This is the metta meditation for developing loving-kindness.
Stage I: you send loving-kindness to yourself. "May I be well. May I be happy. May I be free from suffering."
Stage II: you send loving-kindness to a friend you love. "May she be well. May she be happy. May she be free from suffering."
Stage III: you send loving-kindness to someone you have no real positive or negative emotions toward--the mailman, the person you see on the elevator every day but don't really know, your barista. Like that.
Stage IV: you send loving-kindness to someone you are in conflict with, someone you don't like, an enemy.
Stage V: you send loving-kindness to all beings everywhere.
Stages II through V are progressively more difficult. That's why they are ordered that way, duh. But Stage I can be the hardest. Only it comes first because the core belief is you can't truly have loving-kindness and compassion for anyone until you can grant it to yourself. Your wish for happiness and peace for yourself needs to be equal to your wish for happiness and peace for all others for this to really work. Not less than, not more than. Equal.
Isn't that beautiful? And so opposed to what we're taught in our society, where either self-sacrifice or selfishness are the cardinal virtues?
Okay, I'm going to shut up about metaphysics now! Should I tag these so you can all skip them?
xoxo
3 comments:
Perhaps thats why I cant seem to find any metta lately. I skipped the 1st stage, and tried to go directly to the 4th and 5th stages. Thats how I roll. Impatient little grasshoppah i am. :-)
By the way, what book is that from?Or where is that from?
It's from http://www.wildmind.org/metta
wildmind.org seems like an awesome website. I've only looked at the metta stuff and the meditation postures on there so far, but there's a lot more.
If you google loving-kindness or metta, other places have slight variations on the meditation. Like on one, stage II was metta towards a benefactor, someone you respect and are grateful to, then stage III was a loved friend, so there was an extra step.
On beliefnet.com, there's a seven minute audio loving-kindness meditation by Sharon Salzberg you can listen to if you have Real Player on your computer, which I don't. I just ordered a couple of her books though.
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