Hi, in this video
I will be teaching you how to practice meditation on love.
First, we have to understand what we mean by the word "love".
When we meditate on love,
it doesn't mean we cling to people
or want them to make us happy.
When we meditate on love, it means we want other people to be happy
Even people who may not love us back.
So when you like people because they do things that make you happy,
or when you really like some kind of food
this isn't what we mean by love
But when you want your parents, your friends, even the whole world to be happy
this is true love
and this is what we will be focusing on in this exercise
Love is an important meditation practice
because when we wish for other people to be happy
it makes us happy as well
If we always want to hurt other people
or if we wish for them to suffer
we will be terribly unhappy ourselves
So the best way to be happy is to always wish
for the whole world to be happy as well
Ready?
Here is how we'll do it
First, sit down either on the floor or in a chair
or even lie down if you like
and start by sending love to yourself
Why do we send love to ourselves first?
Because of course we want ourselves to be happy
so wishing it for ourselves will be the easiest thing in the world
When you are ready, start by saying to yourself in your mind
You can just repeat that to yourself again and again
until you really feel like you wish for yourself to be happy
not angry at yourself or distracted by other things
Let's try it now
Once you can send love to yourself,
you can move on to sending love to other people.
Start with someone you already love very much
Maybe your mother or your father
or first one then the other
maybe a friend or a relative that is close to you.
Who it is doesn't matter
as long as you already really want them to be happy
Say to yourself "May They Be Happy"
You can use their name, for example,
"may my mother be happy"
"May John be happy" and so on
You can also change or add to the words that you use
Like
may they have peace and calm,
may they be healthy and secure,
however you like
The most important thing is that you believe it.
You can practise repeating the words again and again
until you really feel like you want that person to be happy
Try it now.
Next, you can move on to sending love to someone who you don't already love
Try to pick someone who you don't have feelings for at all
Maybe someone in your neighbourhood or at school
Like a neighbour or a teacher
Don't pick someone who you don't like
but try not to pick someone who you already like either
Once you have that person in mind
Make a wish in your mind for that person to be happy
Just as you did with the person who you already love
This is a little more of a challenge
because you have to develop love for someone
who you've maybe never loved before.
If you can do this,
you are sure to become a special person in the world
someone who is able to love people without judging them
Try again and again and if it gets too hard,
go back to thinking about someone who you already love
and wishing for them to be happy
Then when you can do that again,
try again with the person who you don't love
until you are able to really wish for them to be happy too
Try now
Finally, try to think of someone who you are unhappy with
Or someone who is unhappy with you
Maybe it's someone in your family
or one of your friends who made you sad
Or maybe it's someone who you've always been enemies with
This is the hardest part of the exercise
but try to send them love as well
May They Be Happy
Think that to yourself again and again
until you can let go of the anger and upset you have towards them
and are actually able to love them as well
Again, if it gets too hard,
go back to thinking about someone who you already love
or someone who you don't have any feelings about
until you are able to feel love again
and then come back and try with the person
who you are unhappy with
Try it now
Great
This is an easy way to change how you look at people
Whenever you have a problem with others,
just sit down and start to feel love like this
until you can love that person as well
Once you get good at sending love to one person at a time,
You can try sending it to the whole world all at once
Ready?
Let's try
Start with everyone in your home
Say to yourself
"may all the people in this building be happy"
thinking about all those people at once
Next,
send love to all the people in your town or city
may all the people in this town be happy
Then think of all the people in your entire country
May all people in this country be happy
Finally, think of all the people in the whole world all at once
and say to yourself
"may all the people in the world be happy"
Great
If you've made it this far,
you should be able to cultivate love for just about anyone
I hope you can see how loving others makes you a happier,
more peaceful, and more content person than ever before
If you practise meditating on love often,
you will see that it helps you make friends with everyone you meet
and be free from anger and hatred towards anyone
Thanks for watching
and don't forget to practise it on your own
or come back and watch this video if you need a reminder
May You Be Happy