How to Transform Others?

1. Imagine a friend or loved one who happens to be suffering right now.
2. Breathe in the person’s pain and suffering with compassion and breathe out love, peace, joy, and healing.
3. After several minutes, begin to widen the circle of your compassion to include first other people you care about, then those toward whom you feel neutral, and then those you dislike or find difficult. (For more on the order of this progression, see the section “How to Generate Love for Yourself and Others” earlier in this chapter.) Breathe in their suffering and pain and breathe out peace, love, and joy, using any images you find helpful.
4. Extend your compassion in this way, first to all the people in the world and then to all beings everywhere. Though you won’t be able to visualize them, you can sense their presence as you breathe in and breathe out.
5. End the meditation by dedicating any virtue you may have accumulated through this practice to the benefit of all beings.

You can do these phases out of order or separately, if you choose, but it’s important to begin the practice each time with yourself.