Metta Meditation - Discover How the Practice of Loving Kindness Meditation Can Open The Doors of Bliss, Joy and Compassion in Your Life!

The Metta meditation or Loving Kindness meditation is among the most ancient Buddhism meditation practices. It has been passed on through 2500 years.

It is a Buddhist meditation technique to develop the positive feelings of love, compassion and friendliness towards ourselves, as well as others.

Metta is an ancient Pali/Buddhist word that means - universal love and goodwill, universal friendliness or Loving Kindness. It means a compassion and kindness that is extended towards all beings without any exceptions whatsoever.

However, Metta (or Loving Kindness meditation) does not imply a romantic type of love. It involves caring for others well-being without any self-interest or gratification on our part.

Metta Bhavana - Blossoming of Compassion

Metta Bhavana is an excellent meditation technique through which we learn cultivating love for ourselves, as well as others. We can cultivate greater patience, kindness, acceptance and compassion for all living beings.

It involves 4 meditation practices, that give rise to --

1) Compassion (empathizing with the suffering of others)

2) Loving Kindness

3) Empathetic joy (rejoicing in the joy and well-being of others)

4) Equanimity (patient and unconditional acceptance of both the joy and suffering of others as well as ourselves)

Loving Kindness meditation serves as an excellent foundation for higher forms of meditation practices. It leads to a faster progress in the practice of other meditation techniques.

Benefits of Metta Meditation

1) It helps us in easily overcoming the feelings of resentment, hurt and anger. It makes us more considerate, forgiving and kind towards the feelings and actions of others.

2) We begin to appreciate the positive qualities of others and are less critical towards their faults. It improves our patience too and joy of living too.

3) The Practice of loving kindness meditation helps to calm our mind and have a better control over our anger. It makes us more compassionate towards our fellow beings. They feel happier and at greater ease in our presence.

4) The practice of lovingkindness helps to reduce nightmares and insomnia related problems. It reduces stress dramatically and helps us to be at ease with ourselves.

5) Loving Kindness meditation and mindfulness meditation complement each other very well.

6) It is a very easy, but profound meditation technique to open your heart and develop empathy with other people.

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Additional Resources

An Introduction to Metta Bhavana or Loving Kindness Meditation - In Depth information on what metta is, what metta isn't, ways of cultivating metta, the metta prayer and much more.