Loving-kindness meditation,
Lotus visualization.
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.
Bringing your attention to your sitting posture,
Being simply aware that now you are sitting with a straight yet relaxed posture.
At first,
Simply feeling the physical feelings of the buttocks pressing against the harder surface underneath,
Grounding awareness in the present moment.
Allow a broad awareness to embrace your whole body,
Aware that you are sitting,
Knowing that you are sitting.
And now take three slow and deep in and out breaths,
Releasing any tension on the out breath,
Breathing slowly and deeply in all the way into the abdomen.
And then out,
Letting go,
Relaxing.
And once again,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Putting things down.
And one last deep in and out breath at your own pace,
Simply breathing in and breathing out.
Now allow your breathing to become relaxed and natural,
Breathing ordinarily at your own pace,
Acknowledging that we are doing a session of sitting meditation,
Loving kindness meditation,
And that other than meditating now,
We don't need to do anything.
Not pursuing thoughts,
Allowing thoughts to simply drop away.
Now with mindful awareness,
Try to feel the area around the top of the head,
Simply becoming aware of the various feelings on the surface area of the skin.
Now include the face,
And then the ears,
And the neck.
Now include the upper shoulder area.
Now include the upper shoulder area,
Relaxing any tension as you embrace these parts of the body with gentle,
Natural awareness,
Knowing the various feelings on the surface of the skin,
Becoming more aware,
More alert,
More settled in the present moment,
And at the same time,
Relaxing.
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 slowly 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.
Now 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,
Simply knowing the felt sense of this body now,
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 ribs moving yourself,
明白 that your legs are too relaxed to beieten.
And then the scalp 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 as it passes through the tip of the nose,
The chest and into the abdomen.
Know the feeling of the breath as it comes in at these three points.
Nose,
Chest,
Abdomen.
And as the breath leaves the body,
Knowing the entire out-breath,
At these same three points,
The abdomen,
The chest and out the nose.
Knowing the entire in-breath and knowing the entire out-breath.
Knowing each in-breath and each out-breath.
As you are being aware of each breath now,
Try to bring a simple quality of loving acceptance to your awareness.
Dropping any sense of judgment or assessment.
Simply bringing a gentle,
Appreciative interest to the experience of the breath and welcoming it as it is,
With an attitude of kindness.
Knowing the in-breath,
Each in-breath,
The entire in-breath,
With loving kindness.
And knowing each out-breath,
The entire out-breath.
Not forcing anything.
Simply relaxing into the safety of the kind and accepting attitude of metta.
Using key phrases which remind us of our intentions can be very helpful.
While still being mindful of each in and out-breath and maintaining an attitude of loving acceptance towards this simple experience of breathing,
We will now introduce a method of mental noting.
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 goodwill.
Try to generate a genuine,
Natural feeling of human warmth and love in the area of your heart.
As you say these simple phrases,
Wishing yourself well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
When we generate the heart of loving kindness,
Essentially what we are doing is giving rise to a focused quality of positive 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.
Some people find that the use of simple visualizations can be helpful in the process of generating and then radiating loving kindness.
We will soon begin to introduce an element of visualization to our meditation.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May I be happy.
At this stage,
Many people will already be experiencing a pleasant warm feeling in the area of the heart.
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.
As you are doing this,
Imagine now that a warm,
Soft,
Golden glow begins to shine in the very center of your heart.
This beautiful light starts out faint at first,
And then slowly grows in size and radiance.
It has the pure and precious quality of gold,
Yet it is transparent and made of brilliant light.
Each time you breathe in wishing,
May I be well,
This golden light grows and shines brightly.
And as you breathe out wishing,
May I be happy,
This beautiful warm light emanates outwards and suffuses the area around the heart,
Filling the entire chest area with soft,
Warm,
Golden light.
As you breathe in visualize this golden light shining at your heart.
And as you breathe out see this light of loving kindness,
Metta,
The pure love of positive goodwill,
Spreading out to fill and shine all throughout the area of the chest.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out wishing,
May I be happy.
If you can feel a warm feeling in the heart,
This is a good sign.
Try to nurture and expand this feeling to whatever degree seems comfortably possible.
Sincerely wishing yourself well,
Seeing your goodness and potential,
And blessing this.
If you cannot feel a warm feeling in the heart,
Never mind.
