At our last Study Group we practiced a powerful meditation on Loving Kindness. The discussion question was: What are your feelings about sending thoughts of loving kindness to yourself and others?

One of our members commented:
Rather than the focus being on helping to remove someone’s suffering, we are wishing them true happiness and it’s causes. For me, loving kindness has a ;lightness to it, compared to compassion. With compassion I get wrapped up in my responsibility as a friend, citizen, or family member, supporting others’ burdens. It’s also difficult sometimes to know what is the best way to help.

Wishing loving kindness is a reminder that we ALL want the same ting. Wishing happiness isn’t necessarily easier, but fo me it comes from a place of joyousness, of recognizing the possibilities. Happiness is a weave of virtues. It’s like a plan, a way forward.

My ideal world would be a friendlier, softer, sharing world, full of benevolence and true social conscience.

Follow-up book recommendation – The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams.