Today, let’s cultivate loving-kindness with a guided embodied mettā meditation. The purpose of this practice is to generate a felt sense of compassion and goodwill toward oneself and others. Traditionally, this is done by sitting quietly and mentally repeating a short series of phrases wishing wellness, peace, happiness, and the like, first toward oneself, then toward another for whom we feel affection, then a person toward whom we feel neutral, then toward someone with whom we have difficulty, and eventually to all beings everywhere. Before we begin, I will tell you the story of the origin of mettā meditation, recounted in the Paramatthajotikā I, a 5th century commentary on early Buddhist essential teachings and chants.
A group of monks, eager for solitude and deep meditation, approached the Buddha and asked where they might practice during the rainy season. The Buddha, sensing their sincerity, directed them to a forest at the foot of the Himalayas, serene and well-suited for meditation. Unbeknownst to them, the grove was home to powerful yakkhas, territorial forest spirits who felt displaced by the monks’ presence. Resentful, the spirits filled the nights with dreadful sounds, smells, and apparitions, until the monks, exhausted and terrified, abandoned their retreat and returned to the Buddha. They explained that they could not stay there due to the constant disturbances. The Buddha listened and replied: “Monks, you should not return empty-handed to the place where you sought refuge. Take with you a safeguard, a protection that no spirit can overcome. I will give you a weapon not of iron or fire, but of loving-kindness. When you abide in mettā, no being, human or non-human, can wish you harm.” Then he taught them the Mettā Sutta, beginning with the words: ‘This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness…’ Armed with this radiant mind of kindness, the monks returned to the forest. As they sat in meditation and suffused their environment with feelings of goodwill, the yakkha’s sense of hostility abated. Instead, they felt warmth and peace. The spirits’ anger melted away, and they began to protect and support the monks. Freed from fear and disturbance, the monks’ minds grew tranquil and clear.
I have often heard it said that cultivating a sense of loving kindness toward oneself and others helps to calm the mind and body, and to ease knots of resentment. The story of how the mettā meditation came to be provides insight into the power of loving-kindness to act as a protective shield against fear, anger, and harm, both from within and without. Fear is dissolved by love, and the mind’s radiance transforms the outer circumstance. What is boundless in kindness may make the world itself safer and more peaceful. Mettā meditation is a practice of compassion, and it may also be protective at times when the mind is experiencing disturbances related to fear.
The guided meditation starts at the 3:30 mark of the audio.
