Welcome to this loving kindness meditation.
Allowing yourself to find a comfortable posture in which to sit or lie down.
And choosing to either close the eyes or find a gaze point somewhere out in front of you.
Trying to allow the awareness to arrive inwardly.
Taking this moment to really transition from all of the efforting and the going and the doing and begin to reside inwardly.
As you allow the awareness to rest inwardly,
Begin to take notice of the places of the body that are receiving support or making contact with support.
And see if you can allow the body to receive the support.
To feel into the stability and the groundedness that's here.
And also to notice the alertness or engagedness of the posture that you've chosen.
Feeling into the intention to arrive into this practice.
And if there's any place in the body that you feel tight or tense,
Allow for any subtle adjustment to bring in more openness into the body or a sense of relaxation.
As we practice loving kindness,
The invitation is to allow yourself to just be present to whatever's here.
There'll be phrases that are offered.
You may want to choose to use them or you may want to use your own.
It really is about allowing the awareness to cultivate this inner attitude or this inner experience of well-being.
And just noticing what arises by practicing in this way.
And so now allowing the awareness to begin to make connection to the breath as it resides in the region of the chest.
Just beginning to take notice of the way the breath opens and expands in this region on the inhale.
We contracts and falls away on the exhale.
Maybe first sensing the subtle movement of clothing on the skin or temperature of the skin.
And then more deeply the movement of the lungs,
The rib cage.
Then beneath that,
Lying in the mid region of the chest is the heart.
So maybe beginning to let the awareness connect to the sense of the heart as the heart is experiencing breathing.
So maybe there's a noticing of pulses,
Heartbeat.
Allowing the awareness to just rest in this region with awareness.
And so beginning this loving kindness practice by keeping the awareness close to this unfolding moment to momentness of the heart.
So allowing awareness to bring into mind a being in your life with whom you have great affection,
Adoration,
Love,
Torts.
This being might be a family member,
A close friend,
Might be a pet,
Could be a spiritual teacher.
May also be some being who is with us now or who is past.
Beginning to hold this being in awareness,
Beginning to offer to this being loving kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer harm.
May you be healthy and strong.
May you be happy and joyful.
And may you have ease of being.
May you be safe from inner and outer harm.
May you be healthy and strong.
May you be happy and joyful.
And may you have ease of being.
Allowing these phrases to radiate and be felt within the heart offered to this being.
Now shifting the awareness from holding this other being in awareness and offering loving kindness,
Beginning to offer this loving kindness to yourself.
So in the same way that we can offer to another,
We can offer to ourselves.
Really receive that same sense of love and kindness that we're able to offer to another for ourselves.
So holding the awareness of the heart.
May I be safe from inner and outer harm.
May I be healthy and strong.
May I be happy and joyful.
And may I have ease of being.
May I be safe from inner and outer harm.
May I be healthy and strong.
May I be happy and joyful.
And may I have ease of being.
Allowing these moments of this heart to radiate into your being.
And as we are arriving to this end of loving kindness practice,
Take a moment to offer to yourself a sense of gratitude,
A heartfelt thank you to your willingness to practice the efforts of the cultivation of this way of being.
