I was thinking about what would be the best meditation for the 10th post in this series because this is in a way a mini celebration of our meditative journey. I decided I would go with METTA meditation and show you how lovely love can really be. This meditation is also called "loving-kindness" and that translation can be used as description as well.

This meditation technique comes from a Buddhistic tradition and it was (is) commonly used in Tibet. In Pali language, Metta means kindness and it is sometimes a part of a series which produces 4 qualities of love: kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. It teaches us about altruistic love and kindness to ourselves and others around us. Many people are conditioned to not trust their capacity and ability to love but when they experience Metta, get surprised by the purification of intention and find out how truly loving they can be.

When I wrote about Vipassana in my 3rd post of this series, I explained how there were no distractions and everything was an insight. We are focusing on every phenomenon and noticing how our nature is built on ever-changing experiences. Our object of meditation in Vipassana is changing from one moment to another so the object becomes that one which arises in our awareness without our effort. We do not prefer one experience over another but instead look at them and learn, for there is much to be learned from everything. When your leg itches in Vipassana, you concentrate on it. When you start thinking about how you need something to be done, you accept it and figure out where are those feelings coming from and why. You are observing everything you sense and looking deep into the meaning.

Metta can be considered the opposite of Vipassana. We are no more sensing the outside experience but creating one from the inside. We are choosing a particular object of meditation, the Metta phrase. It can be "I am love", "May I be happy" or something else. We are concentrating on the phrase, repeating it in our mind and feeling it in our entire being. When a distraction arises, we do not note it or explore it but as quickly as possible leave it and come back to the phrase we were concentrating on. By doing this, we are ignoring the influence of the outside to the inside and trying to establish a different path, from within to beyond.

A feeling of love and kindness during this meditation is not the main goal to be achieved here. Over time, that feeling and the state of our being should be experienced outside of meditation. We have to bring it to our daily lives and into the world we live in.

This is an emotion-meditation that is not removed from our everyday life. It does start as a regular sitting meditation but it rises into so much more. We take it with us to our jobs, to our friend's houses, out into nature and spread it all over the world. By applying the practice to daily life we are strengthening our loving attitude and openness to everyone. We are radiating feelings of universal, all-embracing, unconditional love with no boundaries.

The feeling is the primary focus here, not the thought. We start by thinking to awaken the feeling but after that, no more thinking is necessary. All our attention should be on our emotion with no rational mind interfering. The building up of that emotion and its expansion from our being to the outside world is something that happens naturally.

Like with any other meditation, start with finding a quiet and soothing place. You can sit, lie down or stand in any position. Your comfort is important so adjust your body in such a way that it will not distract you when you begin meditation. The same goes for your clothes, avoid wearing belts and tight materials, let your skin breathe. Gently close your eyes and take a couple of deep soothing breaths. Feel how your body is getting more and more relaxed.

Start developing thoughts and feelings of love and kindness towards yourself. You can do so by repeating a Metta statement such as:

Choose the one that works best for you and stick with it. By repeating the statement in your mind, focus on the feeling that is starting to happen. Feel the love for yourself. If you are feeling unworthy of love, practice more often and be persistent. Without loving yourself first you can not love others and therefore can not move on to the next step in this meditation.

When the feeling of love is strong, start expanding that feeling from yourself to others. There are a couple of ways to do this. Most people start with family, move on to friends, progress to neutral persons, then to people who they have problems with and eventually to unknown people all over the world.

Another approach is to spread the love in 4 directions from yourself and expand it all over the world. This is something I do with the expansion in all directions from my body. I develop a feeling of well being and happiness for everyone.

Brake the barriers and divisions between yourself and others and spread loving-kindness over the planet. Feel the love pulsating and filling every being, from plants and animals to humans and then move it to the Earth itself. After some time had passed return your intention to breath and gently open your eyes. Smile and recognize the feeling of gratitude that will naturally appear. You can practice this from 10 minutes to 1 hour and come back to it whenever you want, once or more times a day. Over time, you will become more experienced and realize that you can evoke these feeling while you are walking or even talking to people and use this meditative experience in your everyday life.

We are all sometimes too hard on ourselves and others. We focus on negative aspects more often than we appreciate the positive ones. This meditation technique is excellent for all people on the selfishness scale, from self-centered people to selfless ones. Everyone benefits because the level of happiness increases. There is no depression or anger present where there is love.

One of the biggest benefits from this meditation is the boost of our emphatic abilities and a sense of compassion towards others. There is an increase of self-acceptance and competence, a loving attitude towards our surroundings and a feeling of decrease of negative emotions while the positive emotions rise. We become more helpful and less bias.

Emma Seppälä, Ph.D Science Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence, is the author of The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. I encourage you to read her writings about science-based reasons to try this meditation out. Her article "18 Science-Based Reasons to Try Loving-Kindness Meditation" can be found here

Feel free to leave me your lovely experiences with this or any other meditation in comments below. Until next time...