Loving Kindness & Compassion Meditation: Techniques & Tips

One very popular form of meditation is “lovingkindness,” a traditional, centuries-old practice also known as love and compassion meditation or, as per the original term, metta meditation. The word metta comes from an ancient Indian language called Pali. In this kind of practice, meditators focus on sending wishes of love, well-being, gratitude and compassion out into the world. Often they will choose a specific person or group of people—or animals—and wish them well with words such as, “May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may your mind be at ease.” The words can be spoken out loud, chanted, or imagined in silence. The same wishes can also be directed towards oneself. This form of focused meditation is often presented as guided practice. A regular metta practice increases the meditator’s feelings of compassion and benevolence towards others, as well as their sense of connectedness.

Recent studies have shown that plain old sitting meditation with a focus on the breath or physical sensations—as practiced during mindfulness for example—may increase practitioners’ feelings of benevolence and connectedness as well.

To understand how love and compassion meditation fits into the various types of meditation available, we recommend our free ebook Getting the Most out of Meditation. Or better yet check out our advanced online meditation course in compassion.

Opening the Heart to Love

2022-10-24T20:23:02-07:00By Vinny Ferraro|

4 Heart Practices Meditation I think when I first came to practice, probably for the first couple years, I sat there and I thought about meditation. I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing. To imagine: what would it be like if I was meditating? It would probably be like this. [...]

What is This Thing We Call Self?

2023-03-22T17:47:58-07:00By Bart Mendel|

We Are Not What We Think (And The Idea of Selflessness) We know from our experience that everything is always changing. We wake up in the morning feeling one way, but what we think and feel an hour later is very different. What we think about someone, or our job, or our life today isn’t [...]

Understanding Empathy and Compassion

2022-12-18T16:48:32-08:00By Julia Stenzel|

Compassion is a multidimensional process with four key components Compassion is the heartfelt wish to help others become free of their suffering. In Buddhist teachings on the Four Immeasurable qualities, compassion is the wish that everyone be relieved of suffering and the causes of suffering. Its twin sister, lovingkindness, is the wish to see everybody [...]

The Contemplative Approach to Compassion

2022-12-18T16:52:04-08:00By Lama Jampa Thaye|

How to develop compassion in a contemplative way, free from suffering The best approach to compassion is probably through love. Love takes us out of ourselves and opens our hearts to others. And when we develop love—the wish that others have happiness and the causes of happiness—we experience joy. With love, we become cheerful, resilient [...]

Contemplating Lovingkindness

2023-03-12T21:49:26-07:00By Lama Jampa Thaye|

The causes of happiness and the role of love in developing connections One of the main causes of happiness is in relationship and openness to others. So how do we get that? How do we move from a sense of self-sufficiency and a rather disregarding attitude to others to what I suggest is the route [...]

The Kryptonite of Compassion

2023-03-22T17:50:43-07:00By Rachel Parrish|

What is true, unconditional, genuine compassion? Sometimes, when we witness a person or animal in a difficult situation, we feel magnanimous and imagine that this feeling is compassion. But in fact, this is not what we should consider genuine compassion. Why? First of all, it’s relative, it’s based on a specific situation. Would we feel [...]

What is A Bodhisattva?

2022-08-19T11:03:32-07:00By Mindworks Team|

What is the Meaning of Bodhisattva? Definition, Origins & Practices The bodhisattva seated in meditation is among the most iconic Buddhist images. If you’ve been learning about meditation, you may be wondering what does bodhisattva mean? In brief, a bodhisattva is anyone who has dedicated their own awakening to the benefit of all others. There [...]

Is There a Role for Meditation in the Fight for Social Justice?

2023-01-06T11:38:05-08:00By Mindworks Team|

Meditation Can Make You Less Personally Biased Meditation is a deeply personal practice, and yet it has an important role to play in our interpersonal experience and the fight for social justice. Contrary to what some might think, mindfulness isn’t at odds with taking action. In fact authentic meditation practices inspire and prepare us [...]

Tonglen Meditation – How to Practice

2023-03-12T22:04:17-07:00By Pamela Gayle White|

Laying a foundation for active compassion in your meditation practice Tonglen is an ancient form of meditation that focuses on compassion: connecting with it, developing it, and learning how to apply it in everyday life. The practice centers on imagining that as we exhale, we are sharing the light of well-being and its causes with [...]

Lovingkindness and Compassion Meditation

2022-04-19T17:03:02-07:00By Bart Mendel|

How is lovingkindness different from love in meditation practice? In our culture, “love” is a loaded word. We usually think of love as a very positive emotion that should be cultivated, but most of the time it’s very conditional. In other words: I love this about you, but I don’t love that. Or I’ll love [...]

The Four Qualities of a Wise and Open Heart

2023-02-08T19:29:46-08:00By Mindworks Team|

What are the Four Immeasurables in Buddhism? — An Introduction As meditators, we spend a lot of time practicing the art of presence. We develop the ability to observe our inner workings without getting caught up in judging or manipulating whatever arises in the mindstream. We also learn to use our mindful stability to investigate the mind [...]

