A Meditation on Loving Kindness
I want to introduce you to a meditation that I have been using for quite a few years now. This meditation is very popular in the Buddhist tradition, although of course anyone can benefit from it, it is known as the Loving Kindness meditation.
Before getting started I'd like you to give you a few mental images to contemplate. I found these very helpful images when listening to one of Rudolf Steiner's lectures.
Setting the Stage
First of all picture two glasses, one of them is half full, the other is empty.
Imagine that you pour a bit water from the one into the other. As a matter of course the one what was empty ends up with more water than it had before and the one that was half filled ends up a little emptier.
Continue this until the glass that was half full is finally empty.
Next, picture if you will the same two glasses, one half full, one empty.
But this time imagine that the glass that pours out the water actually becomes more full everytime it pours water out. The more it pours out the fuller it becomes.
Of course in the physical world this is an impossibility, but this is spiritually possible and we do it all the time. This is how love works.
If we give love to someone our total amount of love does not lessen, on the contrary - we actually become more filled with love! The more love - sincere honest love - we give, the more we are filled with love.
I thought this was a wonderful image to remind us of the true nature of love before beginning this meditation. By giving love we will find that we are actually able to give more and more love.
Loving Kindness Meditation
Ok, on to the meditation.
1. First of all sit comfortably in whatever style you prefer, get yourself settled and into a relaxed state of mind.
2. In your mind's eye picture yourself, your own face, with a brilliant smile, just beaming. Imagine yourself the happiest you have ever been.
3. Hold this image in your mind and repeat to your self:
"Everything is as it should be, always and forever, you are surrounded by love, you are nourished by love, you radiate love.
4. Lose yourself in this image, in this sense of love.
5. Next, choose someone you feel a deep afinity with - a good friend, someone who you feel strong positive energy for, picture their happy, smiling face and repeat the same phrase (of course you can word it any way you like - the point is not the actual phrases you use but the creation of an energy of love surrounding the person you are picturing).
6. Repeat this process again with someone you feel is a teacher, someone older or wiser that you have learned a great deal from.
7. This is perhaps the most important step, next picture someone who you have had problems with. Maybe a co-worker you just don't get along with, or someone who has hurt you in the past. Picture that person also with a radiant smiling face, and repeat the procedure again.
8. Now we begin to extend that feeling of love outward. I like to start with my immediate environment. Picture this love spreading to all in your house, all in your neighborhood, your city, your country, your continent and finally the whole earth itself.
9. Let your mind rest on the thought that the world is surrounded by love always and forever. Expand this thought outward into the universe itself, until the entire cosmos, all that exists is surrounded by and radiated with your sense of love.
10. Rest in this state for as long as you wish.
11. Whenever you are ready start to feel that universal cosmic love in your heart, let it become a part of you. Realize that you and all beings are in fact surrounded by, nourished by, and radiating love.
* You can find audio recordings of Rudolf Steiner's lectures and books here.