Click on the video above to experience the Maitreya Peace Meditation. The full instructions are also in text below and here for download and printing (PDF format). This meditation will be available here shortly in multiple languages.  Please check back!

Maitreya Peace Meditation

Introduction

Today in the world, many people are concerned about peace, and wish to bring an end to war, violence, and the hurt caused by one person to  another. The cause of peace is the attitude of loving-kindness, which means caring about others and wishing them to be happy. When we can generate create this attitude in our own  minds, the result will be internal peace, and automatically then we share this peace  with others — our family, neighborhood, city, country, and the world.

Peace is our responsibility — only when the cause, loving kindness, exists within every person’s heart and mind, can peace become attainable. As the cause of peace (loving-kindness) spreads to more and more people, world peace will become attainable.

The following meditation is a method we can use to create the cause of peace.

Actual Meditation

First of all, sit in a comfortable position, and take a few minutes to  relax your body and mind. Have your back straight, let your eyes close  gently, and let all the parts of your body, all the muscles in your body,  be relaxed, light and open. And let your breathing be natural, let your  breath flow in and out in a natural rhythm.

Relax your mind by letting go of any thoughts you might have in your mind —  thoughts of the past or the future, thoughts of your work, other places or  people. Let these thoughts drift out of your mind, as clouds drift out of  the sky, leaving your mind clear, like a clear, cloudless sky. Decide to  keep your mind focused in the present, the here and now, and on the  meditation you are doing, without being distracted to anything else.

Now visualize in the space in front of you a figure or image that  represents absolute purity, goodness, peace, universal love and compassion,  all fully-perfected positive qualities. This figure could be Maitreya, the  embodiment of loving-kindness, or Shakyamuni Buddha, or any other Buddhist  figure that you are familiar with. If you are Christian, it could be Jesus,  Mary, the Holy Spirit, or one of the saints that you have faith in. Or it  could be any figure from a religious tradition that you are familiar with  and that represents for you these positive qualities. It could even be just light, a beam of radiant white or golden light. Choose whatever image  of purity you are most comfortable with, and imagine that figure in front  you.

Don’t worry about having a perfect, sharp, clear image. Just do the best  you can, and be satisfied with that. The most important thing is to feel  that it’s really there; that you are sitting in the presence of this  representation of all goodness, perfection, purity, universal loving- kindness and compassion. And really feel the loving-kindness and  compassion emanating from this image to yourself. The quality of loving kindness is comparable to the feeling of love, caring, and protecting that a mother has towards her child.

Now visualize light streaming from this image in front of you into yourself, coming through all the pores of your body, and filling your body  as if it were like an empty jar or vase being filled with liquid. The light flows down to the tips of your toes and fingers, filling you up all  the way to the top of your head. It fills every cell, atom and tiny  particle of your body. This pure radiant light purifies all of your  troubles, your pain — physical pain and sickness, as well as mental pain, unhappiness, fears, worries, anger, any other negative thoughts and  feelings you might have in your mind. As well as any negative things  you’ve done in the past — your karma, the imprints of hurtful or wrong  actions you did in the past that you are still carrying with you — all of  those are completely purified. So everything negative in your body and  mind completely disappears, becomes non-existent, as you are filled with  this blissful radiant light.

Imagine that your body becomes clean and clear like a piece of crystal.  Imagine that your mind becomes calm and clear, free of all negative  thoughts and worries, and full of feelings of loving-kindness and  compassion. Imagine that you, yourself, your mind, become one with the  image in front of you, the embodiment of loving-kindness and compassion. You yourself become just like that — totally positive, totally loving and compassionate, peaceful and blissful.

Now generate create in your mind the wish to share this peaceful, loving energy with others, so that they too can become free of suffering, and can  become loving, peaceful and positive. Remember that the only way to have  peace within ourselves, and peace outside of ourselves, in the world, is  to have the good heart of loving-kindness and compassion. So imagine the  energy of loving-kindness radiating out from you, from your heart, going  out in all directions like rays of light going out from the sun. Imagine  that it first touches any other people that might be in the room with you,  or in the house or building that you are in. Imagine that they become  filled with the energy of loving-kindness…

Then send it out further to all the people in your neighbourhood. They all  become filled with this light of loving-kindness…  Then send it out further to all the people in your town or city, and  imagine that they all become filled with the energy, the light of loving- kindness…  Then continue to send it out further and further, to all the people In  your country. They are all filled with the light, the energy of loving- kindness…

Continue to send it out to the people in other countries, all around the  world, so that gradually all the people in all countries, everywhere in  the world become filled with the energy of loving-kindness… And if you can,  imagine sending it out to other beings, not just people but all living  beings — animals, creatures in the sea, birds and insects — all the living  beings, everywhere in the world. They all become filled with the energy of  loving-kindness…

Then, if you can, imagine sending it out to the entire universe, to all  the beings existing everywhere in the universe, imagine that all of them  become filled with the energy of loving-kindness. The minds of all beings  everywhere become free of negative thoughts, and filled with loving  thoughts, so that now there is peace everywhere…

When you wish to conclude the meditation, in order to not lose the energy  generated during the meditation, mentally dedicate this energy that it  will bring peace to everyone, everywhere, to all beings in the universe —  may they all become free of their suffering. May they all become perfectly  filled with loving-kindness. One way you can do this is to pray: May the  minds of all beings everywhere become free of all thoughts of intolerance,  anger, hatred and the wish to give harm, and may their minds be filled  instead with thoughts of tolerance, respect, loving-kindness, and the wish  only to benefit others.

When you are ready to end your meditation, gently open your eyes.