Metta Meditation Script

This script is designed for a 30-minute Loving Kindness Meditation. It can be utilized by practitioners as needed or read by individuals to gain a deeper understanding of this meditation style and learn effective techniques. This is especially beneficial for those facing interpersonal issues or relationship challenges, as well as for individuals dealing with self-judgment and self-criticism.

Welcome to this Loving Kindness practice

Loving kindness or metta meditation is an ancient practice in which we generate love and compassion, not only for ourselves, but for our loved ones, neutral people in our lives, and even difficult people. We also send it out to the world around us.

Take a moment to get comfortable. This practice can be done lying down, but it is best done in a seated position, either cross-legged on a cushion or sitting on a chair. If you're sitting on the chair, have your legs uncrossed and your feet parallel, hip-distance apart. You can rest the hands on the lap or by the sides.

If you're sitting on the cushion, allow the knees to point down slightly so that your knees are slightly lower than your hips for comfort. In both positions, draw the shoulders back and down in a nice comfortable neutral position. Relax all the muscles around the face, the jaw, and the neck. Allow the head to rest naturally at the top of the spine, not jutting forward, adopting a dignified and erect posture.

Now bring your attention to the areas of the body that are in contact with any surface below you. If you're lying down, draw your attention to the parts of the body in contact with the floor or the mat. If you're in a se

ated posture, draw your attention to the sit bones against the chair or the cushion, the feeling of the feet against the floor. You can even bring your attention to the feeling of the clothes against the skin.

Now bring your attention to the breath and imagine that you're breathing into and out from your heart center. It's almost as if you can feel your breath and your heartbeat together. Breathing into the heart and then breathing out from the heart.

Usually, in a metta meditation, we would bring love and compassion to ourselves first of all, but I have found that a lot of people struggle to do this. So we're going to start off by bringing a loved one to mind, somebody that you have an uncomplicated relationship with.

Picture this person in your mind's eye. It could be a family member or a friend or maybe even a pet. Someone that you don't struggle to have affection and love for. You have an uncomplicated relationship with this person or animal.

You can picture them glowing with happiness. You can visualize that smile on their face. Maybe even on the happiest day of their life.

Keeping this person in your mind's eye, repeat these phrases to yourself.

May you be happy

May you be free from suffering

May you live with ease

May you accept things as they are

May you accept yourself as you are

May you be free from fear

May your hopes for this life be realized

Visualize yourself sitting opposite this person in a room, any room. Visualize a gold light coming from your heart center to theirs as you send them this loving kindness. You can see that love flowing from your heart center to theirs, and allow this image to soften your heart. Savor and sink into those feelings that are arising right here and now. Visualize this person looking radiantly happy. This in turn makes you feel radiantly happy. You really do have a genuine desire for this person to be happy and free from suffering. So really sink into that feeling.

You can visualize now that love, that gold light coming from your heart to theirs and starting to spill out into the rest of the room. The gold light fills the room and then spills out through the windows out into the world around.

You can let this loved one go from your mind's eye now. Instead, bring to mind someone that you have more neutral feelings for. Somebody that you see on a regular basis but you don't really know that well or have a particular opinion about or feelings for.

Keep this person in your mind's eye and just remember that this person, who you don't even know, has the same wishes and desires as you do and your loved ones to be happy and free from suffering.

Send this person, who you don't even really know, love in exactly the same way. Again, visualize this neutral person in your mind. Picture them smiling, looking happy. You don't know much about them, so you don't know what would bring them happiness, but just imagine that they're having a happy experience. They're experiencing the thing that's making them most happy in life. Keeping them in your mind's eye, repeat these phrases to yourself.

May you be happy

May you be free from suffering

May you live with ease

May you accept things as they are

May you accept yourself as you are

May you be free from fear

May your hopes in this life be realized

Sitting opposite this person in a room now, visualize that gold light flowing from your heart center to their heart center. Sending them all that love and kindness and compassion just in the same way that you did for your loved one. You may find that it doesn't flow quite as easily and that's okay, but you're just sending that love regardless to this neutral person in your life. You can visualize that gold light coming from your heart to theirs, then spilling out into the rest of the room, through the windows and walls, and out into the world around you.

