Metta As The Heart Of The Path | Ven Canda

We can practice to cultivate lovingkindness as Right Intention - a wise way of relating to our world as we begin to dissolve the boundaries between the liked and the disliked. This introduction and guided meditation allows us to deepen this beautiful unconditional quality of metta.

A Buddhist nun since 2006, Ven Canda emphasises kindness and letting go as a way to deepen stillness and wisdom, and her teachings are richly informed by the compassion and pragmatism of the Early Buddhist Texts.

Transcript

Yeah,

Just talking about the context of the practice.

So metta,

Loving-kindness,

Is literally,

Quite literally,

The heart of the path,

Corny as it sounds,

And many people think it's a sort of superfluous practice or maybe even something quite basic,

But in fact it underpins the whole path from the very beginning as a skilful and beautiful motivation that brings us to the practice,

As the foundation for virtue,

Because it's from beautiful intentions that beautiful speech and conduct follows.

Also it can be used as a samadhi practice to calm the mind.

Many people might be used to using the breath to calm the mind or maybe going to the body,

The body sensations,

And metta can be added to that.

It can be used in conjunction with all of those methods,

But it can also be a bona fide samadhi object in and of itself when we repeat phrases and start to generate the loving-kindness,

The feeling and the flow,

The emotion of loving-kindness from our heart.

It also has a wisdom aspect,

So it underpins wisdom,

It supports the wisdom,

And it's also an expression of that wisdom.

If you think of any wise person,

What you want from that person is not all the facts and the knowledge and,

You know,

An impressive speech,

But how is this person actually behaving in life?

Are they treating people kindly?

How does it manifest?

What's the point of wisdom if it doesn't lead to kindness and love?

So as wisdom deepens,

Love deepens,

And as love deepens,

It gives more and more access to wisdom,

And wisdom becomes an expression of that love.

So,

But I wanted to focus tonight a little bit on kindness as right intention.

So I don't know how many of you know about the Buddha's teachings of the Eightfold Path,

But sometimes people say,

Well,

Where is right loving-kindness?

Where is right metta?

You know,

There's right speech,

There's right livelihood,

Right view,

But it comes in the second factor of the Noble Path,

Which is right intention,

Sometimes translated as right attitude,

And those three right attitudes comprise of avyapada,

Which literally means non-ill will,

And that is used as a synonym for metta.

So even though we might not be able to access exalted states of metta and loving-kindness,

At least we can learn not to dwell in aversive states of mind.

And then the other two aspects of right attitude or right intention are the intention of non-harming avyimasaka.

So it's like you might know the word ahimsa from Mahatma Gandhi,

Which literally means non-violence,

So the opposite of that is a kind of gentleness.

So this is also a way to relate wisely to experience body,

Speech,

And mind,

Experience of life itself,

And experience of the contents of our mind,

Our emotional world,

Our physical world.

So it applies to everything.

And the third of those right intentions or attitudes is called nekama,

Which literally means renunciation,

Perhaps translated in a kind of Christian way,

I'm not sure,

But renunciation in the Buddha's path means a kind of letting go of those things which obstruct deeper progress on the path,

Letting go of anything unskillful,

Whether that's unskillful ways of thinking or behaving or things that you don't need,

Material things that you don't really need,

You know,

You just want them perhaps out of greed or fear of being without.

So we start to see how we can simplify our mind and also our lives,

Our possessions.

So they're the three right intentions and they're wise ways of relating to life and to our world.

So they're ways of looking at things that embrace rather than push away,

And straight away we're starting to dissolve the boundaries there between the liked and the disliked.

You know,

We don't focus so much on the content of experience but more on the way we relate to experience,

Because that's where real freedom lies,

That's where we can actually have some influence on our experience.

We can't always have events going to plan.

Things happen,

People die,

People get sick,

You know,

People let us down or we let ourselves down.

So it's really how we relate to that that makes the difference,

Do we relate to that with sort of more ill will and aversion,

Which the Buddha called the second art,

Or can we relate to it in a way that creates happiness for the future and doesn't add to the suffering we already experience.

So we're trying to learn to welcome every visitor to our body and our mind and in our life with equal hospitality or at least some amount of hospitality.

