Lovingkindness is a specific form of Buddhist meditation. I am not a Buddhist, nor an expert on Buddhism. My understanding of this form of meditation may be flawed. However, whether accurate or inaccurate to true Buddhist lovingkindness meditation, I find this a valuable and profound exercise, and I practice it, if not regularly, with frequent irregularity.
This is an advanced exercise. If you are not good at grounding and centering yet, you should not be doing things like breathing in negativity.
Visualize your center as a gently glowing orb filled with love. Your center is love and love suffuses you. Note the color of this loving glow. Note its temperature and texture.
Visualize your glowing, loving center expanding. It fills your body and reaches beyond you. Each time you exhale, your loving center moves outward, larger and yet just as strong, just as loving, just as kind.
Exhale and send love outward, filling the space around you.
Inhale deeply, and exhale until your loving glow fills your home, touching all who live there (human, animal, and plant) with love. As you inhale, you take in the negativity that prevents your household from feeling love. Take that negativity and allow it to dissipate as it comes near your glowing center. It cannot touch you, you are protected by your loving glow.
Inhale and bring the negativity into you, where it fades to nothing. Exhale and send love. Inhale, and heal the negativity in your household, exhale, and replace it with love.
As you breathe, in and out, in and out, the loving glow expands and expands. Now it encompasses your neighborhood. Inhale the negativity and allow it to dissipate without touching you. Exhale love and fill your neighborhood with love. Inhale the petty arguments, the gossip, the coldness and fear, allow them to dissipate; they are gone. Exhale love. Shower your neighborhood with love and compassion.
Continue to breathe in and out, in and out, and see how your glow can expand. Can you reach beyond your neighborhood, to your community? Can you exhale love to your state? Your nation? The world?
You may find with practice that your glow expands more easily. Because this is a meditation about expansion and giving, it is important to always encompass at least your home and neighborhood, but the first time you try, you may or may not be able to reach beyond that. Soon, though, you’ll find that you can, and indeed, the more loving you send out, the easier it is.
