Metta - Loving Kindness and why we need it now………

Those who have experienced loving kindness meditation (or Metta), will know both the beauty and challenge of the practice.

It is part of the final practice that I completed as part of my mindfulness teacher training over 20 years ago.

Why it can be so challenging is that it includes sending love to someone we have difficulty with as well as sending it to ourselves. Both of these are possibly something we have never considered before, and I guess why would we?

Why it has beauty is that through this we have an opportunity to transcend something special. By cultivating loving kindness towards ourselves first and then people we love, we start to have that soft and gentle feeling for the love in our hearts. Once we have built this emotion we can then include someone neutral and eventually someone we have a difficulty with.

If we hold onto negative feelings towards another we only harm ourselves these thought patterns can affect our moods and day to day life. If we can extend the love and kind thoughts we offer ourselves and loved ones, then we free ourselves.

So the words we use are:

May I be happy, May I be healthy, May I be safe, and May I live with ease

And the order we choose is:

Yourself first, then a loved one, a neutral person, a difficult person and finally all beings.

In this way we generate goodwill towards all humans, at a time when things are challenging people are holding a lot of anger. The planet is at an uncertain time and this is a simple practice that can help us to keep calm and away from the “drama”.

Cultivating Loving Kindness

Metta - Loving Kindness Practice