Banner photo credit: Embla Munk Rynkebjerg

This love-based meditation covers sympathetic joy and gratitude, loving-kindness, compassion, and peace meditations for yourself and a benefactor. It was given by Freeman Wicklund at the Boundless Love Project’s weekly group meditation on 11-17-2020. It is suitable for beginners. Enjoy!

Using the Meditation Script

We make this meditation script available so practitioners may review the content of the meditation, and so experienced meditators may offer this meditation to their meditation groups. If you want to offer this meditation to others, please read the article Twelve Tips to Peer-Leading Guided Meditations. For a printable copy, download and print this PDF of the Four Kinds of Love Meditation Script. Enjoy!

The Four Kinds of Love Meditation
Trauma-Informed • 30 minutes

Ring Bell

We do this practice for the benefit and welfare of all beings and all life everywhere, including our own.

May we know the peace of accepting the truth of reality as it is.

May we know the security of having our intentions arise from unconditional, boundlesslove.

May we know the freedom of renunciation which liberates us from greed.

May we know the joy of living skillfully for the benefit and welfare of all beings and all life everywhere.

May all beings and all life everywhere be free of delusion, suffering, and dissatisfaction.

May all beings and all life everywhere be loving, peaceful, compassionate, and joyful.

Maintain Agency

This meditation is your time to practice, and we create this experience together.

Please maintain a full sense of freedom during this meditation.

(2:15)

Consider my instructions to be gentle invitations. Only follow those instructions that feel safe, seem helpful, and align with your inner wisdom.

If an instruction or comment is not helpful, or does not apply to you, then compassionately leave it to the side.

Cleansing Breaths

We begin by taking several deep, cleansing breaths.

You may choose to sign audibly on the outbreath.

Again.

Once more.

Good now, allow the breath to breath itself.

Setting Posture

If it feels safe enough to do so, close your eyes to help you focus your attention inward. Otherwise, keep your eyes partly opened and gently gazing downward.

Gently find a posture where you can rest comfortably for about thirty minutes.

Relax the Body

Calmly notice any places in the body where pain, stress, or tension exist, and gently send them some love and invite them to relax and soften.

(4:30)

These sensations may or may not comply. Try to be OK regardless of what they do.

Anchor Awareness on Heart

Gently anchor your awareness now on the heart area. Feel all of the subtle sensations you feel in the space in and around the heart.

Effortlessly maintain your attention on the heart area for the rest of this meditation as we transition into a gratitude practice.

Gratitude Practice

Gratitude helps us remember the abundance already in our life. It helps us see how the life around us is actively supporting, nurturing, and generously providing for us. It is an antidote to greed and feelings of isolation, fear, worry, and scarcity.

We now offer gratitude to the source of all that is and shall be, the animating spirit found in all life, and the higher power of your understanding.

Thank you.

Thank you for the gift of air that sustains us.

Thank you for blessing us with another day of life.

Thank you for the gift of life.

(6:45)

Thank you for providing me with the basic necessities of life: food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep, friends, community, and the ability to contribute to the wellbeing of others.

Thank you for this body, just as it is. Thank you for its ability to heal and repair itself. Thank you also for its illnesses and afflictions that help me better appreciate the health I have.

Thank you for wholesome, loving relationships, laughter, and romance.

Thank you for the beauty and wisdom of nature. Thank you for the splendor of flowers, the magnificence of trees, the warmth of the sun, the elegance of clouds, the grandeur of a starry sky, the peace of still waters, and the joy of babbling brooks.

Thank you for the animals of the world. Thank you for their beauty, their wisdom, their joy, their playfulness, and their love for life.

Thank you for giving me all that I need to learn, grow, love, and enjoy life.

Thank you for all the gifts, skills, and talents you have blessed me with.

Thank you for kindness, compassion, forgiveness, peace, joy, appreciation, love, and freedom.

Thank you for the inner silence, stillness, and spaciousness, and the peace, wisdom, and ease it offers.

Thank you for giving me problems and difficulties that help me deepen my compassion for self and others, and help me grow spiritually.

(9:00)

Thank you for helping me shed my ego and live from a position of truth and love.

Thank you for the courage to live with authenticity.

Thank you for my capacity to love myself and others unconditionally.

Continue to offer genuine, heart-felt thanks using your own words now, and feeling free to be grateful for things already mentioned.

* * *

Sympathetic Joy

We now move to a sympathetic joy practice. Sympathetic joy helps us find happiness in the joy and successes of others. It is an antidote to envy and jealousy.

Lovingly bring to mind a living being -- human or animal -- who you love and admire, and who experiences a lot of joy or success in their life.

Either visualize them or have a sense of them in front of you. Reflect on all of their praiseworthy qualities, and how they have benefited and enriched your life.

