Meditation On Loving Kindness

The Meditation Newsletter

The following meditation practice, which is possibly over two thousand years old, can be used to evoke feelings of love, kindness, and generosity of the heart toward other people. It's the meditation on loving-kindness (my own version). It can feel a bit mechanical at first, but many people have reported great results from meditations like this one. Here's the routine:

Get comfortable -preferably sitting - and relax. You can do this wherever you normally do your meditating. Let your mind quiet down a little, then start repeating the following in your mind:

You can picture yourself as a child in the arms of a loved one, or just let feeling of kindness and love arise in you. Repeat the phrases many times, allowing the feelings to permeate your body and mind. After several weeks of doing this meditation, you may notice that there is a sense of loving kindness growing for yourself.

At this point, you can expand your meditation focus to include others. Replace "I" with "he" or "she" as you repeat the words, and hold a picture of a person in your mind. Practice the meditation while focusing on even the most difficult people in your life.

Start with this method as a meditation. Then, once you can easily recite the words, you can use them as a loving-kindness exercise while driving, or waiting for an appointment, or wherever.

Next Issue: Working on it.

Steve