Integrated Lovingkindness

This practice offers the traditional livingkindness (metta) meditation in a manner that is integrated with the body and the breath. It begins with some cues for working with the breath to help settle the mind and nervous system before moving on to heart-opening contemplations.

Transcript

The So take a moment to find the appropriate posture for you.

Cross legged on a cushion or sitting in a chair with feet planted on the floor flat.

Hands on either side of the lap right at mid-thigh so that the shoulders are balanced,

The collar bones are wide.

Let's take a moment to feel the body's connectivity to the earth.

In particular,

The visceral sensations of contact in your butt,

In your feet,

Maybe in your legs.

Let it register that you were supported in this practice and that you were perfectly safe at this moment.

Please take that in.

That you were safe,

That this is a practice that is very much about creating a desirable feedback loop in our lives.

And it's really a practice of belonging,

Making a home of our lives,

Making a home of our hearts,

Finding our home within the family of things,

If you will.

So take a big deep breath and let it out through the mouth.

Take another deep breath and just let all of that register.

Safety,

Gratification,

And belonging all present in this practice.

We begin by imagining the sun is shining on our face.

Like it's a crisp,

Cool,

Cloudless day and we are just basking in the sun,

Receiving it on our face.

A simple,

Pleasurable sensation,

This sort of childlike feeling of basking in the sun.

Let yourself go there in your imagination.

Feeling the warmth and the light on your brow and on your eyelids and on your cheeks,

On the bridge of your nose,

On the jaw,

On your earlobes.

You can take a breath and as you exhale,

Really let the muscles of the face melt in the warm sunlight.

And imagining that sunlight is permeating the skin and sinking down into the head.

Permeating the brain,

Shining down into the neck and throat.

Down into the tops of the shoulders.

Down into the arms and the hands and the fingers.

You can take another breath here and just really let the head and the arms and hands melt.

Relax.

And then feeling the sunlight in the space of the heart,

The shoulder blades,

The lungs and ribs,

The spine.

Sinking down on this next exhale.

Feeling the sun shining all the way down into the belly,

The organs,

The low back,

The tailbone.

Really let this region soften tension melting away,

Dissipating.

Down into the pelvis and the hips and the glutes.

Feel the warmth of the sun there.

Imagine the warmth.

As you breathe out this next breath,

It completely melts and relaxes.

And down the legs,

Down into the feet.

Right through the whole body and down into the earth.

Letting the spine grow long,

Letting the head lift.

Forehead tilts forward just a little bit.

Feel the whole body and what is shifted now.

Feel the whole body breathe,

Breathe in.

And the whole body breathe out.

Let your exhales go out and dissolve.

Do not inhale right away but rather wait and let the mind rest in the gap.

And then when you feel the natural pool of the inhale,

The inspiration of the inhale come from the body then shepherd it in.

Don't pull but assist the inhale.

The next exhale goes out,

Dissolves into space.

Just hang out and watch what happens to the mind in that gap.

And from here,

For the next couple of minutes,

Localize your attention to the space of the heart.

Breathing into the center of the chest.

As you breathe out,

The exhale just resonates,

Sort of spreads out through the body and into the environment.

But you're working with the breath in the space of the heart as it flows in and out,

Healing out theenosine and healing out your pod exhausted man And we'll begin the practice in earnest.

So take a moment to picture somebody from your life that's been good to you,

That you admire.

Bring them into the room with you and see their face,

Their eyes,

Their cheekbones,

What they might be wearing.

Know what their name is.

It doesn't have to be the perfect person,

Just someone it's easy for you to care for,

To feel feelings of caring for.

And then notice something here,

That this is someone who when they have a victory,

You celebrate that with them.

And if you were,

Or if they were to experience tragedy in some way,

You would feel a little bit of that too,

Right?

That this is somebody that you want to see the good increase for,

And you do not want to see negative increase for.

In a nutshell,

That is the definition of loving kindness.

So from this natural place of wanting good things for this person,

Please offer them these phrases and you'll connect this to the breath.

I'll say the phrase and you'll repeat it mentally as I breathe in,

And as you breathe out,

It'll just go out to them.

It'll just resonate into the atmosphere towards this person.

So breathing in,

May you be happy.

Letting it resonate to them.

And then breathing in,

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

And may you be free.

And may you be free.

May you be free.

Okay,

And you can let go of this person.

And next we'll practice for ourselves.

So picture yourself like you're looking in a full-length mirror.

And on this day you choose to look yourself right in the eye.

The same thing,

Make it as real and as high definition as you possibly can.

For you that might be less visual and more just feeling it,

And that's fine.

I hear you are with yourself.

And what is that like?

Do you wanna run and hide,

Or is this pretty comfortable for you?

I wanna point something out to you here,

And that is that all day,

Every day,

You work so hard.

You work so hard to increase the good in your life and to decrease the negative in your life,

Don't you?

Waking up on time and getting to wherever it is that you need to be on time,

And being a good friend or a son or daughter or sibling or partner,

A partner,

Coworker,

Eating the right things,

Going to the exercise classes,

Going to therapy,

Drinking the green juices,

Doing this meditation,

Right?