If anything about this being causes your heart to close, notice that, and set whatever it is to the side for now. Patiently reflect on only the good qualities of this being.

(12:00)

Have a sense of this beloved being offering you love, kindness, and goodwill. Loving energy radiates out from their heart as a beam of white or colored light, or as an energetic feeling that surrounds you and fills you with love. Their love tells you, “You are worthy of love. You are worthy of care.”

As much as you can, open your heart to receive and feel this love.

Gently now, while calmly resting your awareness on the heart space, after I say each phrases, silently repeat it to your beloved being:

May your happiness continue, increase, and never end.

May the good in you continue, increase, and never end.

May your success continue, increase, and never end.

Do your best to feel the meaning behind the words.

May your happiness continue, increase, and never end.

May the good in you continue, increase, and never end.

May your success continue, increase, and never end.

Loving-Kindness for Benefactor

Resting your awareness gently on the heart space, we now shift to offering loving-kindness phrases to the same beloved being. Loving-kindness reminds us that, like us, all living beings want to be peaceful and happy. It is the antidote to judgment, hatred, and fear of others.

(14:45)

Do your best to connect with and feel the underlying meaning behind these words:

May you be safe and protected.

May you be peaceful and happy.

May you be healthy and strong.

May you be safe and protected.

May you be peaceful and happy.

May you be healthy and strong.

Loving-Kindness for Self

Gently letting go of your beloved being, we offer loving-kindness to ourselves while maintaining our awareness on the heart space.

May I be safe and protected.

May I be peaceful and happy.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be safe and protected.

May I be peaceful and happy.

May I be healthy and strong.

(17:00)

Compassion for Beloved Being

We now start compassion practice. Compassion is an antidote to cowardice and cruelty. It helps us mindfully face suffering so we may address it skillfully.

Bring back to mind your beloved being, and gently reflect on the suffering they have experienced in their life.

Peacefully reflect on the universal truth that all beings, including this one, wants to be free from suffering.

Do your best to connect with and feel the underlying meaning behind these words:

I care about your suffering, I care enough to be close.

May love and wisdom guide and protect you.

May you be peaceful and skillful during challenging times.

May you be free from suffering and the root causes of suffering.

If the mind wanders away, return the attention to the heart space.

I care about your suffering, I care enough to be close.

May love and wisdom guide and protect you.

May you be peaceful and skillful during challenging times.

May you be free from suffering and the root causes of suffering.

(20:00)

Compassion for Yourself

Letting go of your beloved being with love, we now offer compassion to ourselves while maintaining our awareness on the heart space.

I care about my suffering, I care enough to be close.

May love and wisdom guide and protect me.

May I be peaceful and skillful during challenging times.

May I be free from suffering and the root causes of suffering.

I care about my suffering, I care enough to be close.

May love and wisdom guide and protect me.

May I be peaceful and skillful during challenging times.

May I be free from suffering and the root causes of suffering.

Peace Practice for Beloved Being

We now start peace practice. Peace practice is an antidote to disturbing emotions of all kinds.

Gently bring back to mind the beloved being from before:

May you dwell in a deep inner peace, free from greed and aversion.

May you know the peace of allowing things to be as they are.

(23:00)

All things come and go. May you welcome change with peace and ease.

May your actions be motivated by a deep love and appreciation for all life.

May you dwell in a deep inner peace, free from greed and aversion.

May you know the peace of allowing things to be as they are.

All things come and go. May you welcome change with peace and ease.

May your actions be motivated by a deep love and appreciation for all life.

Loving-Peace Practice for Ourselves

Gently letting go of your beloved being, we offer peace to ourselves while maintaining our awareness on the heart space.

May I dwell in a deep inner peace, free from greed and aversion.

May I know the peace of allowing things to be as they are.

All things come and go. May I welcome change with peace and ease.

May my actions be motivated by a deep love and appreciation for all life.

May I dwell in a deep inner peace, free from greed and aversion.

(26:00)

May I know the peace of allowing things to be as they are.

All things come and go. May I welcome change with peace and ease.

May my actions be motivated by a deep love and appreciation for all life.

Sharing of the Merits

As I chant, continue to feel your heart space, and try to feel the meaning behind the chanted words as you send these kind wishes to all humans, animals, and life forms.

We share any merits gained from this practice with all beings and all life everywhere.

May all beings and all life everywhere be free from suffering and misery.

May all beings and all life everywhere abide in a deep and lasting peace.

May all beings and all life everywhere know the highest forms of happiness and be at ease.

May all beings and all life everywhere know their deepest essence to be: joy, peace, compassion, and unconditional, boundless love.

May all beings and all life everywhere be liberated, fully liberated, permanently liberated.