Lovingkindness Meditation – A Daily Script

2021-05-14T11:31:16-07:00By Mindworks Team|

A simple and profound lovingkindness meditation to practice every day What is lovingkindness meditation? Often presented as a complement to mindfulness meditation, most formal, guided lovingkindness meditations are rooted in an ancient Buddhist practice called metta (which translates as lovingkindness). Here we’re going to focus on a meditation you can use to familiarize yourself with [...]

What is Selflessness?

2023-03-22T17:48:22-07:00By Julia Stenzel|

Developing a deeper awareness of selflessness through compassion When we think about our life, about our experience, who we are and how we interact, do we think that we are individuals? Or do we think of ourselves as being part of a greater whole? We probably think that both are true. Aloneness is undeniable; we [...]

What is merit . . . . . and how can I get some?

2022-11-19T16:05:01-08:00By Pamela Gayle White|

The wisdom of generosity Merit, as defined across cultures, is the result of good actions or deeds. If you’re familiar with scouting, you’ll know that there are dozens and dozens of merit badges that scouts can earn by learning about things, applying that knowledge and doing something positive with it. So merit is something that’s [...]

Compassion Overcomes Fear

2022-12-26T16:40:50-08:00By Trungram Gyalwa, PhD|

Freedom from fear comes from lovingkindness and compassion Compassion is the foundation of all goodness. It’s beyond culture, beyond language, beyond religion, beyond time, and beyond space. It’s also beyond humanity because other species demonstrate this quality as well. No matter how fierce and aggressive some of them may be towards other species, they are [...]

Patience is Power

2022-08-19T11:04:41-07:00By Mindworks Team|

What can meditation teach me about the power of patience? Modern society doesn’t know quite what to make of patience. On the one hand, patience may not seem to be assertive or driven enough, while on the other it’s known to be a virtue of the wise. As Master Po tells his student in the [...]

Meditation on the Power of Gratitude

2021-06-21T17:07:58-07:00By Lama Jampa Thaye|

We all know that it’s important to appreciate the good things in our lives and to be thankful for the acts of kindness that come our way. Gratitude is part of being a good person; combined with kindness to others, it makes the world a more decent and livable place. But its power is often [...]

Forgiveness Meditation Practice

2022-07-24T10:52:45-07:00By Joseph Rogers|

Healing relationships is key to addiction recovery Without relationship, there is no practice, there is no recovery. Finding a way to heal relationships and the pain that can get in their way is core to our recovery. That’s why we begin our meditation by recognizing what was done and the pain that it caused. [...]

Mindfulness Meditation Improves Love & Relationships

2022-08-19T11:12:16-07:00By Maria Camara|

Expectations and Relationships If we really think about it, most of our concerns and daily conflicts happen within the context of relationships. We are constantly connecting with people at different layers of intimacy, and yet it seems like we always have to deal with unfulfilled expectations related to these connections. It might be a [...]

Lovingkindness in Meditation

2022-04-19T17:07:23-07:00By Noah Levine|

Meditation changes our relationship to pain What is lovingkindness meditation? While there are many different types of meditation, there are specific practices that we call lovingkindness where we actually train our hearts and minds to wish for well-being for others — “may all beings be at ease”. This is a universal, healthy desire that we [...]

Getting Started with Metta Meditation

2022-07-24T10:54:10-07:00By Mindworks Team|

Instruction on Loving Kindness Meditation Oh good, a new word! “Metta” comes to us from an ancient Indian language called Pali, and it translates as lovingkindness, benevolence, active good will—you get the idea. Normally, when we think about meditation we imagine sitting in silence and focusing on something pretty neutral like the breath or physical [...]

How to Meditate: Tibetan Buddhism

2021-05-14T11:33:53-07:00By Mindworks Team|

As Buddhist meditation and philosophy spread throughout the East many hundreds of years ago, they acquired the flavors of the lands where they took root. Today, when you look at some of the Buddhist meditation techniques of Japan, Indochina, Sri Lanka and Tibet, for example, there are certainly similarities, but there are also some notable [...]

What is compassion meditation?

2022-04-19T17:09:39-07:00By Mindworks Team|

All forms of meditation center on presence and focusing. When we practice compassion meditation, our focus is well-being: the well-being of others as well as of ourselves. Compassion is a quality that can be trained and “muscled” through exercise and repetition. And as it also happens, focusing on others’ well-being actually—and quantifiably—makes us feel better [...]

Guided Gratitude Meditation

2023-02-26T19:04:39-08:00By Mindworks Team|

We all aspire to leading happy, healthy lives. To fulfill this yearning for well-being, we generally find ourselves actively trying to obtain what we’ve decided we need and steer clear of anything that might thwart our designs. But we tend to overlook one of the most reliable sources of happiness and well-being even though (or [...]

Love & Compassion Meditation