For Molly

Unsealing the spring of loving kindness

This method consists of imagining one person who we know loved us. If it is not our mother, than it could be a grandmother, grandfather, or anyone else who ever gave us the feeling of being deeply loved.

''Go back in your mind,'' Sogyal Rinpoche advises, ''and recreate, almost visualize'' this love that you felt. And as you feel it come into your heart, feel gratitude, and let this love return to that person who helped you to feel that you were worthy of being loved.

Then, extend this love to all other beings, beginning with family and loved ones, then friends, acquaintances, and neighbors, then strangers, and even to people you dislike or who represent problems in your life - ''even those whom you might consider as your 'enemies.' '' Then, extend this love to the entire universe.

Sogyal Rinpoche says that this practice ''unseals a spring of love,'' and thus inspires the birth of compassion.

Sogyal Rinpoche from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

<3

Molly