Maintain the sincerity of your intention and continue to wholeheartedly wish yourself well,
Feeling confident that these wholesome intentions and skillful efforts will definitely be bringing about some benefit in your mind.
As you wish yourself well in conjunction with the in and out breathing,
Continue focusing upon the visualization.
Breathing in,
The golden light in the center of your heart shines brightly.
As you wish,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
This golden light radiates outwards,
Spreading throughout your chest area,
Filling your upper body with the light of loving kindness.
Breathing may I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
You notice now that in the very center of your heart,
Another color is beginning to appear and shine.
There is now a beautiful,
Pure,
Pristine white light shining from the center of your heart,
Surrounded by the golden light.
As you breathe in now wishing,
May I be well.
This white light transforms and blossoms into the form of a white lotus bud,
Shining in the very center of your heart.
This white lotus bud sits gracefully,
Resting upon and surrounded by the beautiful warm golden light of loving kindness.
This white lotus bud represents your inner human goodness and your extraordinary and wonderful potential.
Having been nourished by pure intentions and skillful meditation,
The lotus bud is growing bigger now and is blossoming in the clear space of your heart.
As you breathe in wishing,
May I be well,
Golden light glows and shines in the center of the transparent white lotus.
And as you breathe out wishing,
May I be happy,
This golden light shines outwards,
Unobstructed,
Through the many unfurled petals of the now fully opened white lotus.
Try to maintain the visualization of the white lotus,
Generating and then radiating the golden light of loving kindness as you wish yourself well in conjunction with the in and out breathing.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be happy.
We are going to try to increase now the warm light of loving kindness.
Imagine now that this positive radiant quality of warmth and light emanates from the lotus flower at your heart and then fills your entire body.
Feeling the tender yet brilliant presence of pure loving acceptance.
Golden light and tender warmth fills your body from the very top of your head,
All throughout your chest and abdomen and arms,
Filling your entire body,
All the way down to the very soles of the feet.
See your whole body filled with rich golden light,
Transparent,
With a beautiful crystal clear white lotus at the center.
Feel maintaining awareness of each in and out breath and still noting with the in breath may I be well and on the out breath may I be happy.
However your body may seem,
Relaxed or tight,
At ease or sore,
Strong or weak,
Fat or thin,
Healthy or sickly,
Whatever you might say about your body,
For now you have dropped all sense of judgment and assessment,
Accepting the felt experience of the body exactly as it is now,
However that may be.
You fill this experience with the golden light of positive goodwill.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may I be happy.
Breathing in golden light shines brightly at the lotus in your heart.
And breathing out it radiates outwards in all directions filling your entire body.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may I be happy.
The golden light of metta is shining from the lotus at your heart,
Filling your entire body.
See your entire body filled with rich,
Bright,
Clean and clear,
Translucent golden light.
Feel blessed and nourished.
And now that your body is completely full of loving kindness,
The golden light of metta begins to shine outwards as well,
Out through the pores of your skin,
Filling your body entirely and now also radiating out of your body some distance in all directions.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may I be happy.
Breathing out may I be well.
Before we expand our visualization to include other beings,
Try to recollect the fact that all human beings have an unlimited potential and capacity to generate metta.
And as we expand upon the visualization,
Keep your good intentions in mind,
That you simply wish to generate and radiate outwards the boundless and non-personal quality of positive goodwill for the genuine benefit of yourself and others.
Trust that this altruistic intention will enable loving kindness to flow freely and easily.
Generating the warm,
Golden light of metta at your lotus heart on each in-breath,
Wishing may I be well.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may I be happy.
Try to maintain a clear awareness of each in and out-breath,
Synchronized with your visualization as we continue along with our metta meditation.
Generating golden light and warmth on each in-breath and radiating the warmth and light of metta outwards in all directions on the out-breath.
Feeling confident that the source of loving kindness,
Which is the human mind imbued with pure intentions,
Is inexhaustible.
Breathing in may I be well.
Breathing out may I be happy.
It is recommended to become skilled at this initial stage first,
Holding the genuine heartfelt presence of loving kindness in the mind directed towards oneself.
Filling one's own heart and body and mind with the warmth of loving kindness and with this bright,
Clear,
Visualized golden light.
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 as the object,
It's fine to consider ending the guided meditation now.
You could then carry on with this stage 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,
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.
Bring to mind now a friend or another person for whom it is fairly easy to feel loving kindness towards.
It is best if this person inspires a filial type of affection rather than one which is sensual.
