Meditation

Meditation for Beginners

Basic Meditation Technique Step #5

The sharing of loving kindness is something we can do every day, both before and after daily meditation. A brief period before meditating softens and broadens our minds. The sharing of loving kindness as such helps improve our meditation experience.

Sharing loving kindness after meditation spreads the purity of our meditated minds throughout ourselves first, then subsequently towards others.

The benefits of sharing loving kindness everyday include radiating a happy feeling when we are awake and asleep. If we have dreams, they will be sweet and meaningful. We will rid ourselves of anger and we will be positive thinkers. Most importantly, it will greatly help to improve our meditation.

We can share loving kindness simply by doing the following:

Before ending our meditation session, once our minds come to a standstill and are hence filled with happiness, we can actually share loving-kindness, good wishes, and peace with all other people in the world. We can start by focusing our stilled mind at the center of our body where we feel true love and good wishes for everyone condensing these feelings into a bright sphere. Without any effort, imagine that this sphere of love and good wishes is expanding in all directions from your body’s center towards all beings. Wish everyone freedom from suffering and the attainment of extreme happiness.

Feel the expansion of our bright sphere all around us, spreading out towards the people in our surroundings regardless of whether they are near or far. Expand our minds continually outwards to cover our room, then our building, then our town, then our country, then our continent, then our planet. Feel unlimited love and kindness towards all people of the world, irrespective of their nationalities, religions, and ethnicities.

Let our minds connect with all other minds. Wish them happiness; wish every country prosperity and hope, that the world will be filled with only good people who bring true happiness to humankind. Let the purity of our still minds expand from the center of our body towards other people of the world who are suffering as a result of war and conflict. Wish that everyone will stop taking advantage of one another in the name of greed, anger and ignorance.

The purity of our minds during meditation radiates silently outwards into the atmosphere. This purity cleanses the defilements and darkness from our minds and others minds, cleaning them so that we can live with the right view and in the right direction. This direction is towards happiness, peace, and virtue. Eventually, we will change the world and bring it true peace through the limitless powers of meditation.