for the next minute or so to the perception of just yourself as a sentient being who aspires to true freedom and happiness.
Bless yourself with goodwill and positive energy in conjunction with the in and out breathing.
Breathing in making the sincere wish,
May I be well,
And breathing out wishing,
May I be happy.
As always,
As I talk,
Hear my voice as if it is in the distance,
And stay with the awareness of breathing and the heart of loving kindness,
Radiating loving kindness towards yourself as your primary focus,
Filling the heart and chest area with warm feelings of pure metta.
When we radiate loving kindness towards ourselves,
It is similar to giving ourselves a blessing.
We decide to see and affirm the good in ourselves,
To see our true potential,
And to sincerely wish that we may be able to fully realize this potential,
Or at least to be able to progress along the path to realizing our highest human potential to whatever degree is currently possible.
We might wish that we meet all of the supports that we need to realize our goals,
Or we might wish that we can have the courage,
The focus,
And the capacity to be disciplined so that we may be able to realize our deepest wishes.
Imagine how happy and peaceful this would make us,
Wishing sincerely,
May I be well,
And sincerely wishing,
May I be happy.
We might wish that we will learn more and more quickly from our mistakes and cease unskillful actions while increasing our efforts at being skillful.
When we wish these things,
We don't judge ourselves or reject ourselves because of our current limitations.
We simply dare to see that we can do better,
And dare to encourage ourselves.
These are the kinds of things which you can wish for yourself as you say quietly and encouragingly in your mind,
May I be well,
May I be happy.
Now simply drop all thoughts and wishes,
And radiate the blessings of pure unconditional love throughout your body and mind.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out blessing yourself wishing,
May I be happy.
And now we will move on to the next stage.
Bring to mind now somebody who you feel neutral towards.
It could be anyone,
Someone who you pass occasionally in the streets or along a hall or in an elevator or someone in a store.
Decide now which one of these people you will radiate loving kindness towards today.
You might not even know this person's name,
It doesn't matter.
You can give them a name if you like,
Such as my hallway friend or my shop friend,
My office friend or whatever.
Simply imagine this person before you and determine in your mind to share goodwill and loving kindness with this person for the next few minutes.
Breathing in still wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out wishing,
May be well.
Breathing in,
May I be well,
Breathing out may,
You can say the person's name softly in your mind or picture them.
Be well.
Generating the warmth of pure benevolent goodwill in your heart and sending it out to the person imagined before you.
See this person smiling and feeling well and happy.
Continue in this way for another couple of minutes.
For those who feel confident,
At this stage you can include more people in this category if you like.
Include as many of the people for whom you might ordinarily feel neutral towards in the heart of loving kindness.
Thank you.
Breathing in may I be well,
Breathing out wishing may these neutral people be well.
Perhaps these people were my friends in the past or perhaps they will be in the future.
Breathing in may I be well,
Breathing out may this one person or all of these people be well.
Continue on on your own for the next minute or so.
Breathing in may I be well,
Breathing out may this one person or all of these people be well.
Breathing in may I be well,
Breathing out may this one person or all of these people be well.
Soon we will move on to the next stage.
You can decide to end the meditation here and dedicate merit as you prefer.
Or meditate a little longer on your own if you choose.
The next stage of radiating loving kindness towards a difficult person is generally considered a more difficult or more advanced stage of this practice.
Once again only move on to this stage if you feel that the loving kindness which you have generated now has the integrity and strength to work with more challenging objects.
As I continue to talk now,
Return to radiating positivity and goodwill to yourself in conjunction with the in and out breathing.
Refreshing and regenerating the heart of loving kindness before you move on.
Breathing in wishing may I be well and breathing out may I be happy.
The difficult person.
The difficult person could be someone who has said or done something in the past which resulted in pain or hurt for you or for others.
Or perhaps they hurt somebody you care for.
It could be somebody who is jealous or competitive with you.
Or it could just be someone who you really don't like very much not even knowing any reason why.
Whoever your difficult person is try not to think at all about whatever it is that they did or said or what you have heard that they have said or done.
Think instead that this human being is someone who suffers just like you do.
That they are someone who wishes for happiness in their own way just like you do.
And that whatever unskillful things that they have thought or felt or said or done was entirely due to the powerful influence of ignorance and delusion in their minds.
Qualities which also still affect our minds.
Seeing with wisdom and compassion in this way we will now generate goodwill and loving kindness towards this person for the next couple of minutes.
Choose which person you will radiate meta towards now.
Breathing in wishing may I be well.
Breathing out wishing may be well.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may be truly well.
May this person meet with excellent influences and opportunities in their life.
Influences and opportunities which may result in healing or transformation.
May this person have the opportunity to be a truly good person.
But even if there is no apparent change we will still wish this person well.
For our own sake as well as for theirs.
One can still see faults or mistakes but goodwill is unshaken.
Pure meta is unconditional.
Breathing in wishing may I be well.
And breathing out wishing may be well.
Breathing out may be truly well.
If you feel that you can continue to radiate loving kindness towards this person a little longer then please do so.
Otherwise you can return to the perception of yourself for the remaining minutes of this meditation.
Breathing in wishing may I be well.
Breathing out wishing may be well.
Breathing out may be truly well.
As we train in developing loving kindness over time this pure emotion or pure mind state can grow in strength and power.
Eventually meta as a meditation object can lead into refined states of concentration completely beyond the five hindrances.
My teachers have explained that once the mind can go beyond the five hindrances for periods of time it becomes possible to investigate such things as impermanence and not self with much more clarity firmness and focus.
At the very least as a samatha or calming practice meta meditation can subdue the hindrances significantly for most people making the mind more willing to abandon the unwholesome and more receptive to developing insight.
This is why meta practice can be such a wonderful support in Buddhist practice.
Developing the meditation on loving kindness is a gradual process.
It begins with the perception of oneself and a few others as the object.
And then it is cultivated further to include more and more beings.
If cultivated to a profound degree eventually the heart of loving kindness can be directed towards all beings everywhere filling all of space.
For the remaining few minutes of the meditation you can now choose to radiate meta towards one particular being or to a particular class of being or beings as you prefer.
Once again you can end the meditation now or continue.
For those who are interested or who feel confident we can now expand the heart of loving kindness to be more broad and simply include all beings in the benevolent wish for well-being peace and contentment.
Breathing in wishing may I be well and breathing out sincerely wishing may all beings be well.
Breathing in wishing may I be well and breathing out sincerely wishing may all beings be well.
All beings whether friendly neutral or hostile may they be well may they be happy.
May they be free from harm.
May they develop well-being and may they maintain well-being.
Breathing in may I be well breathing out may all beings be well.
Soon we will end the meditation.
So lastly return to the perception of yourself as the object of the meta meditation and simply wish yourself well for a few more moments.
Breathing in may I be well breathing out may I be happy.
May I maintain well-being in myself may I take care of myself and my life happily.
Before ending the meta meditation take a moment to rejoice in your efforts today understanding that what we have been doing here is extremely wholesome and potentially utterly transformative.
By way of closing you can dedicate the merit produced by this session of meditation towards one being in particular or to several beings of any type or to all beings everywhere as you prefer.
Be well.