It could be someone who has helped you in your life,
Someone who has been a good friend,
Or whose ongoing friendship is a blessing.
It could be a parent or a teacher or someone similar who has helped you to grow in wisdom and understanding.
Decide now which person you will radiate loving kindness towards today.
And now picture this person's face before you.
And once again,
Just as before,
As you breathe in,
Golden light and warmth swells at the lotus at your heart,
Shining brightly,
And also fills your entire body.
As you mentally recollect,
May I be well.
And this time,
As you breathe out,
See this golden light shining out from your heart,
Shining upon and blessing the person before you with wonderful feelings of well-being.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May,
You can say your friend's name quietly in your mind,
Be well.
Breathing in,
Golden light filling your body,
May I be happy.
Breathing out,
Golden light shining from the white lotus at your heart,
May,
Be happy.
You can spend a few moments considering what it might mean for your friend to be truly well and happy.
And then as you send rays of warm golden light from your heart,
Let this light carry these sincere good wishes for your friend's happiness,
Enveloping the body and mind of your good friend.
May I be well.
May be well.
May be well.
May be well.
If you like,
Or if you are feeling confident,
You can choose to add more people in the category of those who are easy to like to your visualization now.
Or just one person,
As you prefer.
Teachers or family members or special friends.
You can visualize these people as one group before you and radiate loving kindness to them as a group with each out-breath.
Or you can alternate between individuals as you choose,
Spending some moments with one before moving on and radiating pure goodwill to another friend.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Golden light filling your body.
Breathing out,
May.
Be well.
Breathing in,
May I be happy.
Golden light filling your body.
Breathing out,
May this person or these people be happy.
Golden light radiating from your heart towards these beings.
While generating and radiating the warm feeling of metta and the pure golden light of loving acceptance,
Remember also to relax into this kind and embracing attitude.
This pure and uplifting energy.
While maintaining an awareness of your breath and also using your breath to generate and expand this quality of loving,
Kind,
Accepting attention and sharing it with others.
May God be with you.
Allowing metta to flow through and embrace or to bathe and wash the entire body and mind to radiate freely outwards towards these other beings as well,
Unobstructed,
Enveloping their bodies and minds.
May I be well,
May be well.
May I be happy,
May be happy.
Seeing these kind wishes and blessings of positive goodwill as warm golden light,
Swelling at your heart,
Shining brightly,
Filling your whole body and mind.
And on the out-breaths shine this golden light and warmth outwards from the lotus at your heart,
Bathing the bodies and minds of the being or beings visualized before you.
Wishing sincerely,
May these kind beings be well.
See this person or these people smiling,
Looking serene and happy.
May I be well,
May be well.
May I be happy,
May be happy.
Soon there will be the possibility to move on to the next stage of the metta meditation.
Once again,
Only continue further if you feel ready to include more beings in your metta meditation practice.
It is of course 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 towards.
When the time seems right to end the metta meditation,
Please do so mindfully and carefully,
Slowly dissolving your visualization and then taking some time to sharpen awareness of each in and out breath for an additional couple of minutes,
Re-establishing clear present moment body-based awareness before ending.
And lastly,
Dedicate merit appropriately if you wish.
Return for the next minute or so to the perception of yourself as a sentient being,
Who aspires to true freedom and happiness.
Bless yourself with goodwill and positive energy in the form of golden light in conjunction with the in and out breathing.
We do this in order to recharge and refocus before expanding the meditation further.
Breathing in,
Making the sincere wish,
May I be well.
Golden light shines brightly and easily from the white lotus in your heart.
And breathing out,
Wishing,
May I be happy.
This golden light radiates outwards,
Filling your body and mind with the warmth and love of pure metta.
As always,
As I talk,
Hear my voice as if it is in the distance and stay with the awareness of breathing in harmony with the heart of loving-kindness visualization.
Filling the heart and chest area with warm feelings of pure metta should be the primary focus.
When we practice generating and radiating loving-kindness towards people who we feel neutral towards,
We are beginning to stretch our human capacity for kindness and learning to become more benevolent and magnanimous towards sentient beings,
As well as more impartial and objective.
With this intention in mind,
Bring to mind now somebody who you see sometimes but don't know very well,
Or someone who you do know but feel somewhat indifferent towards.
Choose which person you will radiate loving acceptance and loving-kindness towards on this occasion.
Picture this person's face before you now.