All day,

Every day,

You are going after what feels good and away from what feels bad,

And that is the essence of self-love.

Whether you knew it or not.

So with the breath,

May I be happy.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I feel safe.

And may I be free.

I deserve to feel free.

Okay,

So let go of the self-image.

And next,

I'll ask that you think about somebody who's in your life that you don't really think about ever,

Right,

Like the person who does your hair or serves you coffee at the cafe or your mail carrier or somebody else,

Your neighbor,

Somebody that's in your life,

But you probably just don't think about them ever.

Doesn't have to be the perfect one,

But as best as you can,

Bring that person into the room.

See them with as much clarity as you can.

Feel their presence.

Look them in the eye.

What is it like to be with this person?

Maybe it's neutral,

Maybe there's some social anxiety.

But can you consider for a moment that this person is much more like you than they are unlike you?

They have a birthday,

They have a social security number and a bank account that sometimes freaks them out or sometimes gives them pleasure.

And they have complicated relationships with certain family members just like you do.

And they have fever dreams and great heartache and great hopes and great fears just like you do.

Just like you,

They wanna be happy and they want to be free.

And so with the breath and from the heart,

Inhaling,

May you be happy.

Inhaling,

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you feel safe.

May you be free.

May you be free.

May you be free.

Really let that shine over to them from the heart.

You can even see them receiving this and their face lighting up.

May you feel free.

Let go of the neutral person.

And now we'll call into mind and call into the room with you someone who irritates you.

Please don't worry about it.

Someone who irritates you.

Please don't work with somebody who's traumatized you or deliberately hurt you unless you're experienced with this practice and can handle that,

But just somebody who gets under your skin.

See them as clearly as you can in 4D.

Face their eyes,

Everything about them,

Know what their name is.

And feel what it's like to be in their presence.

Go ahead and be honest.

Let it come.

The discomfort,

The resentment,

Whatever it is,

It's okay to feel this here.

And then in the face of this,

We train ourselves to hold our hearts and our minds to the things that we're doing.

We train ourselves to hold our high intention with the breath and from the heart.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be healthy.

May you feel safe.

And may you be free.

Yes,

You.

May you feel free.

Okay,

Let's take a big deep breath and just let all of that go.

Okay,

So we'll go just a little while longer here as we begin to open the mind to the environment around us.

Whether you're home or at your office or somewhere else,

Just start thinking about the people who are maybe in the building or maybe out on the street or in the other buildings around you.

Doing their business,

Walking around,

Buying things,

Eating.

And so on,

All these beings who feel just like you do,

Who want good things just like you do.

And we'll send out into the environment with the breath.

May each of us be happy.

And may each of us be free.

Grow the mind and your awareness even bigger and start to consider your entire neighborhood surrounding you.

Start to consider life forms that aren't human,

Such as animals and insects and birds in the sky.

All these beings who feel,

Who want the good things just like you.

With the breath,

May each of us be happy.

And may each of us be free.

And then grow,

Grow your mind.

Go even further and think about your entire city.

This entire spot on the map that is just teeming with life.

Already,

If we include all sentient life forms,

It's countless actually.

How much life is going on here?

All of us wanting love and to be happy and free.

So may each of us be happy.

May we all be free.

And then start to consider the vastness of life in the state that you live in.

And the country that you live in.

And then see the whole world,

The entire globe,

All seven continents,

All the ocean space,

All the sky space,

Beings underneath the Earth's surface even.

This entire planet teeming,

Seething with life.

May we all be happy.

May we all be free.

And at this point I really like to just imagine the entire globe,

Just surrounded in a force field of good intentions and benevolent wishes.

A world without war.

A world without greed.

A world without hate.

A world where we're tripping over ourselves to help one another.

A world where we all have enough.

Can you at least energetically rest in a vision of some sort of that world?

The other world that's possible.

The other world that's possible.

It's very much like you're the sun now,

Shining those beautific rays of light and warmth.

Out into the environment.

And just notice how you feel.

Just for another few moments here,

Rest in that feeling,

Breathe with that feeling.

And if you want to,

And it feels right,

You can let the two corners of the mouth spread apart from one another in opposite directions across the face.

Maybe up towards the eyes a little bit.

This gesture that's been shown to release serotonin from the brain.

And just hold that for the duration of the bell and see what that's like.

Okay.

And just very gently transitioning from your practice.

Reviews

I appreciated the fact that the guidance was very real, using a language that made me step outside of the normal formality of lovng kindness meditation.

So grateful for these recordings. Lovingkindness broken down in a way I can understand and relate to. Thank you for this beautiful meditation.

I started my morning with this practice. It was so enriching and revitalizing to set the tone of the day with benevolence, compassion, and kindness. I look forward to continuing to deepen my loving-kindness practice throughout my day. Thank you for taking the time and energy to offer this guided metta practice!

Lokah Samastah Sukinho Bhavantu

Thanks so much for this. The full circle image of receiving and finally becoming sunlight and warmth for others is really nice. I’ll try that on. 🙏