Settling into your comfortable posture for meditation.
This will be a period of metta practice.
Metta is a Pali word that in English is often translated as loving kindness.
Another translation and one that I perhaps prefer is that of friendliness.
And so seeing if your posture can adopt a sense of friendliness or kindness towards the body.
If there's anything you can do to be just 3 to 5% more comfortable or at ease,
Going ahead and doing that now.
Following the traditional order,
We'll begin with metta or friendliness towards ourselves.
For many,
This can be difficult to muster or to imagine.
And so it can be helpful to take a moment to reflect on your good qualities or your basic goodness.
A moment to reflect on something about yourself that you appreciate.
It might be something as simple as the way you prepare your morning coffee.
If this feels difficult to you might imagine what would a close friend say about you?
How would they describe your best qualities?
And another final invitation here is perhaps to reflect on the last time you showed someone else a basic kindness.
Perhaps you held the door for someone,
Carried groceries for someone,
Or didn't delay in returning a phone call or an email.
Appreciating your good qualities and your basic goodness and then bringing to mind an image of yourself.
It might be yourself as you are right now or perhaps an image of yourself as a child or some other period of your life.
Ideally,
When your needs were being met.
When you were happy and content.
Holding this image of yourself in mind and silently offering these phrases,
Repeating them over in the mind and resting your attention around the heart.
The heart center somewhere near the physical heart at the center of the chest.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy and strong.
May I be safe and protected from all harm.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy and strong.
May I be safe and protected from all harm.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Stay with the phrases,
Perhaps choosing one to repeat in the mind.
Or if there's some felt sense of metta friendliness at the heart center you might just rest your attention there.
And then letting this go and moving on to the benefactor.
The benefactor being someone who has shown you some kindness in your life.
This might be a teacher,
An ancestor or elder or friend.
Someone who has shown you a kindness or who has been there for you.
Has offered sage advice in times of need.
Perhaps just someone who you admire.
Not worrying about picking the perfect person,
You might just choose the first person who comes to mind.
If you're a visual person you might picture this person next to you or somewhere in nature or perhaps on vacation somewhere where they're healthy,
Safe,
Well.
If you're not a visual person you might just say their name in your mind a couple of times.
Again the invitation is to rest your attention,
Just lightly at the heart center.
Feeling into the energy or just felt sense of the body around the physical heart.
And silently,
Offering these phrases.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy and strong.
May you be safe and protected from all harm.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy and strong.
May you be safe and protected.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Staying with the words or felt sense of metta or friendliness at the heart center and holding this image or name of person in mind.
Moving on to the neutral person.
The neutral person being someone who's in your life in some way but who you don't really have strong feelings about either positive or negative.
Maybe you don't know them so well either.
Some examples might be a neighbor who lives a few blocks over.
Someone who you run into on transit often.
A cashier at a store that you shop at.
The person who delivers your mail.
You may or may not know this person's name,
And that's okay.
If you know their name you might say it in your mind.
Or just picture them where you last saw them.
Allowing this person to become as vivid as possible in the mind and heart.
Resting your attention at heart center.
May you be happy.
Maybe healthy and strong.
May you be safe and protected.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
May you be happy.
Maybe healthy and strong.
May you be safe and protected from all harm,
Inner harm,
Outer harm of the world.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Connecting to this intention of wishing well-being for this neutral person.
Resting your attention at your heart center,
Repeating the phrases in the mind.
Letting go of your attention on the neutral person and coming back to a sense of the body sitting or lying down.
Spending a moment in appreciation for this body.
For this period of practice.
And then letting it all go.
If the eyes are closed,
Opening them gently.
Letting go of the intention of friendliness into the next moments of your day.
