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BONUS Loving Kindness Meditation
385 Plays2 years ago
This guided meditation is the follow-up to the Season 2, Episode 2 episode, on Cultivating Loving Kindness. Download it... listen to it... share it with your friends!
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Transcript
Introduction to Loving Kindness Meditation
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This guided meditation is designed to help you develop feelings of loving kindness toward yourself and those around you.
Preparing Your Body and Mind
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Sit comfortably in a chair, on a cushion, or on the floor. Relax into a gentle posture
00:00:33
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without tension or tightness. Close your eyes. You don't need to clamp your eyes shut. Just allow them to close softly and gently. Feel the weight of your body resting on your seat, whatever that seat may be.
Releasing Physical Tension
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Feel gravity pulling you to a comfortable resting place supported by the earth. Let your hands rest comfortably in your lap or on your thighs. Take in a slow deep breath and let it out.
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Don't stress over how deep the breaths are or for how long you hold them. Just breathe comfortably, deeply, and slowly. And continue breathing just like that. Feel the muscles in your neck loosen, release tension,
00:02:00
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Gently move your head from side to side and then back and forth. Visualize all the tension leaving your neck muscles and your scalp. Feel your face relax. Feel the lines in your forehead smooth out.
Connecting with Past Acts of Kindness
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Allow your shoulders to loosen and slump. Feel the tightness in your shoulders floating away. Feel the tension in your arms pouring out your fingertips like water. Feel your fingers, your palms, your hands relaxing and loosening.
00:03:07
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Keep letting those easy breaths come in and go out at a slow, natural rhythm.
Cultivating Inner Loving Kindness
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As the tension flows away from you, think of a moment when you felt loving kindness, when you were kind and helpful to someone for no real reason, except to be kind.
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just because you wanted to help them without any thought of what it could do for you. Maybe you stopped to help a stranded motorist change a tire. Maybe you put some money in the homeless person's hand.
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It might have been the first time you held an infant in your arms and experienced the wonder of new life. Maybe it was a time when you were very small and held a small animal like a puppy or kitten in your hands.
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Perhaps it was a time when you were the recipient of an act of loving kindness. Maybe it was when someone stood up for you when you were being bullied. Maybe it was when your parent picked you up and held you after you fell down and skinned your knee. It might be
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when you had your arms full at the store and someone made an extra effort to hold the door for you or maybe even carry some of your packages so you didn't have to struggle. Do you remember any moments like these? Do you recall how you felt inside?
Projecting Kindness onto an Admirable Person
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How it was comforting like a warm glow?
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Find that moment inside you. Find that jewel of warmth and love and bring it back. Hold it close inside yourself and caress it. Envision that moment as that puppy or kitten or infant and cuddle it close to your heart.
00:05:58
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you the loving-kindness take root inside you and anchor itself in your heart of hearts. With each breath see that feeling growing inside you. It glows with a pure pink radiance shining brighter and brighter.
00:06:26
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beaming out from your heart in all directions. Focus on this feeling, this warmth and light as it fills you. Now, think of someone you truly admire. It may be someone you actually know.
00:06:53
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Or maybe someone you have read about or imagined. It might be a figure from literature or from history or from your religious heritage. Anyone you look up to and admire will do. Picture that person standing in front of you.
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See their face being illuminated by that light of loving kindness that is shining out from your heart.
Learning from Admired and Frustrating People
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And really see their face, the look in their eyes, their smile, their skin and hair. Maybe you have never seen this person in reality.
00:07:49
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But let what you imagine about this person become the reality. Think now of those things in this person that you really, truly admire. What are those qualities? What makes this person outstanding and special to you?
00:08:16
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As you consider these qualities that you admire, remember, you also have the same qualities. If you didn't, you would not be able to see them in the other person. So consider those same qualities in yourself. They are mirroring those qualities that you already have
00:08:49
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The person you admire may not be the same gender as you. They may not be the same color, same age, from the same country, or even the same century. But see that they are very much like you. They have things they have endured. They have felt fear. They have experienced weakness.
00:09:20
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pain, grief and sorrow, along with their strength, their inner peace, their inner joy, their love and their hope. They too have someone they care about. They too have been betrayed or lied to.
