"May I be free of enmity and anger, may I be healthy, may I be well. may I be happy" You can develop thoughts of kindness in whatever manner you wish. But bear in mind to bring in those aspects of being free of enmity and being well. By developing these thoughts towards oneself, you fill your heart and mind with kindness.

It is very necessary to fill your heart and mind with kindness. Because otherwise you cannot proceed in this path. Unless the mind has gone towards kindness and kindness leads the way, aversion will not get tranquilized. Aversion is a powerful hindrance. It's an obstacle for the arising of tranquillity, concentration and calming of mind and for the arising of wisdom. Therefore both the practice of Samatha and Vipassana Bhavana will not bear fruit unless this hindrance called aversion is tranquilized. Therefore one cannot over emphasize the need to bring forth and live in kindness. It doesn't come that easily either. It also requires one to abstain from taking revenge in daily life.

So now having completed the first step of filling your heart and mind, with kindness we go to the second step. Take a person from the second group. Some one who is near and dear to you, take some one who is alive and preferably of your own sex. If you choose a person who is dead, there is bound to be doubts as to his whereabouts and doubt is also a hindrance. Therefore don't choose any one outside the living range.

Now mentally visualise him or her and keep developing the kind thoughts towards this person until you bring him upto the level as you are, which means in generating these kind thoughts there is no discrimination between that person and you. Continue until this step is complete.

Then we get to the third class, the neutral beings. Select a being who is around you and generate the same thoughts of kindness until you bring him also to the same level, so that there is no discrimination in so far as the three beings are concerned.

Finally choose some one who is causing you harassment, trouble or abuse and direct your kind thoughts towards that person too. This is a difficult step. The most difficult but also the most important. Unless this step is completed and fulfilled you will have problems in your practice. Therefore you must take that task on to yourself until you have no difficulty in generating kindness towards that person just as much as you have generated it to those other three classes. One must be able to sincerely wish the well being of even one's enemy. It is quite well within you. Just keep doing it. It will come. Thereafter you will find that you can generate kindness towards any being wherever they are and to whoever causes you any harassment. That is the meaning of living in kindness or living in right thought. What is most relevant and most critical is to establish the foundation by going through these four steps slowly and steadily. Make sure you complete one step before you proceed to the next step. No one can fix a time limit. The progress will entirely depend on your resolve and effort.

Once the foundation is established, you can spread these kind thoughts towards the world either by way of direction (North, South, East, West etc.) or to various world systems (human world, animal world, heavenly worlds, hells, Pretha World etc.)or to provinces, districts, countries etc. in any manner you like by mere intention. Eventually, you will begin to experience the fruits of this practice.