First of My Top Ten Guided Meditations in 2017

Here's the first of the top 10 most guided meditations I've practised in 2017:

1. Forgiveness - Loving Kindness Meditation (Metta) by Ayya Khema, Buddha-Haus.

"We gonna feel our heart with forgiveness for ourselves, for anything that we dislike in ourselves, for anything that we think we've done wrong, thought or said wrong. Anything that's a burden, we'll forgive ourselves and fill ourselves with forgiveness, surround us and feeling the ease that that brings."

I love this Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta) by the wonderful Ayya Khema. I've practised this meditation countless times as it brings me peace and helps me connect with those wonderful feelings of forgiveness, compassion and loving-kindness.

At the very beginning when I set the intention on practising Loving-Kindness, I found myself struggling to forgive some individuals whose, for some reasons, I had blamed for a lot and for those uncomfortable feelings that had been lingering on my head since childhood. However, as I endured and carried on practising the meditation over and over again, the feelings of forgiveness, loving & kindness reached deeply inside my heart, bringing with it ease and self-compassion inside my body and soul, helping me out of the blaming and guilt sensations which I was not aware that had been taking over my emotions - making me a sad and a depressive & negative person.

"Now we think of the most difficult person that we have ever encountered in our life and recognise the Dukkha* in that person's heart and forgive that person completely for anything they have thought, said or done... and let the warmth of our heart reach out to that person, feeling the easing of the burden..."

I, sometimes, still struggle with it but that uncomfortable 'blaming' feeling is now getting much less and less strong, day by day, and seems to be disappearing from my heart altogether. It is such a liberating and beautiful feeling after I finish the meditation that keeps me (for a long while) feeling at ease with myself and with those whom I've blamed for - for any reason it might have been or for reasons that might have made me feel deeply hurt, hopeless or/and helpless in the past.

Then we think of acquaintances, friends or relatives and our forgiveness reaches out to their hearts knowing that anything that they may have thought, said or done which we didn't agree with... it's due to their Dukkha*... we let it all disappear into the past.

Then to "recognise the Dukkha* in that person's heart and forgive that person completely for anything they have thought, said or done". It's such a powerful and liberating experience when you truly realise this kind of feeling and let go of a burden as well as realising that "there's a person behind all that which is Dukkha and we'll forgive the person", letting go of that burden - "let it all disappear into the past".

We'll think of those people who are close to us and forgive them for anything we've blamed them for... for any thought, words or action we didn't agree with them for and give them the gift of our loving heart... and realise that we're letting go of a burden.... We'll think of those people we meet in our every day life that have been disliked... we forget it completely and reach out with compassion and feel connected to them."

Doing this meditation for such a long time has not only made me kinder to people I've found difficult to deal with but it somehow has worked back to me insofar as I've noticed that the difficult feelings I used to have and the attitude towards myself from those people have flipped for a much better one... they kind of beginning to treat me somewhat differently - with more respect - than they used to before. Not that I was expecting anything back but, I think that it's been working both ways, really. And that makes me feel wonderfully grateful for.

"We'll think of those whose ideology or actions we have disliked or blamed and realised that there's a person behind all that which is Dukkha* and we'll forgive this person. Anyone who comes to mind in the past or in the present who're doing things we rejected and forgive that person and wish them well.... We can see quite clearly that the heart can be loving and need not retain any of those feelings which bring not happiness. We forgive the person we wear that thought, said or may not approve of and lovingly embrace that person we are now. May people everywhere forgive each other."

* Dukkha (Pāli; Sanskrit: duḥkha; Tibetan: སྡུག་བསྔལ་ sdug bsngal, pr. "duk-ngel") is an important Buddhist concept, commonly translated as "suffering", "pain" or "unsatisfactoriness". It refers to the fundamental unsatisfactoriness and painfulness of mundane life

Ayya Khema (August 25, 1923 – November 2, 1997) was a Buddhist teacher, and the first Western woman to become a Theravadin Buddhist nun. Buddha-Haus. Her biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayya_Khema