For the last two years, Fall has become a special mindfulness time for me.
Speaking with mindfulness experts, reading new scientific studies on the effectiveness of mindfulness, and revisiting mindfulness materials helps me look at my own life to see were I could improve my own practices.
It also doesn’t hurt to look around at our New England Fall, seeing the leaves change colors and then fall off the trees, leaving the trees bare. Stripped of their “dressings” and back to the ever-living part of the remaining tree.
For me, Metta meditation has become a way for me to open my heart to others. Metta, a practice from the Theravada Buddhist tradition, means, “loving-kindness.”
Especially when someone says something hurtful or at times when I feel angry, I try to use Metta to center myself and see that even in times of difficulty, I can retain my sense of compassion and kindness.
It is a way of cultivating a state of being that simply involves saying these following four phrases to myself:
1. May I be safe.
2. May I be happy.
3. May I be healthy.
4. May I live my life with ease.
And then after offering Metta to myself, I substitute another person’s name for “I” in each of these phrases. Many times, as a result of practicing Metta, my heart opens and my feelings shift.
It’s amazing how good this feels − to be centered in the moment and to be sending out compassion.
If you are interested in learning more mindfulness check out our courses here.
If you’ve used Metta practice, please tell us your experience by leaving a comment below.
Thank you Ruth and others for the great ideas. Today was especially challenging to remember to be positive
Essays like this are so important to brndeaniog people’s horizons.
Thank you for the Metta meditation; I had not used it before, but felt good when I read it. It’s easy to get ‘off center,’ so it will be a great help!
I use Metta meditation to begin my day and then I sit is silence. Whenever I do the Metta and then something shows up in the silence that is what I tap on. After I feel bright, alive, light and focus better and have more clarity. Thank you for all you do.
Ruth,
Thank you for a great metta. I wanted to echo that it does go so well with EFT or ProEFT, and also transforming into affirmations.
Ruth,
Synchronicity of this posting is so impressive. The Maitreya project exhibit tour is in my hometown raising money for building a center to spread the buddhic principles. This reminder is just what I needed.
Thank you.
my dad referred me to your site and boy did i need to read this…as i struggle through some very difficult times, i look forward to healing. this was the best medicine i could have taken today. please let me know how i can become a part of your program. thank you.
May I Be Me,Happy..
May I BE, free of Illbeing & Dis-ease..
May I BE, Free of Fear & Live, in Joy..
May I BE…FREE, AT EASE & BE PEACE……
A big impact on the brain and on the moment: Follow aggression/anger/rod rage with Ruth’s practice – the basic meta practice. The pairing of that rise in aggressive/FFF energy with the compassion/generosity of these simple words will create chronic access to ease and compassion. “Cheer up” with arms thrown in the arm is a profound Tibetan Buddhist practice from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche that disrupts whatever emotional trance we’re in. It is also an ontological practice from the field of ontological coaching (makinghealthyhabitshappen – my website- features a 1 page article accessed from the home page.
May you all be safe, healthy happy and at peace.
Mia Angela Barbera, MS, ACC, BSW
Thank you for this. It is a version of a version of Sharon Saltzberg’s metta wich I use:
May I (you, he, she, all sentient beings) be free from danger, without and within
May I (you etc) be happy
May I be healthy
May I be at ease with the changing conditions of my life
May I be filled with loving kindness, tolerance and compassion
That last line is adapted from a talk given by the Dalai Lama. I, too, find it very useful when I feel hurt by someone and definitely feel the shift when I can wish that person all of the above.
I appreciate the simplicity of this meditation. In my personal meditation and what I share with aptients, I try to keep it simple, thus encouraging present focus and developing mindfulness – a wonderful help to the calm soul as well as the troubled. Thank you!
Thank you all for the reminder to use this simple meditation.
This is an interesting approach. At the core of it I see the process as follows.
Meditation is a process that helps us in the here and now. Freud, one of the earliest psychologists was able to explore the cognitive processes that emerge and dominate us.
When I am mediating. Thoughts emerge from the Ego (about 80% of the time, the super ego 15% of the time and id 5% of the time. While meditating I am usually able to recognize and investigate the thoughts and feelings as they arise.
Because I am just an ordinary human being and not associated with any particular ideology I still can get lost in anger or erotic thoughts. With my super ego process feel a need to help others but because I have not disciplined my ego, whichI imagine for most of us takes years and years, I still have a tendency do minimal investigation.
This is part is because I have no specific ideology such as Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam which provide evaluations with a long history and and incredibly wise founders.
In summary with my meditation I am tending to re-invent the wheel. But is is wonderful experience. Right now I am hoping that it is helping to strengthen my brain so that at 72 I can continue to live in this wonderful world
Thich Nhat Hanh’s version that I use personally and with clients and students is:
May I be peaceful, happy and light in body, mind and spirit.
May I be safe and free from injury.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.
May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself.
May I learn to identify and see the source of anger, craving and delusion in myself.
May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May I be able to live fresh, solid and free.
May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
Thank you! I needed that reminder today, so thanks for providing it!
Thanks for the reminder. I share this meditation with my clients; (slight variation)
May I be happy
May I be safe and at ease
May I be well
May I be at peace
I sometimes turn it into an affirmation:
I am happy
I am safe and at ease
I am well
I am at peace
Metta can be so healing, can’t it! My chant is:
May I be filled with loving kindness
May I be happy, may I be well
May I be filled with peace and harmony
May I be love…
May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be happy, may you be well
May you be filled with peace and harmony
May you be love…
May we be filled with loving kindness
May we be happy, may we be well
May we be filled with peace and harmony
May we be love.
When we talk of responsibility, which I do quite a lot of in my work, I come from a place that says we are personally responsible for all our thoughts, feelings and actions. If this is valid for me, then when I feel hurt, I need to own, and do something with it. In the past, when a was really meshuga, I would get angry and take it out on the person who I thought hurt me. HURT PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE (AA). tHOUGH i’M NOT FINISHED WORKING ON MYSELF (age 77), I now just tell the person “I felt hurt by what you said, did). I then work on self to find the basis for that hurt I felt, usually some buried insecurity. If hurt someone (advertently or inadvertently) I say and mean “I’m sorry, I apologize, please forgive me”. Tell me what I did that created your pain and “I won’t do that again.” Another AA saying that I share with clients is: Say what you mean, mean what you say, don’t say it mean”. People get and appreciate it
Hi All, I’ve been practising loving kindness and self compassion meditation for years, I do it when I’m feeling ‘bruised’ in any way.It is a wonderful gift to oneself. I also teach it to my clients.
If you find yourself passing a homeless person or anyone asking for money in the street, silently offer them Metta: may you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you live with ease …. I believe we are offering a healing energy when we do this with integrity.
mary o’keeffe, , psychotherapist, Ottawa
Ruth – I too hold those who have hurt me (and very likely have been hurt themselves) in my form of the Metta prayer. And then one day, I realized that I did this more for those who had hurt me than for those who graciously love and accept me. So now I immediately do it for the hurting ones but very consciously, at the beginning of my meditation time do it for the loving souls too. Here is my variation:
May you be happy and peaceful. May you be free of fear and pain. May you know that you are loved. May you grow in awareness so that you may live with awareness in the world.
Jane Brown, PhD MDiv, Director of Patient Advocacy at Antioch University Midwest
I use Metta everyday – and recently combined with EFT – this has an even better result, calming myself and making me feel compassion for myself and others