So you could see it as opening the door of your heart to life or befriending,

Embracing,

Welcoming life,

Welcoming our mind,

Welcoming ourselves just as we are.

You know,

We don't need to change,

We don't need to sit in a certain way,

We don't need to call ourselves a Buddhist or a non-Buddhist,

We just bring ourselves to the practice fully.

And this is part of the right motivation for practice,

To actually embrace and to learn to accept ourselves rather than to change parts of ourselves that we feel are defective in some way.

That would be coming at the practice with a negative mind,

With a fault-finding mind.

So the Buddha has a very nice little quote in the suttas which talks about the difference between mindfulness or the importance,

Let's say,

Of loving kindness as an aid to mindfulness.

So obviously I suppose most of you are versed in mindfulness.

So mindfulness is,

Just in brief,

It's the sort of quality of the mind,

The awareness of the mind that brings experience in the present moment into focus.

So we're bringing the content of the present moment into focus so that we can see it very clearly.

And this is different from ordinary awareness in everyday life in two ways.

One is that mindfulness has a specific purpose,

So we use mindfulness in order to understand things with wisdom,

Understand things wisely in a way that leads to the wholesome states increasing and the unwholesome states of mind decreasing.

So mindfulness to eat chocolate and get more out of the chocolate is not really the mindfulness the Buddha taught.

Or mindfulness,

You know,

To point the gun at the enemy more skillfully is not using mindfulness for a wise purpose that's going to lead to liberation.

And the other aspect of mindfulness is that it's supposed to be a kind of bare awareness,

Which means we see things objectively.

But the difficulty there is that as long as we have these five hindrances operating in our mind,

So craving,

Ill will,

Doubt,

Restlessness or tiredness,

Sleepiness,

Sluggishness of the mind,

We can't see things clearly as they really are.

We're always seeing a sort of distorted or a dim version of reality.

So mindfulness alone is not always enough to undermine these hindrances and this is where the Buddha has this very nice little quote because in the suttas are some sort of things where mostly the Buddha's speaking to his disciples or to other seekers but in this particular one he's speaking to a yakka which is a kind of little demon.

But this is quite a nice little demon because at least he has mindfulness down so he's very pleased with himself and with mindfulness and he says to the Buddha,

Oh it's always good for the mindful one.

The mindful one dwells in happiness.

Better each day for the mindful one and they are freed from enmity.

And then the Buddha answers,

It's always good for the mindful one.

The mindful one dwells in happiness.

Better each day for the mindful one but they are not freed from enmity.

And then he says,

One whose mind all day and night takes delight in harmlessness.

So you see that as the second factor of the noble path again,

The afi hymnsukkha,

Harmlessness.

Who has loving kindness for all beings,

For them there is enmity with a non.

One whose mind all day and night takes delight in harmlessness.

Who has loving kindness for all beings,

For them there is enmity with non.

And so this is the special quality of metta,

It overcomes ill will and out of all the hindrances that's the one that I think most people struggle with.

The opposite side of it is the craving,

If you didn't have craving you wouldn't have ill will.

But also restlessness is a kind of wanting to get away from things you don't like.

Sleepiness the same thing,

Right?

Doubt is a kind of confusion,

It's based on a kind of,

It's an aversive state of mind,

It's not a pleasant state of mind.

So this kindness really undermines those hindrances.

So mindfulness brings a content of awareness into focus but kindness asks how can I be aware of this in a wise and skillful way that leads to happiness,

That leads to peace,

That leads to more loving kindness.

So it's less concerned with the content and more concerned with the contentment if you like.

It's a little play on words but it's finding contentment with every experience.

So it's not so much of the what but the how.

And another nice way to look at it is that mindfulness is like the light of the sun.

So for example there'll be a little fern on the track somewhere in the forest here,

I'm sure there's some little ferns,

Although it's maybe the wrong season.

But the little fern is quite hidden until the sunlight hits it and then the sunlight lights it up.

And kindness along with mindfulness is like the warmth of the sun.

So the kindness is the warmth that sort of brings the little thing to life and starts to allow it to unfurl its leaves so it opens up in the warmth of the sun.

