Before beginning the analytical meditation, stabilize your mind as usual with a breath meditation exercise.
- Consider the extent to which your own actions are dominated by the wish to enjoy happiness and avoid dissatisfaction or suffering. Think about all the things you typically do from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night: what are the motivations behind all these activities?
- Now consider friends, family, and others you care about, and how, in their own way, they also strive for happiness and to avoid dissatisfaction. Reflect that complete strangers are motivated by just the same things. Ask yourself: what is so special about me that I am the only one deserving of happiness? Why am I the only one who should be protected from suffering?
- Try to identify the deepest moments of joy and fulfillment in your life. Who was the focus of your thoughts during these peak experiences?
- What have been your darkest times of anguish, despair, or fear? Who was the focus of your thoughts then?
- Try to penetrate the paradoxical truth that our most profoundly happy moments are usually when we are focusing on giving others happiness or relieving their suffering.
- Cultivate a determination that for the sake of your own happiness you will shift your thoughts toward others, focusing less on yourself. Hold this thought single-pointedly.