This is a lovingkindness meditation, designed to create love and share it with the world. I don’t know if it’s possible to change the world through meditation. I do know it’s possible to effect local change; to make a neighborhood more peaceful, for example. I wish I had the citations at hand; I’ve read such interesting things about it.
Anyway, this is best with a partner. It can be a lover, relative, or friend: Someone you love. You can adapt it to private meditation without difficulty; instead of receiving love from your partner, receive from yourself or from the Gods.
Sit comfortably and gaze into each other’s eyes.
Think about the love you have for one another, and allow yourself to feel love.
Let love suffuse you, your body, your thoughts, your feelings.
Breathe in deeply, feeling the love from your partner, and breathe out fully, sending love to your partner.
Notice you are filled with love.
Love.
Full of love.
You are breathing love in and out.
Allow the love that comes out of your breath to surround you. You are surrounded by a bubble of love.
Allow the bubble to spread.
Breathe love out into your home (or the place where you are), and in from your partner.
Breathe love out into your neighborhood, and in from your partner.
As you receive love, continue to give love, out and out, in ever-widening circles.
In from your partner, and out into the earth upon which you rest, loving the plants and the soil.
In from your partner, and out into your neighbors, your friends, your family.
In from your partner, and out into your co-workers, your employers, your employees.
In from your partner, and out into the spirits that surround you; nature spirits, elementals, whatever may be near.
In from your partner, and out into your community, town, county, region.
Love.
Love for your country, love for the world.
Love.
Open your eyes if they have fallen closed, and gaze again at your partner. See the source of love as both individual and universal. Right here and everywhere.
So be it.
