Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa Coming into meditation oriented toward the sublime quality of loving-kindness,
Metta,
Friendliness.
Though the quality of metta itself is often described in a very soft,
Tender kind of way,
The traditional wishes that go along with the feeling of metta begin with the wish for beings to be safe,
Safe from harm,
To be protected.
Metta originally was in part a magic spell for protection from harm.
Begin turning toward this mysterious protection,
Perhaps by deepening the breath,
Beginning to wash the body from the dust of the day,
The week,
The month,
The year.
This extraordinary alchemy that happens with every breath where we draw in fresh air,
Inspiration from the outside.
It immediately is mixed with our own blood and our blood gives back the carbon dioxide we produce as a gift for the plants,
The trees.
We breathe in their gift of oxygen,
Rich air,
And we breathe out our gift of carbon dioxide,
Rich air.
And it's a gift in both directions.
There are no waste products in this cycle.
We're sitting,
Settling into stillness in meditation,
Breathing,
Taking in what's good and giving out what's good with a deep,
Tender reciprocity with the world around us.
As the stillness of the body and the washing wave of the breath mix,
Letting the heart become quiet,
Set aside the stories of the day.
And perhaps just based in this original reciprocal giving that we call breathing in and out,
Find in that or anywhere very close by,
Close to the body,
Close to the heart,
The feeling of friendliness,
Of just wishing well to the plants,
The trees,
And to ourself as part of the cycle of exchange.
And this opening wish in the practice of loving-kindness,
The wish to be protected from harm.
Traditionally,
You would hold an image of a being,
Say the words,
The words of the magic spell,
And invite the feeling to grow through the field of the body.
The feeling is love,
Is friendliness.
The image begins with yourself,
And the magic spell is the wish for safety.
You don't have to hold a visual image of yourself because you're here.
You can feel the body breathing.
You can hold the sensate image,
And the felt sense of the field of the body-mind,
Of your heart present here.
Find as much tenderness for yourself as you can,
And say in the depths of your own heart,
The magic spell,
May I be safe.
You can change the words to make them more resonant for you.
Say it in a way that moves you.
May I be protected from harm of all kinds,
Inner and outer.
Those are versions I like.
Make your own.
Breathing,
Holding the sense of yourself as a felt presence,
Full of tenderness,
Simple friendliness,
Well-wishing.
Say your phrase again.
Here's mine.
May I be safe,
Protected from harm of all kinds,
Inner and outer.
That's the first phrase of four traditionally.
The whole sequence,
Again,
You can vary it to suit yourself,
But a classic sequence goes safety,
Happiness,
Strength,
Ease.
So I'll say each of the phrases once with some space after,
And you can repeat it or change it as you like.
Hold the felt sense of yourself,
And say the magic spell.
May I be safe.
May I be happy and peaceful.
May I be strong in body and mind.
May I live with ease and wellbeing.
And really take it in if you can.
Tenderness and care for this one sitting right here.
We'll say the short versions of the phrases again,
And either repeat them or say your own.
May I be safe and protected.
May I be happy and peaceful.
May I be strong in body and mind.
May I live with ease and wellbeing.
Feel the tenderness,
However you can connect with it.
And now let's pick somebody,
Anyone you would like to send this wish for protection and safety to.
Pick a real person.
Could be someone you know,
Who could use a bit of love magic.
Could be someone out in the world who could use protection.
And support.
If you know what they look like,
Imagine them.
If you know their name,
Say their name a few times in your heart.
I'll say the short phrases again,
And then just leave some silence and you can repeat your phrases.
Safety,
Happiness,
Strength,
Ease.
Really wishing it for this person.
May you be safe and protected.
May you be happy,
Peaceful.
May you be strong in body and mind.
May you live with ease and wellbeing.
And you can just keep the phrases going around and around.
Hold their image or their felt sense.
And wish them well,
Wish them protection.
And if the mind wanders during metta practice,
Just start the phrases again.
If you're getting a sense of the feeling,
If the heart feels tender at all,
Breathing into that,
Letting it grow.
If there's too much feeling,
Like it's over threshold for you,
Just set the phrases down,
Open the eyes.
And just be present in the room you're in,
That you are safe in this moment right here.
And just come back to simple presence.
And if you wanna go on one more step,
We can go right to the wish for safety for all beings.
Known and unknown,
Human and non-human,
Friendly and unfriendly,
Everyone,
Everywhere.
We know longs for peace,
Fears,
Distress,
Even if their actions take them very much away from peace or very much toward distress.
And we long for safety,
Protection,
And freedom,
And ease.
And we can do very confused things in the world searching for these.
So we shift the phrases to wish peace for all beings everywhere.
So you could hold the whole planet in your mind's eye or the felt sense of all of existence,
Or you could hold a mass of people or animals or beings in your heart.
And we'll say the phrases.
May all beings everywhere be safe and protected.
May all beings everywhere be happy and peaceful.
May all beings everywhere be strong in body and mind.
May all beings everywhere live with the ease of well-being.
And repeat these in your own way.
Letting the mind become still and the heart fast.
Until every fiber of your being is singing out the wish.
For our last few minutes of meditation,
You could continue with whatever set of phrases you've been working with,
Continuing to invite the feeling to build.
Or you could turn just to the feeling,
The loving or kind or tender heart.
And just breathing with that,
Invite it to fill the space you're in.
To shine out beyond this place.
All the way around the ecosystem you're in,
The watershed,
The state.
Over the mountains and the oceans.
The wish for all beings to be at ease.
In the ancient language of Pali,
It goes like this.
SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE,
All,
SATTA,
Beings.
SUKHITO,
Happiness or ease.
ONTU,
May they be.
So I'll sing this a few times around.
If you're in a space where you can make sound,
Join me in a very spread out chorus.
Draping the spell of metta around the aching shoulders of the planet.
SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU SABBE SATTA SUKHITO ONTU
