I’ve just finished recording a set of guided meditations on the practice of loving kindness (metta). The first of four is available online for free listening or downloading by donation. Local yoga teacher David Procyshyn is the man behind this project and I’m grateful for his expertise in making it all possible.
The Buddha is said to have recommended this practice 2,500 years ago. Loving kindness is love without expectations and clinging, love that is freely available and given – even to one’s enemies. The Dalai Lama says: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
Meditators begin by cultivating loving-kindness towards themselves, then to their loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all beings in the six directions.
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Two examples from a growing body of research on the practice of compassion and loving kindness:
Shahar, B., et al. (2014). A Wait‐List Randomized Controlled Trial of Loving‐Kindness Meditation Programme for Self‐Criticism. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy. Full text published online.
Researchers evaluated the efficacy of a loving-kindness meditation (LKM) program designed to increase self-compassion in a sample of self-critical individuals. Participants showed significant reductions in self-criticism and depressive symptoms as well as significant increases in self-compassion and positive emotions. A follow-up analysis showed that these gains were maintained 3 months after the intervention. These preliminary results suggest that LKM may be efficacious in alleviating self-criticism, increasing self-compassion and improving depressive symptoms among self-critical individuals.
Pace, T. W., et al. (2009). Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(1), 87-98. Full text.
While much attention has been paid to meditation practices that emphasize calming the mind, improving focused attention, or developing mindfulness, less is known about meditation practices that foster compassion. The current study examined the effect of compassion meditation on innate immune, neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress and evaluated the degree to which engagement in meditation practice influenced stress reactivity. Data suggest that engagement in compassion meditation may reduce stress-induced immune and behavioral responses.
Thank you Peter for this new meditation. It makes a nice addition to your recordings on the DoYoga site. I find Metta, loving kindness meditations especially meaningful and look forward to the next part, and eventually for the six directions. Blessings.
Warmest greetings Peter,
Grateful thanks for the new meditations. I still miss your live meditation sessions on Thursday evenings: precious memories!
Take care,
Monica
Dear Fran and Monica,
I’m glad to hear from you. Yes, in person is wonderful, but this way we’re still connected. What matters most is our individual practice of kindness — to ourselves and ALL beings. peter
p.s. the 2nd recording (of 4) has just been posted at http://www.doyogawithme.com/yoga-meditation.
The Loving Kindness meditation has certainly been a gift to me. As I mentioned at last night’s meditation session, sending loving kindness to myself is not the easiest . It is sometimes so much easier to send to someone else but it is getting easier and easier to include myself. Feels kind of like someone understands me deeply and doesn’t care about judging things that don’t really matter. Thank you and I would highly recommend the doyogawithme.com site. It is a wealth of resources, free meditations. What a great site! B.