Breathing in,
Golden light shines at the lotus in your heart.
May I be well.
Breathing out,
This golden light shines out from your heart,
Suffusing the person visualized before you.
In conjunction with the breathing,
On the in-breath,
Wishing oneself well.
And on the out-breath,
You can say the person's name if you know it.
If not,
Simply visualize the person.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May be well.
Continue to radiate loving-kindness towards this neutral person for the next minute or so.
Golden light shining at your heart and filling your body on the in-breath and shining outwards towards this other person on the out-breath.
Fill your heart.
If you like,
You can include more people in this category now.
The people who you see often but don't really know so well.
Are they at work or out around and about?
You are certain that just like you,
These people have hopes and dreams and wishes,
And that they would like to be well and happy.
And just like you,
They have challenges,
Difficulties and frustrations.
In loving kindness meditation,
We don't have to worry or try to fix anything.
We simply focus upon generating positive goodwill and the heart of genuine human kindness and then simply wish the best for ourselves and others.
Once again,
You can visualize these neutral people before you as a group if you like,
And radiate loving kindness towards them on the out-breaths,
Or alternate between different individuals after some time.
Breathing in,
Making the sincere wish,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
Wishing,
May be well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Golden light shines at the white lotus in your heart.
And breathing out,
Golden light and warmth shines towards the neutral person or people visualized before you may be well.
And breathing out,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
May I be well.
On each in-breath,
The golden warmth of metta blesses your own mind and body,
Suffusing your mind with loving acceptance and kindness.
And with each out-breath,
Loving kindness radiates outwards,
Suffusing the bodies and minds of these other beings.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
May this neutral person or these neutral people be well.
And breathing out,
May I be well.
While still generating loving kindness and visualizing healing golden light shining at your heart and then radiating it outwards towards these people,
The neutral people in your life,
Consider what would it mean to you to be truly well?
And what would it mean to be truly happy?
As dedicated spiritual practitioners,
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 ups and downs,
The difficulties and challenges of life.
I would suggest now that whatever you would most sincerely wish for yourself is also what would be most helpful to others.
And so try to wish for yourself now,
And for all of these neutral people too,
Whatever it is that would be a true blessing in life.
Breathing in,
Sincerely wishing with all of your heart,
May I be well.
And breathing out,
Just as sincerely wishing,
May this neutral person,
Or all of these neutral people be well.
Breathing in,
Golden light fills your body and mind.
And breathing out,
Golden light radiates outwards,
Suffusing all of these people.
And breathing out,
Golden light radiates outwards,
Suffusing all of these people.
Golden light and warmth shining at your heart,
Filling your body on each in-breath,
And radiating outwards towards other beings on the out-breaths.
And breathing out,
Golden light radiates outwards,
Suffusing all of these people.
And breathing out,
Golden light radiates outwards,
Suffusing all of these people.
And breathing out,
Golden light radiates outwards,
Suffusing all of these people.
Soon you will have a choice to move on to the next stage of the metta meditation.
The next stage of radiating loving-kindness towards a difficult person is generally considered a more difficult or 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.
Otherwise you can continue to radiate goodwill and loving-kindness towards yourself and neutral people for a little while longer on your own.
When the time seems right to end the metta meditation,
Please do so mindfully and carefully,
Dissolving your visualization slowly and taking some time to sharpen awareness of each in and out breath,
Re-establishing a clear,
Present moment,
Body-based awareness before ending.
As I continue to talk now,
Return to generating positivity and goodwill towards yourself in conjunction with the in and out breath,
Refreshing and refocusing the heart of loving-kindness along with the visualization of golden light shining at your lotus heart and radiating throughout your body.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
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.
Because of differences in character types and because of complex karmic relationships,
Most people have some people in their lives who are experienced as being more difficult to generate feelings of loving-kindness towards.
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.
While still being aware of your in and out breath and still generating and radiating the golden light of metta,
Think instead that this human being is someone who suffers,
Just like you do.
And they are someone who wishes for happiness in their own way,
Just like you do.
And that whatever unskillful things 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,
If we are honest,
We will admit,
Also still affect our own minds to some degree.
Being 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 difficult person you will radiate metta towards now.
Breathing in,
Wishing,
May I be well,
Golden light and warmth shines brightly at your heart.
Breathing out,
Wishing,
With pure goodwill,
Say this person's name quietly in your mind,
May be well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
Breathing out,
Wishing,
May this fallible human being with incredible potential be truly well.