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They had to find their path to walk. They had to deal with the same sort of pains and the same sort of joys that you do. As you acknowledge this, realize that this person is your teacher. Wordlessly let them know that you appreciate them for the lessons they have taught you.
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and let them disappear back into the light. Connect once more that warm, comforting glow of loving kindness that's coming from your heart. Feel it washing through you and over you. Let it soak into you and give you peace. Hang on to that feeling.
00:10:49
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Take a moment to think of someone whom you do not admire. Someone who annoys you or makes you angry or sad or frustrated. It may be someone you never want to be around. Someone you avoid. Picture them vividly. See their face.
00:11:19
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their hair color, their expression, make them real in your mind. In the same way you envisioned the person you admire, picture that annoying, frustrating, aggravating person stepping into the same glowing light of loving kindness
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that surrounded the person you admire.
Extending Kindness to Challenging People
00:11:53
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Let that light surround and enfold them. What is it about this person that rubs you the wrong way? What qualities make you sad or angry or frustrated or hurt your feelings?
00:12:17
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Be specific and mentally call these things out to yourself. And just as the previous person, the one you admire is a mirror, so is this person. In some way, the things that annoy you in this second person are also a part of you.
00:12:44
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The annoying qualities in them also exist in you. This is hard for most of us to accept, but the things that annoy us most in other people are the same things that annoy us in ourselves. Our own weaknesses are exposed to us when we see them in others.
00:13:13
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And that is painful. Now, take a moment to look into the eyes of the person you do not admire. Look past their external facial expressions. Look deep inside them. See them as someone like yourself. Someone who has dealt with suffering.
00:13:40
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with disappointment, with frustration and sadness. They may have had relationships that collapsed, family members they loved to turn their backs on them, obstacles that came up to ruin their special plans. They too have times when they have no idea what to do next.
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no clue why everything is going wrong. They have hidden wounds, things that have hurt them that no one knows about but them. If they could have changed things to be different, they would have. If they could have avoided the wounds by choosing, they would have chosen differently.
00:14:39
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Let the light and warmth of your loving kindness shine out from your heart on them and surround them and feel that loving kindness reflected back to you. This person too can be a teacher for you. They can show you what you need to see and learn. In your heart, you know this.
Sending Compassion to Those in Pain
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Thank them for being in your life, for helping you to see things you need to see. You can see that they are also a teacher, even when the lessons they teach may not be pleasant. Let that person fade and dissolve away in the light of loving kindness. Send them thoughts of gratitude and wish them well.
00:15:43
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Take it a moment again now to breathe deeply and gently and to reconnect to that light of loving kindness for yourself, to strengthen the light and to nurture it, to bond with it. Bring to mind someone you know who is hurting right now. They may be ill. They may be injured in some way.
00:16:15
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They may be in the middle of some trying emotional situation. Bring that person into the light of loving-kindness. See them as clearly as you can. Connect with them in their pain. Send them thoughts of healing, thoughts of encouragement, of love and compassion.
00:16:44
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Envision them as clearly as you can bathed in the light of loving kindness from your heart. After a few moments of this, allow their image to fade back into the light.
Spreading Global Healing Energy
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Now sit in silence for a few moments with a light of loving kindness
00:17:12
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Feel the warmth inside you, how comforting and pleasant it is. Take some slow, deep, gentle breaths and relax again. As you sit with the light at your core, feel it growing in strength and starting to spin. Light becomes brighter but not uncomfortable.
00:17:40
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A loving kindness fills your entire being and shines out through and from you. As it grows, this light reaches out to everyone in your house, everyone in your community. It illumines your state, your country, and all across the world.
00:18:09
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You see your light of loving kindness merging with the same sort of light coming from the hearts of others, bathing the entire planet in light, going out to all living things on this planet and beyond. Now just sit quietly, envisioning this light penetrating every person, every being on the planet,
00:18:39
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Imagine it illuminating the hearts and minds of everyone it touches, bringing healing and peace. When you're ready, return your focus to where you are now, to this time, to this room, to this space.
00:19:08
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to yourself. Feel the seed firmly beneath you. Feel the firmness and solidity of your body.
Returning to Present Awareness
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Pay attention to the air entering and leaving your lungs. When you are ready
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Take a couple of deep cleansing breaths and slowly open your eyes. Namaste.
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you