My Favorite Meditation

I meditate. In the school of meditation I practice there are 21 different meditations that are practiced in a cycle that build upon each other. The initial contemplations, to attain our point of single minded focus, go from pretty simple "If we use our human life to accomplish spiritual realizations, it becomes immensely meaningful" to rather complex "My body is empty of true, or inherent, existence because, when I search for it, it disappears like a mirage".

My favorite meditation and the one that helps me the most in my day to day life is a meditation on increasing affectionate love for all. This meditation has taken a lot of the anger out of my life and replaced it with compassion. As you may or may not know most men express depression through anger, so really this meditation has taken most of the depression out of my life. That is the reason I would like to share it.

Settle in a comfortable position and bring your awareness to your body. Scan through your body and find any points of tension and let them go. Gather all your worries together in a bag and place them outside the door. Focus your attention on your breath single pointedly. With each in breath believe that it is your first breath. As you focus on your breath imagine that as you breath out all your worries, tensions, problems, anger and depression are released in the form of dark smoke that drifts off. When you feel ready, imagine that as you breath in you breath in positive energy in the form of bright white light. Fill you mind and body with this light. Then bring to your mind someone who you have great affectionate love for, for many this would be your Mother. Send that loving energy to your Mother and learn what it feels like to release that love. Then widen the circle a bit and include other family members, friends. Then widen the circle a bit and include acquaintances or people you just have seen and feel neutral about. Then, when you are able, widen the circle to include the people you don't particuarly like, then the people you really don't like. At some point widen the circle to include all living beings. When you are able to get to this point, just stay there. When you are done dedicate your meditation to the realization of peace and love for all those living beings.

Do this meditation for a while and the love you imagine will actually start to happen.

May everyone be happy,
May everyone be free from misery,
May no one ever be seperated from their happiness,
May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.

My favorite prayer. It is called "Generating the four immeasurables". It is my wish for the world.

Peace