Lovingkindness Meditation

A Traditional Meditation for Applying Love As a Healing Force

The Insight Meditation Society is one of North America's oldest institutions dedicated to bringing the life-changing gifts of mindfulness training to the West. On Lovingkindness Meditation, IMS cofounder and senior instructor Sharon Salzberg guides you through a six-step meditation designed to access the human heart's own limitless source of supreme energy-the energy of love. Known traditionally as metta (an ancient Buddhist term meaning "lovingkindness"), this timeless practice is an easy-to-learn method for unlocking your greatest internal resource for healing others and yourself. Here is a universal meditation to help you:

• Melt away feelings of isolation
• Awaken true compassion, even for those who have hurt you
• Find freedom from needless, self-created suffering
• Learn to trust your own loving, intelligent heart

Among the world's contemplative traditions, the meditation on how to love is perhaps the most basic-and most powerful. Lovingkindness Meditation is the perfect introduction to this enriching practice.