You can let this neutral person go from your mind's eye now and then bring to mind someone that you have a more complicated relationship with.

This is when the metta practice can become quite challenging for many people. This doesn't have to be somebody who has caused you severe harm or trauma. You may be better choosing somebody who you maybe just don't like in a more normal way, but this is up to you. Bring this difficult person to your mind's eye and visualize them looking radiantly happy. Again, maybe on the best, most happy day of their life. Feel that happiness for them, sink into those feelings of joy for them. Joy in the presence of joy. This may bring up some feelings of aversion for you if this is someone that you don't particularly like, because this isn't something that we would normally do. We try to not think of people that we don't like, whereas in the metta practice, we're actually intentionally bringing these people to mind and trying to cultivate that sense of compassion in the same way that we do for our loved ones. Trying to soften around the heart area, allowing that love to flow freely from your heart to theirs.

If you're struggling to send love to this person who you don't really like, it may help to visualize this person as a child, or to remind yourself that this person was once a child. There was once an innocence there, and perhaps it was the life experiences that this person had that led them to become the adult they are today. Any number of reasons could have led them to behave the way they behaved. So, let's just visualize them as a child and it may help to send the compassion to them. With this person in your mind's eye, repeat to yourself.

May you be happy

May you be free from suffering

May you live with ease

May you accept things as they are

May you accept yourself as you are

May you be free from fear

May your hopes in this life be realized

Visualize yourself sitting opposite this person in a room and allow that love, that gold light to flow from your heart center to theirs. Noticing anything that comes up for you, any feelings of aversion or restrictions. If you're struggling, you may find that over time, as you practice, this love flows more easily.

Visualizing that gold light, spilling out into the rest of the room, through the windows and walls, and into the world around you.

Now imagine yourself sitting on a mountain. This time we're going to send love and compassion out to all sentient beings in the world. So, as you sit strong on this mountain, bring to mind all sentient beings. Anyone that is suffering in the world, you're going to send your love and compassion to them in the same way that we did for the others, taking in all humans and animals, even insects, and most importantly, those who are suffering and who need it the most.

With the whole world in mind, say to yourself.

May you be happy

May you be free from suffering

May you live with ease

May you accept things as they are

May you accept yourself as you are

May you be free from fear

May your hopes in this life be realized

Sitting on the mountain, visualize that light moving from your heart center and you can imagine that gold light moving around the whole planet, blanketing the planet with your love and compassion.

You can visualize the gold light moving down into the ground, through the soil, nourishing the whole planet with love. Really sinking into that feeling of love, and kindness, and compassion that you feel for the Earth and all sentient beings on the planet.

Still sitting strong on the mountain, you're going to direct this kindness and love towards yourself. Now that you've generated all these loving feelings, just notice how it feels for them to flow around your body. Allow these feelings to really nourish your body, all your cells, organs, and muscles. You can visualize this gold light flowing around your body. Bringing that kindness and compassion to the whole body. Take a few moments now to really sink into those feelings of kindness for yourself.

With yourself in mind, you can say to yourself

May I be happy

May I be free from suffering

May I live with ease

May I accept things as they are

May I accept myself as I am

May I be free from fear

May my hopes in this life be realized

Place your hand onto the heart and say these phrases one more time with very deep intention and meaning.

May I be happy

May I be free from suffering

May I live with ease

May I accept things as they are

May I accept myself as I am

May I be free from fear

May my hopes for this life be realized

As we move towards the end of our metta practice, I would just like to thank you for showing up today, for getting to the mat or the cushion to prioritize your health and well-being, while also generating these feelings of love and kindness and compassion for others.

This practice does differ slightly from other mindfulness practices. With the others, we're not trying to force or change anything, we're just allowing whatever arises to arise, whereas with the metta practice, you're intentionally cultivating this feeling of compassion, you're trying to create a feeling in the body. Over time, as this gets stronger, you may be surprised by just how strong those feelings of compassion become for other people.

Thank you for taking part and enjoy the rest of your day.

Written by Tina Moore