How to Cultivate a Loving Heart: The Buddhist Practice of Metta

Develop a practice in Metta with Joanna Hardy

Experience a greater sense of happiness, safety, and freedom. An online course in the transformational Buddhist practice of Metta meditation.

Practiced by Buddhists for thousands of years, metta enhances our capacity for goodwill and love and turns it up a notch — or two or three! — so that we feel better about ourselves and our place in the world.

In 10 easy-to-follow videos — featuring 5 guided meditation sessions — meditation expert JoAnna Hardy will teach you the basics of metta and how to put them into practice. Before you know it, How to Cultivate a Loving Heart will have you creating, and deepening, love and goodwill for yourself and the people in your life.

Also included are helpful review materials to reinforce what you’ve learned, and further readings (specially selected by the editors of Lion’s Roar) by some of today’s finest Buddhist teachers, including Pema Chödrön, Norman Fischer, and JoAnna Hardy herself, who provides an easy-to-follow bonus “self-forgiveness practice.”

Follow along with How to Cultivate a Loving Heart from the comfort of your own home, and on your own schedule; return to it as often as you like to refresh what you’ve learned and keep your practice strong.

Enroll today to make the life-changing benefits of metta practice yours with How to Cultivate a Loving Heart.

All Lion's Roar Online Learning courses include closed captions.


Your Instructor


JoAnna Hardy
JoAnna Hardy

JoAnna Hardy has practiced in multiple traditions since 1999, and in 2005 her practice landed on the Theravada Insight tradition. She teaches retreats, online courses. and one on one. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism.


Sessions


  Welcome to How to Cultivate a Loving Heart
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  1. JoAnna's Introduction to Metta
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  2. Peace Be With You: Cultivating the Seeds of Kindness
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  3. Practice: Reciting The Metta Sutta with JoAnna
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  4. Metta Principles
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  5. Metta Practice: Basics & Category 1: With Yourself as Object
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  5a. About the Buddhist “Bow”
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  6. Metta Practice Category 2: With an “Easy Person” as Object
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  7. Metta Practice Category 3: With a “Neutral Person” as Object
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  8. Metta Practice Category 4: With a “Challenging Person” As Object
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  9. Metta Practice, Category 5: With All Beings as Object / Closing Notes
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Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.
Not sure metta practice is for you?
Neither was JoAnna Hardy. She was skeptical, but her own meditation teacher asked her to give it a try. And it transformed her life. Where once she felt disconnected, she’d now learned to generate a sense of goodwill that made her feel at peace with herself and grounded even when vexed by difficult people.
Not a Buddhist?
You don’t have to be! After all, the Buddha wasn’t a “Buddhist.” Accordingly, meditation and metta, as he taught them, are practiced the world over by people of all kinds of backgrounds, religious or not.
Don’t like to meditate?
Perhaps you’ve tried meditation and weren’t a fan. But metta, as you’ll see, feels (and is) different. While some forms of meditation are without a clear goal, metta is uniquely engaging. The practice gives us “something to do”—a positive, even fun project for our minds. And you don’t have to sit in some rigid, uncomfortable posture. Metta is about being at ease, so you can let your body be at ease, too. Metta feels good! And once you learn it, you can do it pretty much anywhere, any time.

Get started now!