The Insight Meditation Society is one of North America's oldest institutions dedicated to bringing the life-changing gifts of mindfulness training to the West. On Lovingkindness Meditation, IMS cofounder and senior instructor Sharon Salzberg guides you through a six-step meditation designed to access the human heart's own limitless source of supreme energy -- the energy of love. Known traditionally as metta (an ancient Buddhist term meaning "lovingkindness"), this timeless practice is an easy-to-learn method for unlocking your greatest internal resource for healing others and yourself. Here is a universal meditation to help you:

-Melt away feelings of isolation
-Awaken true compassion, even for those who have hurt you
-Find freedom from needless, self-created suffering
-Learn to trust your own loving, intelligent heart.

Among the world's contemplative traditions, the meditation on how to love is perhaps the most basic -- and most powerful. Lovingkindness Meditation is the perfect introduction to this enriching practice.

Sharon Salzberg is a cofounder and guiding teaching of the Insight Meditation Society, a retreat centre in Barre, Massachusetts. She has studied with spiritual teachers in India, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, and has been leading retreats worldwide since 1974. She is also a cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, which is dedicated to the integration of Buddhist teachings into modern culture.