Week Six – Loving Kindness (Part One)

We went live with Week Six on Wednesday May 6th, 2020.

You can watch the entire YouTube recording HERE.

Below we are breaking it down into seven separate chunks.  The format for this (and every week) is that there are some meditations broken up by some commentary about the nature, purpose and benefits of meditation.

Part One – Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to week six of Introduction to Meditation.  We spent the first four weeks looking at meditation that involves placing our attention into the present – via our breathing, our bodies, emotions, or anything else that is happening right now.  Last week we explored mantra meditation, and this week we are changing track to look at a different type of meditation – what is known as loving kindness meditation.

Part Two – The first meditation (10 minutes)

Relatively quickly we get down to do our first meditation. Simple, classic, focussing on the breath. When you notice you’ve lost focus, simply let go of the new focus and re-focus back on the breath. Start again. Rinse and repeat.

Part Three – Loving Kindness (i)

Here in the heart of the course we explore heart based practice. We start from the premise that this is not a skill we need to learn, it is innate in all of us. However, we can benefit from cultivating it, becoming more familiar with it, and perhaps focusing our attention from this place a little more.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers you have built within yourself against it.” – Rumi

Part Four – Circle of Benefactors

The first meditation we did is based on a Buddhist practice made popular in the West by John Makransky.

Part Five – Loving Kindness (continued)

We all have multiple sides, generous and selfish, loving and fearful. In some ways loving kindness is about choosing to spend a bit more time coming from our heart.  This video also gives an explanation about the technique for the final meditation.

Part Six – Final Meditation – Loving Kindness (or metta)

The culmination of the class – we’ve warmed up to this point and here we go all out on loving kindness meditation.  This is based on another Buddhist practice from the Theravada tradition, known as metta.

Part Seven – Wrapup and Close

Congratulations for getting this far.  Here I answered a question that had been posted on the Live Chat during the class, and wrap up with an optional assignment.