We're now going to meditate on having an open heart or some would say this is a meditation on love.
I avoid the term love a little bit because it means so many things to different people but if we were to define love as simply wanting others to be happy then that's what this meditation is about.
Having an open heart is important in finding happiness because although meditations like impermanence etc.
Do allow us to let go and feel a sense of peace we actually need an open heart and the connection and the knowledge that we're helping others to feel the happiness which then complements the peace that we feel from the other meditations.
So it's like two wings of a bird.
We need meditation on letting go to achieve peace and meditation on compassion and love to achieve happiness.
So now love should be universal in scope applying to all people.
Now this sounds good but in practice we often have a lot of work to do and we find there are definitely some people we love but many we don't love and some we actively dislike.
So this meditation is good at finding a little bit more equanimity and practicing extending that love out to all beings.
So when we're ready we'll begin.
In this meditation we begin by visualizing ourself sitting on a vast plain surrounded by all the people of the worlds.
We can imagine our father on our right and our mother on our left and our friends and family gathered around us.
Now if any of these people have passed away that's fine we can still just imagine them there sitting smiling at us supporting us and feel that natural love that exists between us.
But also sitting with us are those people that we've had difficulties with in the past and we place those people in front of us.
So there they are sitting in front of us and then extending past them are other acquaintances that we know not so well and gradually extending out to people that we've never met and then off into infinity we can actually see millions and millions of people all the peoples of the world and we can even imagine if you like all the animals and sentient beings that exist in this world and even in this universe.
And to gain some equanimity before we start meditating on love we consider the fact that all beings irrespective of who they are have one thing in common and that is that all beings wish for happiness.
It's a deep desire that all of us want in our hearts is to find happiness and we all in fact deserve at our deepest core level that happiness and although we all at some times have made mistakes and hurt others that in the end we all want and we all deserve that happiness.
And is our wish to extend our love and support out to all beings equally to allow them to have this chance.
So in a moment we're going to start by getting in touch with those feelings of an open heart and of love towards beings but it's said that before we can love others we must first love our self.
So imagine if you will a feeling of light and love in your heart and to help you do this you may wish to take your mind back and recall a time when you felt especially loved.
It might have been with your parents or perhaps a situation with your favourite aunt or uncle but cast your mind back to a time when you felt really loved.
And then as you contemplate and associate and see through your own eyes and hear the things that you heard and feel the feelings that you had at this time begin to feel that warm energy in your heart and as you do so wish yourself the very best.
Go ahead and wish that you had every happiness possible and as you do this wishing also visualise that the warm energy at your heart extends out through all the cells of your body covering yourself with love.
And then once we've felt that we have love permeating our body we're able now to give it to those others and we can begin by giving it to our friends and families.
Hopefully this should come naturally and allow that love to generate and you can imagine the light beaming out from your heart to those beings,
Friends and family,
Your parents,
Siblings etc around you and filling their hearts with love and knowing that you wish them every happiness that the world can give them and feel that they smile and feel that love and support you by sending their own love back to you again filling you with their love.
And as we do this we now turn our attention to those people in front of us,
Those ones that in the past we've had difficulty with and remembering that all things are impermanent and that one day even though they may be difficult at the moment they may turn out to be friends in the future.
This is the way of things.
But irrespective of how things turn out to the future remind yourself that everyone even those people that we have difficulty with deserve happiness and although they've maybe done things through ignorance that have hurt us we now project our love and support and forgiveness of the things that they've done towards those people filling them up with the light and energy that they need to overcome their own difficulties so that they can be themselves a more loving person.
Allow your energy to just simply flow out from your heart and pour into them and seeing them overcome their own ignorances and difficulties and negative emotions to allow them to become a more loving forgiving person and go on to find their own happiness in their own way.
Once we've done this we extend out that light and love to people we don't even know yet.
People that we may get to know in the future or maybe not.
Irrespective our love should be totally encompassing and should extend out to all beings irrespective of whether we know them or not.
And so allow that light to flow out to the infinite beings in this world whether they be humans or animals just allow your love to flow out to them so that they can find every happiness that is possible for them.
And really visualize that they receive that warmth and energy and that that allows them to feel supported to find their own way and their own happiness in their life.
And in turn they project their own love out not only towards you but to all other beings so that we end up with a plane an infinite plane full of beings that are themselves filled with love and that also project out love to others.
Particularly consider those strangers that are lonely,
Sick,
Hungry,
Confused,
Oppressed,
Others experiencing huge difficulties in the world and imagine your love unbeknownst to them flowing like rivers of luminous energy touching them and filling them.
Feeling that they're surrounded by love and allowing them to cope more easily with the difficulties that they're undergoing.
And as you see this love extending out infinitely conclude that you definitely have the potential to love everybody and generate a strong wish to work on your own difficulties of anger,
Impatience,
Selfishness,
Etc.
So that you may generate this love unconditionally for those around you.
And keep meditating in this way as we finish the meditation.
