Love is the bridge between you and everything
With the recent passing of venerable Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh, the world lost a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist. He played a key role in the introduction of mindfulness in the West. His teachings inspired and impacted politicians, business leaders, activists, and teachers around the globe. His message of compassionate loving kindness is important in our world today.
February contains Valentine’s Day. It gives us a whole month to practice self love, and there is not better way to practice self love than to start practicing a metta meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh stated, “A metta meditation is a practice of cultivating understanding, love, and compassion by looking deeply, first for ourselves and then for others. Once we love and take care of ourselves, we can be much more helpful to others.”
A metta meditation promotes positive and peaceful emotions that have the potential to improve your emotional well being. Metta is a significant term in Pali meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness and nonviolence. Pali is the language in which the scriptures of the Theravada school of Buddhism have been preserved and passed down for over 2,600 years. The practice aims to develop a state of unconditional kindness to all people.
In its traditional form, the practitioner sits comfortably and focuses their attention on a standard set of phrases. They progressively direct these phrases outward, starting first with themselves, then to a cherished person in their life, then to a good friend, next to someone who feels neutral (like an acquaintance), then a mildly difficult person, and finally to all beings everywhere.
I once had a monk explain practicing metta meditation as starting the meditation from the middle of a circle, saying the phrases to myself and expanding my metta meditation to the circle of my closest friends, family and even my pets. I visualized my circle as the globe bringing in friends from afar, neighbors, past neighbors, acquaintances, people everywhere — all beings around the globe. I find that when I practice loving kindness meditations for people who are difficult that my heart softens toward them.
To practice a metta loving-kindness meditation, sit in a comfortable position and take three to four deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling long, slow exhalations through your nose. For a few minutes just follow your breath moving into your chest, exploring how the breath expands your ribcage in all four directions, front and back and side to side. Sitting quietly, mentally repeat, slowly, the following or similar phrases.
May I be safe. May I be happy. May I be health. May I be peaceful. May I live with ease. Or perhaps: May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be safe from inner and outer dangers. May I be well in body and mind. May I be at ease and happy.
Allow yourself to sink into the intentions of these phrases for yourself first. After a period of directing loving kindness to yourself, broaden your circle, repeating the phrases for a significant other, a friend, a family member, someone you care for deeply. Repeat the phrases of loving kindness toward them. The first times I practiced a metta meditation I found repeating the phrases mechanical, almost awkward, but I just kept at it, letting my phrases evolve.
Barbara Frederickson and her colleagues Cohn, Coffey, Pek and Finkel, found that practicing seven weeks of loving-kindness meditation increased love, joy, contentment, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, amusement and awe. One doesn’t usually consider meditation as being helpful to us with severe physical or mental ailments, but research shows it can help.
Remember to take care of and love yourself so that you may take care of and love others. Nourish yourself with a metta meditation.
Feel free to share your thoughts with me at ashton@ashtoncannon.com.
Ashton Graham is an educator, book publisher, photographer, cowgirl and yoga enthusiast. She is currently studying to become a certified yoga therapist and lives on a ranch in West Texas. Visit www.ashtoncannon.com to learn more.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Love is the bridge between you and everything
