In general, as it says in the Ornament of Mahayana Sutras:

The bodhisattvas have abandoned factors incompatible with the brahmaviharas,

Are endowed with the wisdom that is non-conceptual,

Engage with the three objects of focus,

And bring beings to full maturity.[1]

For love and each of the immeasurables, the text says, there are four special features. The special feature of the absent is the relinquishing of the particular discordant factors; the special feature of the supporting factor is the presence of non-conceptual wisdom; the special feature of the objects of focus is the direction towards the three kinds of objects, namely sentient beings, phenomena and the non-referential; and the special feature of the function is to bring beings to full maturity. Here, in this context, we are concerned with love that is directed towards sentient beings. Its essence is as follows: focusing on the object, sentient beings, and wishing that they may have happiness and its causes, namely virtuous actions.

 

The Introduction to the Middle Way says:

And “great loving kindness” is the name given

To his activity for benefitting beings.[2]

Since it is easier for love to arise if we begin the practice by focusing on our mother from this present life, visualize your mother in front of you and bring to mind the ways in which she has shown you great kindness. Think:

From the time I was in her womb, she did all that she could and used all the means at her disposal in order to benefit me and save me from harm. Fearing that I might fall sick or die, she worked tirelessly to serve me and nurse me back to health. She held me in her love, and looked at me with affection. She chewed my food for me before putting it in my mouth. She wiped me clean with her hands, and warmed me with the heat of her own body. She called me by affectionate names. Rather than taking food or clothing for herself, or using whatever wealth she had for her own enjoyment, she gave it all to me. She taught me the means to communicate and how to act, and all the skills I needed. In short, she bore all kinds of suffering and negativity for my sake.

Think about this carefully and generate a feeling of intense closeness and affection.

 

When you have generated this feeling, consider that it is not just in this present lifetime, but again and again throughout beginningless time, that she has looked after you with such kindness. As it says in the sutras:

All the breast milk that we have drunk

When each sentient being has been our mother,

Is greater in volume than all the water

Contained within the four great oceans.

This is how we remember the kindness of our mothers.

 

Then we must consider how this kind mother of ours lacks happiness and its causes, which are positive actions. Think:

Now my mother has gained a human body with all the freedoms and advantages, but she does not have the capacity to realize its full potential. She lacks the discernment to tell right from wrong, and her virtuous intentions and actions are weak, so that she is naturally drawn into unwholesome ways. Since it will therefore be difficult for her to experience even the happiness of the higher realms, what need is there to mention the bliss of liberation and omniscience.

When you feel certain about this, think to yourself, “May my mother come to possess abundant happiness and the virtues which are its causes! In order for this to happen she must be freed from the adverse conditions which prevent it, so may the burden of all her suffering and harmful acts ripen on me!” Pray like this from the depths of your heart and recite the words aloud. At the same time, consider that all your mother’s harmful actions and suffering take the form of black light which you draw into your heart. Meditate on this with great joy.

 

When you gain some proficiency in this, focus on your father and other close relations and friends, and consider the kindness they have shown you in this and previous lives, as before. Then extend the practice to those who are neutral, meaning they are neither friends nor foes, and then to your enemies, both human and non-human. Think:

All these beings have been my father and mother again and again throughout beginningless time, and at that time they treated me with just as much kindness as did my current mother and father. Now that we have passed on into further lives, I no longer recognize them, and so I feel attachment to some and aversion to others, but that is simply the result of my delusion. How wonderful it would be if all these beings—all equal in terms of their kindness—could find happiness!

Continue the stages of the practice just as before. Then extend the focus of your practice even further, and consider all the beings of a single continent, and then all four continents, then this cosmos of a billion worlds, and finally the whole infinity of beings, as boundless as space itself.

 

The Intermediate Stages of Meditation says it all wonderfully, as follows:

Consider how all sentient beings want happiness, and how they do not want suffering. In the course of our beginningless wanderings throughout existence, there is not a single sentient being who has not been our close relation hundreds of times, so why do we treat them differently, and feel desire and attachment towards some and anger towards others? We should begin the meditation on love by considering our close friends and relations and wishing that they find happiness. Then we must gradually extend the practice to ordinary people and even enemies.

Concerning the benefits of meditating on love in this way, the King of Samadhi Sutra says:

Even an offering throughout billions of realms,

Consisting of gifts infinite in number and variety,

Presented to great beings every day for all eternity,

Could not match the wonder of a mind of love.

The Precious Garland says:

Offerings of three hundred pots of food

Made three times each and every day,

Could not match even a portion of the merit

Gained from just a single moment’s loving kindness.

Even if it does not bring you liberation,

It will produce the eight rewards of love:

Gods and humans will care for you,

And they will offer you protection,

You will be happy and know many joys,

No poison or weapon will do you harm,

Effortlessly, you will achieve your aims,

And you will be born in Brahma’s realm.[3]

Moreover, as the lamas of the past would say:

The accounts of Daughter and so on[4]

Provide the background to this instruction.

You should therefore study recollect such stories.

 

Like water that washes away the stains of past misdeeds,

This method for extinguishing the flames of hatred,

And providing the conditions for compassion’s magic tree to grow—

May my being be saturated with a mind of loving kindness!