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 hardest 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.
Slowly 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.
Relaxing any tension as you embrace these parts of the body with gentle,
Natural awareness.
Feeling 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 judgements,
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.
Feeling the whole upper area of the body with gentle awareness.
Not judging,
Not discriminating.
Simply knowing the felt sense of this body now.
Feeling 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 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.
And in conjunction with the in breath,
You can mentally recite,
May I be well.
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.
Being being 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 well.
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.
Still 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.
Breathing 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 in,
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.
Feeling 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.
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.
Feel 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.
Feeling 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.