May this person meet with excellent influences and opportunities in their life.
While still being aware of your in and out breaths,
Generating loving-kindness inwardly on the in-breath and radiating it out towards this person on the out-breath,
Make these kinds of wishes from your heart.
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.
With loving-kindness,
One can still see faults or mistakes in others,
But our goodwill is unshaken.
Your metta is unconditional.
It sees through the superficial surface into the ultimate nature or the ultimate potential of beings.
In conjunction with the in-breath,
Bathe your body and mind with the golden light of pure goodwill,
Synchronizing your visualization with the natural flow of the in and out breathing.
Breathing in golden light filling your entire body,
Radiating from the white lotus at your heart,
And breathing out the golden light and warmth of metta,
Radiating outwards to this person.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be well.
Breathing out may be well.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be happy.
Breathing out wishing may be happy.
Generating the warmth of pure benevolent goodwill in your heart,
Beautiful warm translucent shining golden light filling your body and mind on each in-breath,
Overflowing out of and through the pores of the skin,
And shining outwards from your heart with each out-breath,
Diffusing the body and mind of the person visualized before you.
See this person smiling and feeling well and happy.
Continue in this way for another minute or so.
Breathing in wishing may I be well.
Breathing out wishing may be 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.
After practicing radiating metta towards one of your difficult people,
It is important to return to the perception of oneself and wish oneself well before ending the meditation.
Because there is a heightened sensitivity in the mind and still some potential for reactivity,
We need to end these types of meditations with a lot of mindfulness and care.
Be sure to maintain a clear awareness of the in and out-breath for some time,
Keeping mindfulness sharp in the moment established in the body.
Be careful not to fall into any old stories.
Being aware of one in-breath and one out-breath,
The next in-breath and the next out-breath.
Breathing in wishing may I be well.
Breathing out wishing may I be happy.
As we train in developing loving kindness,
Over time this pure emotion or pure mind state can grow in strength and power.
Eventually metta 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 practice,
Metta 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 metta 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 as it is cultivated further,
It includes 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 metta towards one particular being or to a particular class of beings as you prefer.
For those who are feeling confident or who feel interested,
We can now expand the heart of loving kindness to be more broad and impartial,
And simply imagine including all beings in a benevolent wish for well-being.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be well,
And breathing out simply wishing,
May all beings be well.
Breathing in wishing,
May I be happy,
Breathing out sincerely wishing,
May all beings be happy.
As before,
The golden light at the lotus in your heart shines brightly on each in-breath,
And now with each out-breath,
See this golden light spreading outwards in all directions.
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.
You can imagine this light slowly growing bigger and bigger,
The golden light of pure intentions,
Unconditional love,
Loving kindness,
And you can visualize it embracing more and more beings,
Or simply filling more and more of the space within which all beings dwell.
Breathing in,
May I be well,
Golden light shines at your heart and fills your body.
Breathing out,
May all beings be well.
The light of metta shines out in all directions,
Filling all of space.
May it be well,
Golden light shines at your heart and fills your body.
May it be well,
Golden light shines at your heart and fills your body.
May it be well,
Golden light shines at your heart and fills your body.
May it be well,
Golden light shines at your heart and fills your body.
Although most of us do not have the capacity to truly embrace the entire universe and all of its inhabitants with loving kindness,
Visualizing that we can and making the effort to try will definitely increase our capacity over time.
Having imagined all beings as being happy and well,
Being blessed by the power of metta,
Allow the visualized golden light to slowly reduce in size now,
Returning to the periphery of your body,
And then slowly to the area around the white lotus at your own heart.
Lastly,
Return to the perception of yourself as the object of the metta meditation,
And once again 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,
And may I take care of myself and my life happily.
You can imagine the many petals of the white lotus slowly folding in,
And once again becoming a beautiful pristine,
Clear white bud nestled at your heart.
Feel confident that this lotus can blossom again and again,
Whenever there is an opportunity to radiate the light and warmth of loving kindness.
Imagine that this white bud is still protected by a little ball of golden light and warmth.
Try to keep some awareness of the lotus bud throughout the day and night,
Your good intentions and your human potential.
Practice being very mindful of your in and out breaths for a minute or so now,
Being aware of the entire in-breath and the entire out-breath.
Keep grounding awareness in the present moment.
Before concluding this metta 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.
