Welcome to forgiving ourselves and others,
A meditation on loving kindness.
Before we begin,
Make sure you're in a position that you can maintain for the duration of this meditation.
When gently closing your eyes,
Take a deep breath in and a long breath out as you listen to the bell.
Taking another deep breath in,
Filling up the lungs and expanding the lungs before taking a long exhale out.
All the way to the end of the exhale before breathing in again deeply and exhaling all the way to the end of the exhale.
As you breathe all the way out,
Follow the sound of the bell as you listen and breathing in.
Just take a few more deep breaths in and out at your own pace.
All the way to the end of the exhale.
And gently letting go of the control of your breathing,
Just allow your body to breathe itself.
In other words,
Let your body revert back to whatever breathing feels most natural and rhythmic for you.
Whatever pace your body wants to breathe at,
Trust in your body's ability to breathe.
As you gently receive the breath in through the nose and let go of the breath out through the nose.
All the while feeling the belly rise on the inhale and feeling the belly fall and lower down on the exhale.
Rising and falling.
As we breathe in and as we breathe out.
As stated in the introduction to this meditation,
We're going to be sending and receiving loving kindness to ourselves and others.
Traditionally,
Loving kindness in the Buddhist tradition is known as metta.
And metta is an energy that emits from all of us,
We can all send and receive this loving kindness energy from our heart center.
So to begin with,
While the body breathes the body in the background,
Place your hand at the center of your chest on your heart and feel the hand pressing lightly against the chest.
As we breathe in and as we breathe out.
As we breathe in and as we breathe out.
Perhaps you can feel the heart beating underneath the light pressure of the hand.
Just take a moment to recognize that this heart is what keeps us alive.
This heart is what pumps our bodily fluids.
This heart nourishes us.
Take a moment to be grateful for the heart that sustains our life.
Breathing in to the chest,
Breathing into the heart,
Feel the chest expand and as you breathe out,
Feel the chest contract.
And all the while the heart keeps beating.
And with this hand resting on your heart,
We're going to begin with the phrases of metta towards ourselves.
So silently in your mind,
Repeating these phrases after me.
May I be peaceful.
You may want to take a breath in and a breath out.
May I be peaceful.
And feel that metta spread out across the body from your heart.
Silently repeating the next phrase.
May I be happy.
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be filled with loving kindness.
Breathing in the phrase.
Spreading the metta across the body from the heart.
May I be free of pain and suffering.
May I be free of pain and suffering.
May I be safe.
And may I be at ease.
And feel with this last phrase,
The warmth of metta moving through our entire body,
Originating in the heart center,
Spreading out across the torso,
The chest,
Shoulders,
The arms,
The lower half of the body,
The legs.
Feeling that love for ourselves,
That appreciation,
That gratefulness,
And ultimately that forgiveness of ourselves.
Every breath.
Now bring to mind someone that you love or something that you love,
Maybe an animal,
But a sentient being,
Something that's alive.
Maybe a parent,
Maybe a good friend,
Maybe your son or your daughter.
Bring their face to mind and clearly picture their face in your mind's eye so that you can see every detail of their face as they stand there and they smile at you.
See them smiling.
Picture their faces as clearly as you can and then silently in your mind repeating these metta phrases towards them.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
Taking a breath.
May you be happy.
May you be happy.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
Feel this emanate from your heart center and spread out towards them in your mind.
May you be free of pain and suffering.
May you be free of pain and suffering.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And with that final phrase,
That metta energy,
See their smile grow ever so wide,
Wider than you've ever seen them smile before as they feel the loving kindness that you're sending towards them.
See them thank you and gently allow that image,
The love that you're sending them to slowly fade.
To finish this meditation for this last visualization,
Bring to mind someone that you don't know so well.
A stranger,
Maybe someone you only met briefly,
Or maybe someone that you find difficult or challenging in your life.
And bring that person to mind.
See their face as clearly as you can.
If it's a stranger,
Just visualize their face as best as you can remember.
And if it's someone challenging,
Picture their face clearly.
And repeating these same phrases silently in your mind,
Sending loving kindness to this person who also deserves compassion.
May you be peaceful.
May you be happy.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be free of pain and suffering.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And on that final phrase,
Feel the loving kindness from the heart emanate towards this stranger or this person that you find challenging and see them begin to smile.
See them receive your loving kindness energy and see that picture slowly fade away from the mind's imagination.
Finally,
Let's finish by sending loving kindness to all sentient beings by silently repeating in our minds,
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be filled with loving kindness.
May all beings be free of pain and suffering.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be at ease.
With that final phrase,
Gently remove the hand from the heart.
Come back to the feeling of the breath in the nose as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
As you breathe in and as you breathe out.
Imagine roots growing from the feet,
The soles of the feet,
Growing roots down into the ground,
Grounding you back down to earth and gently become aware of the room and the environment around you as you begin to lengthen your inhale,
Deepen your exhale,
Bringing your attention back to the room,
Wiggling your fingers and toes.
Gently beginning to open your eyes on the third ring of the bell.
And as you open your eyes,
Feel the strength of your heart still emanating this loving kindness energy as you continue on with your day,
Knowing that you have a full resource of forgiveness towards yourself and towards others and a full resource of loving kindness.
Thank you for your practice.
