Sit upright in meditation posture and close your eyes. Begin with thoughts of friendliness… warmth, loving kindness… then direct that feeling of loving kindness to yourself. Overspread yourself with that friendliness, thinking, “May I be happy. May I find true happiness.” And realize the rightness of your wish to be happy. And where does true happiness come from? It has to come from within. And the more happiness you have, the more you naturally share with others, thinking, “May I be happy. May I find true happiness.” And smile to invoke that feeling of happiness. Then bring your attention to your heart – your heart centre and dissolve away any ill-will towards yourself. You realize that you have goodness and gentleness in you already. You don’t have to be hard on yourself. And you chant to yourself… “May I be well, happy and peaceful. May I be well, happy and peaceful… May I be free from affliction, free from anxiety, free from hostility. May I be well…” And you can visualize yourself sitting in a hot tub, filled to your chin with this white, warm, luminous loving kindness, friendliness, dissolving away your anger and your tension. And it’s saturating your body and your mind. Imagine yourself floating in this tranquil space, feeling the best you’ve ever felt. You can recall memories from your life of times when people were tremendously kind towards you. Or think of moments when you were very kind to others, and get that feeling. You can alter and exaggerate those images to enhance that feeling of metta. Metta means a deep profound friendliness towards yourself and others. It is the emotion and nothing other than the emotion that is loving kindness, not the words. And you can use images from fiction, like novels or movies that inspire feelings of upliftedness or friendliness. You can even use poetry or songs- whatever works for you. Thinking, “May I be happy. May I find true happiness!”

Next, extend that feeling of friendliness outwards to a dearly loved friend or family member, wishing, “May they be happy! May they find true happiness as well!” And imagine them sitting right in front of you and you’re feeling their presence here. From your heart centre you’re enveloping them with your feelings of love and gratitude. Then imagine that they are sending loving kindness to you. And you’re exchanging that feeling back and forth. You build that feeling of metta on the friend. Next, think of a  benefactor… someone who has helped you a lot in your life, such as a parent or a teacher and visualize them bathed in sunshine, smiling, happy and extend loving kindness to them in the same way, wishing, “May they be happy. May they find true happiness.”

Then send loving kindness to your family and friends, those closest to you. You could visualize them all in the same way, bathed in sunshine, smiling, happy. Then send loving kindness to more neutral persons, colleagues, teachers, students, neighbours, acquaintances, strangers, people you meet in shops. Give your loving kindness to everyone without thought of your relationship to them. Then, think of someone you’re having difficulties with but think of them as a stranger in a crowd of people and extend your feeling to them as though they were a neutral person. Try to neutralize any feeling of aversion, thinking, “May they be peaceful, may they be at ease.” See if you can extend some loving kindness to them, to break down these barriers in your own heart.

Next, extend your loving kindness to everyone in the room, in the building, then spread it around the neighbourhood north and south, east and west, like a blanket of loving kindness a mile thick covering the whole city, saturating all sentient beings with this friendliness and love. And you can chant to yourself, “May all beings be well, happy and peaceful. May all beings be well, happy and peaceful.” In the Metta sutta the Buddha said:

“Wishing, in gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease!

Whatever living beings there may be;

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,

The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born –

May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings;

Radiating kindness over the entire world:

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection…”

This is said to be the sublime abiding corresponding to the heavenly state but heaven happens from you not to you. It is by generating and developing loving kindness in your mind and in your heart that you can create this heavenly condition in your life. So, expand that feeling further across the whole province, the whole country and the continent and expand it out over the entire world wishing, “May all beings be well, happy and peaceful. May all beings be well, happy and peaceful.”

Then… send that loving kindness up into the sky, to the beings that live in the sky, and to the higher realms of existence, the devas, the heavenly beings. Tune into their happiness in their celestial palaces and visualize that as you are sending loving kindness upwards to them, in response, they’re sending their loving kindness down here to you like a funnel of love saturating the space here with the luminosity of their loving kindness and  benevolence and you feel their presence and their intelligence and their power. You’re breathing in the luminosity of their loving kindness and it’s saturating your body and your mind and you’re chanting “May all devas be well, happy and peaceful. May all devas be well happy and peaceful.”

Later, send your loving kindness below you into the earth, to the beings that live in the earth and to the lower realms of existence – the animal realm and the ghost realm.  Give your warmth and friendliness to them as well. And then bring it up and extend your loving kindness around and across and everywhere. Imagine waves and waves of loving kindness emanating from your heart centre across the world. Then, bring that loving kindness back to yourself. Fill yourself like a vessel, filled to the top with that white warm luminous friendliness, loving kindness, thinking, “May I be happy. May I find true happiness!” Then dissolve the contemplation and open your eyes.