A few years ago my husband and I went to Aryaloka, a Buddhist center a couple of towns away. We went to learn about Buddhist meditation. The building housing the Buddhist community looks like a giant bra which is kind of funny, see above the two domes that make up the building. The cup or dome most near in the photo is where cooking, reading, eating and some classes take place. The dome in the back is where classes and workshops and some meditation takes place. But also in the upper dome area is this spacious and amazing meditation room where you feel you are sitting amongst the tree tops.
During our visits, we learned several different types of meditation including focusing on a lotus flower opening and what's called metta or lovingkindness. The lotus meditation was amazing for me, a visual person. As I sat (for 40 minutes!) I "watched" a lotus blossom and then perish. It literally was a closed up bud, then a pink and white flower with green leaves, bobbing on a little pond and then black, completely black. I was a little alarmed by this visual but the instructor, Bodhipaksa (I know, the names are curious), but anyway, he told me I was contemplating the cycle of life. On some level that made sense to me!
The other memorable type of meditation we learned was metta. Metta means:
“Metta” is a word that means “love,” “friendliness,” or “lovingkindness.” So this is a meditation practice where we actively cultivate some very positive emotional states towards others, as well as to ourselves." (from http://www.wildmind.org/metta/introduction)
This meditation made me cry and feel so strongly when I first did it that I stood up and nearly ran out of the meditation space to compose myself, returning only when I had collected myself (what a funny way to describe myself) and stopped feeling such intense emotion.
But, I love this meditation because it fosters and makes you think about: self love, love of strangers, love of those you love, and love of those who anger us, as well as love for all beings. There are many versions of this but they all kind of go like this:
May I dwell in safety.
May I be happy and healthy.
May I be free from afflictions.
May I be at peace.
May (thinking of somebody you don't know but maybe saw at the grocery store) dwell in safety.
May (thinking of somebody you don't know but maybe saw at the grocery store) be happy and healthy.
May (thinking of somebody you don't know but maybe saw at the grocery store) be free from afflictions.
May (thinking of somebody you don't know but maybe saw at the grocery store) be at peace.
May (thinking of somebody you love) dwell in safety.
May (thinking of somebody you love)be happy and healthy.
May (thinking of somebody you love) be free from afflictions.
May (thinking of somebody you love) be at peace.
May (thinking of somebody you don't really like) dwell in safety.
May (thinking of somebody you don't really like) be happy and healthy.
May (thinking of somebody you don't really like) be free from afflictions.
May (thinking of somebody you don't really like) be at peace.
May all beings dwell in safety.
May all beings be happy and healthy.
May all being be free from afflictions.
May all beings be at peace.
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