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Date: 01/01/2014
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Loving Kindness Meditation

from chapter 13 of Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown; second edition, published 2014. Please acknowledge the source when you use any of these practices.

 

Loving-kindness, or metta, is the first of the four Abodes of the Buddha, also known as the Brahmaviharas. Meditation to arouse and sustain loving- kindness is a staple of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement for community development in Sri Lanka and is accorded minutes of silence at the outset of every meeting. Village workers find that it develops motivation for service and overcomes feelings of inadequacy and hostility.

Joanna first received instruction in this meditation from Sister Karma Khechog Palmo, a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. 

Here is a version that she has adapted for use in the West:

 

Close your eyes and begin to relax, exhaling to expel tension. Now center in on the normal flow of the breath, letting go of all extraneous thoughts as you passively watch the breathing-in and breathing-out …

Now call to mind someone you love very dearly … In your mind’s eye see the face of that beloved one … silently speak her or his name … Feel your love for this being, like a current of energy coming through you… Now let yourself experience how much you want this person to be freed from fear, how intensely you desire that this person be released from greed and ill will, from confusion and sorrow and all the causes of suffering … That very desire is the great loving-kindness …

Continue to feel that warm flow coming through the heart; see in your mind’s eye those with whom you share your daily life, the people you live and work with: family, close friends, colleagues … Let them appear around you. Behold them one by one, silently speaking their names … and direct to each in turn that same current of loving-kindness, undiluted … Among these beings may be some with whom you are uncomfortable or in conflict. With those especially, experience your desire that each be free from fear, from hatred, free from greed and ignorance and all the causes of suffering …

Now in wider concentric circles, allow your relatives and acquaintances to appear … Let the beam of loving-kindness play on them as well, pausing on the faces that appear in your mind’s eye. With them as well, experience how much you want their freedom from greed, fear, hatred and confusion, how much you want all beings to be happy …

Beyond them, in concentric circles that are wider yet, appear now all beings with whom you share this planet-time. Though you have not met, your lives are interconnected in ways you do not know. To these beings as well, direct the same powerful current of loving-kindness. Experience your desire and your intention that each awaken from fear and hatred, from greed and confusion … that all beings be released from suffering …

As in the ancient Buddhist meditation, we direct the loving-kindness now to all the hungry ghosts, the restless spirits that roam in suffering, still prey to fear and confusion. May they find rest … May they rest in the great loving-kindness and in the deep peace it brings…

By the power of our imagination let us move out now beyond our planet, out into the universe, into other solar systems, other galaxies, other Buddha-fields. The current of loving-kindness is not affected by physical distances, and we direct it now, as if aiming a beam of light, to all centers of conscious life … To all sentient beings everywhere we direct our heartfelt wish that they too be free of fear and greed, of hatred and confusion and the causes of suffering … May all beings be happy…

Now, from out in the interstellar distances, turn and behold your own planet, your home … See it suspended there in the blackness of space, like a jewel turning in the light of its sun … That living blue green planet laced with swirls of white is the source of all you are, all you’ve ever known and cherished … Feel how intensely you desire that it survive the mounting dangers and wounds of this time. Direct toward it the strong current of your love and prayers for its healing …

Slowly approach this planet now, drawing nearer, nearer, returning to this very part of it, this region, this place … And as you enter this place, behold the being you know best of all … the person you’ve been given to be in this lifetime … You know this person’s need for love and strong desire to do the right thing … Let the face of this being, your own face, appear before you … Speak the name you are called in love … And experience, with that same strong current of loving-kindness, how deeply you desire that this being be free from fear, released from greed and hatred, liberated from ignorance and confusion and all the causes of suffering … The great loving-kindness linking you to all beings is now directed to your own self … know now the fullness of it.

Contributor/Author: Joanna Macy & Molly Brown