Within the last ten years or so there’s been a lot of neurological interest in the effects of meditation. One of the scientists spearheading this kind of research is Richard Davidson. A particularly well known and interesting experiment of Prof. Davidson’s is one in which he measured, using the best available technology of neuroscience, the effects of loving-kindness meditation on the brain of long term mediators – monks who had meditated for 10,000+ hours.

 

 

Loving-kindness meditation is the cultivation of love, compassion, and joy for all living things and a wish to end suffering and ill-will. The Budda wrote on the virtues of the practice in the Metta Sutta.

 

 

What Professor Davidson discovered was that the area of the brain which he believes to be associated with positive emotions, the left pre-frontal cortex, became hyper-activated in these monks when they engaged in a loving-kindness practice. The readings were unlike any before seen in neurological studies – these monks were experiencing massive activation in the positive emotional centres of the brain.

 

 

Anger and ill-will towards others is something which drains you. The man who suffers from feelings of wanting to get one over on another person, or wanting to appear better than other people is trapped by his own thoughts. A desire to put someone else down or to make them suffer causes great suffering for the person who has those thoughts.

 

As such it’s clear why anyone should wish to be free from their own ego. It is the only way to be free from these thoughts of ill-will and anger. Egocentricity, greed, hatred, delusion, jealousy and meanness are emotional prisons which encage and torment the persons who have them.

 

 

The inspirational writer James Allen repeatedly expounded the merits of cultivating virtuous thought in his book – from poverty to power. According to him, only by cultivating thoughts of kindness towards others could one truly find the rewards they seek in this life. “If you really seek truth, and not merely your own gratification; if you love it above all worldly pleasures and gains; more, even, than happiness itself, you will be willing to make the effort necessary for its achievement.”

 

Thinking in terms of the law of attraction this all makes perfect sense. If you were to sink into a world of hatred and dislike, a world in which other people are defacto the enemy, a world in which other people sicken you and in which you believe yourself to be better than them – then of course you will find that the world meets your beliefs everywhere you look. You could say to yourself – “people are pathetic and selfish and they are everywhere around me.” Sure enough, everyone around you they would be.

 

On the other hand you could train a sense of kindness towards all beings. You could train yourself to see the suffering in the lives of those who aren’t free and wish only for them to be peaceful. You could believe that people are not the enemy, or evil, only that some suffer greatly and that you want this suffering to end. Then you would find yourself in a world were people are free or they suffer and you great them with kindness. This is a world where you have no enemies.

 

 

Loving-kindness is always a great way of developing self-esteem. The meditation itself begins with a focus on oneself and a cultivation of love for oneself. It has also been noticed in neurology that the parts of the mind activated during depression experience a significant drop in activity from the practice of loving-kindness meditation even in laymen who are inexperienced with the practice. It is speculated that loving-kindness may well be the instant emotional “cure” for depression.

 

 

The method for cultivating loving-kindness is more complex and subjective than that of the basic mindfulness meditation and therefore the methods given vary.

 

It is best to practice such a thing in an erect position because it is likely that the mind will be most alert and attentive when the body is kept in this position.

 

The object of the practice is to welcome within yourself a love towards yourself, then a love towards a friend, then a love a neutral person, then a love towards an enemy, and finally an unbiased love towards all things.

 

It is often recommend in Buddhism that the person chosen is neither a dead person, a parent, nor someone who you may feel any lust towards.

 

The first most basic way of doing this is to repeat a mantra over and over, the mantra used is along the lines of:

 

 

"May I be free from ill-will" means for you to be free from both having hurtful thoughts towards others, and to be free from having hurtful thoughts directed against yourself.

 

"May I be free from physical suffering" means for you to be free from physical afflication.

 

"May I be free from mental suffering" means for you to be free from distress, worry, etc.

 

"May I be happy" and "may I find peace" mean for you to become enlightened.

 

This same mantra is used for when you are not the object of your meditation, so for example, “may he be free from ill-will” etc.

 

There is a certain absolute delicacy to loving kindness meditation. You should feel delicate in your meditation position, the voice in your head should be a delicate whisper. The idea is to create the conditions for loving-kindness to grow inside of you, not to try and force anything to happen.

 

When positive feelings towards the person do arise then you recognise and embrace them.

 

Sometimes this part of the process can involve visualising the person being happy and sending feelings of kindness towards them.

The ultimate aim of this meditation is to have an extremely strong will to help any suffering being. According to the Budda this mentality leads to the reincarnation in the highest plane of the heavens. The only more esteemed path, according to Him, is to have complete detachment and know enlightenment through vipassana which results in the end of reincarnation.

 

 

For readers who prefer a more step by step method, here it is:

 

1. Sit in a quiet place of contemplation with your spine erect and your head held level (not bowed or nose pointed in the air). Relax as much as you can in the moment.

 

N.B. you can perform this meditation throughout daily life also, but these instructions are for a formal/regular practice.

 

2. Begin by picturing yourself. Think about all of the things you have done for yourself. Think of the respect you have for yourself. Think of the ways in which you've grown and the things you have over-come.

 

3. Repeat the mantra with a gentle and relaxed tone in your head (or out-loud if you wish) - "May I be free from ill-will, may I be free from physical suffering, may I be free from mental suffering, may I find peace." Think about the meaning of each part of the mantra.

 

4. When you feel like a good amount of kindness has built up for yourself then in turn perform this same process for a loved one, a stranger, an enemy, and everyone.

 

 

Another part of the full loving-kindness meditation is cultivating compassion. Compassion involves you imaging the suffering which the person has gone through and feeling compassion for them.

 

So, beginning with yourself, you would see all the harsh realities of the persons life and how much they are trapped and suffering and then you would wish for them to be free from that suffering and cultivate the feelings of wanting to help them.

 

 

I began with this type of meditation last week. I’ve been doing half an hour a day and I’ve already began to feel the results. Strangers on the street who I used to see as default the “opposition”, an old habit which I knew it was time to change, I am starting to feel more like they are allies and friends.

 

I’m intending to keep this practice up for at least a few months before I make any solid conclusions. I think it’s going to make a fascinating change from my normal meditative practice.