Is My Mettā Bhāvana Heretical?

Meditation
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I relish mettā bhāvana. It is so beautiful, benevolent, and beatific. However, I welcome all of you who have stumbled upon this thread to examine my method and see whether it is heresy.

I keep my tongue on the roof of the mouth, my bottom teeth not touching the upper. It is winter, so I wrap a medium-sized cover all around me. Then I assume the position (the meditation kind) and say, “May I be happy and free from suffering” three times. Then I say, “May all beings be happy and free from suffering” three times. I imagine I am covered in blinding golden light in my meditating position and shoot a forceful beam of light towards a sphere quite a few feet away from me in front, lighting it up a golden white, where I imagine I have all of Saṃsāra condensed, all the while the background being white or black.

So, how well or poorly did I do?

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I personally think we should keep things simple and just wish people to be happy instead of doing any visualization.

We can visualize people smiling and being happy but that would be as far I go. I wouldn’t visualize these lights or beams of light or whatever.

We should also keep in mind that metta is a samatha practice which means our aim should be to attain concentration and serenity.

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3

I agree with @HappinessSeeker
The characteristic of metta can be discerned in daily life when we are friendly to people.

Do we still get irritated with the speech of actions of those we meet , or even with what people write on the internet. That is a good time to consider metta.

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4

Yes. I agree.
The characteristic of dislike can also be discerned in daily life. If we think of something or someone, we might feel a subtle dislike towards them. If we can notice it, we can change how we feel towards them.

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