Loving kindness meditation:
It fosters kindness for others and helps remove anger, greed, jealousy, hate etc from ourselves. We start with ourselves. Imagine ourselves, and send the wishes
1) may I (all beings) be free from danger
2) may I (all beings) be free from mental suffering
3) may I (all beings) be free from physical suffering
4) may I (all beings) be well and happy
although there are variations e.g. "may I be free from enmity"
after you've sent those wishes to yourself, you then think about 'respectful persons' such as your parents, teachers, friends etc. Conjure up their image until they are 4 ft away and stable (in this case the person is your meditation object) , and you send them those wishes with sincerity...until they smile. This is followed by 'neutral' people, acquaintances, colleagues etc, then 'enemies'. If you can't send them good thoughts then you can contemplate on the 32 parts of the body and ask yourself which part you are angry at?
These are the 4 main groups, but there are other groupings that are more broad and specific; they start with metta to all beings in every form, then to beings in different realms. When one has the concentration one can send the energy to all compass directions plus up and down (10 directions).
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