And my teacher Ajahn Brahm called this kindfulness which is very clever and I love that word.

So instead of mindfulness we're going to develop some kindfulness and obviously there's no end to the amount of kindfulness we can develop and that is skillful to develop.

So this is something that you can cultivate so every situation that you'll find here in the barn.

So whether you're working or cooking or I think cooking is not really work is it,

Cooking is great.

Whatever you're doing you know you can bring this attitude of kindfulness so you're aware but you're also very kind,

Very patient,

Gentle and warm towards whatever it is you're experiencing.

So you're trying to open your heart to whatever experience you're having in the present moment.

And just notice when you're not also and that's fine too and be kind about that because we can't stay on track all the time.

But at least if we know what we're aiming for we can see when we're spinning off into negativity.

So this is something you can practice throughout the day and especially in the more active periods but also we're going to do a meditation you know just using mindfulness and imbuing that mindfulness with warmth going through the body now.

But I would also suggest to a greater or lesser degree starting and ending our metta meditations with kindfulness.

So we start by just being aware in a general way and by developing a wholesome relationship to our experience at the beginning and end of each sitting.

And later in the retreat we'll actually start to cultivate some metta as a object of calm,

An object of samatha.

I don't use the word concentration because it's a bad translation.

So we'll use the word stillness for samadhi or for concentration and for that yeah and that will be kind of embraced either end with kindfulness.

Yeah so before we start the meditation I would just like to make sure I haven't confused anybody.

If there's anything anybody would like to clarify or ask about that please do so.

It shall become clear as we go on.

Ready for some quiet?

Okay.

Good.

So taking your time to settle and at the beginning of the meditation invite yourself to really sense that you have time.

You have time to arrive.

You have time to check in with the body and find out whether your body's really as comfortable as it might be.

And whether there are any little adjustments that you could make out of kindness in response to what your body is asking.

Even if this is five minutes,

Ten minutes into the sitting that's fine.

The whole process is a process of relaxing,

Releasing tension,

Not allowing more tension to build up during the sitting.

So at any time in any of these meditations you're very free to change the posture.

Even to stand up,

To stretch a little bit.

If you're on a chair you can sit on the floor.

If you're on the floor you could move to a chair if you need to.

The most important thing is to do so quietly,

Calmly and kindly,

Out of kindness for your body.

And as we come into this present moment,

Noticing the atmosphere in the room,

The silence surrounding us,

Holding us,

Noticing ourselves as part of this circle,

Supported by the others in the room and supporting the others too.

And taking a moment to really appreciate your intention in coming here.

The incredible beauty and purity of the intention to develop pure love,

Unconditional loving kindness in your heart.

Just that is a huge gift for yourself and for others.

So just really sense into that with appreciation,

With gratitude.

Allowing it to uplift the heart and bring some happiness,

A sense of self-respect,

Even self-love.

I'm going to invite you to imagine that you're in the presence of somebody very kind,

Very loving,

Somebody you feel accepted by,

Who is non-judgmental,

Warm,

Caring.

This could be a real person or perhaps someone you have devotion to,

Perhaps the Buddha,

Perhaps the Kuo-Nying,

The goddess of compassion,

Or even an imaginal figure.

Perhaps an aspect of nature where you feel safe.

Imagine this other person or this aspect of nature,

Perhaps the sun,

Regarding you with kindly eyes,

Eyes of compassion,

Non-judgment,

Complete acceptance.

Imagine how you feel in that presence.

Allowing yourself to relax,

To let go of tensions,

To just be however you want to be.

Just be however you are.

Nothing to prove,

Nothing to get right.

You are fully unconditionally accepted.

Now imagine bringing that gaze,

The loving gaze,

Into your own body.

Becoming aware of the head,

Any sensations on the top of the head.

And as mindfulness lights up that area,

Kindness adds warmth.

As though mindfulness was the medium through which your kindness can reach your head.

Bathing your head with warm,

Loving awareness.

And in your own way spreading your awareness.

Noticing the face,

Forehead,

The eyes,

Cheeks.

Opening your heart to whatever you experience.

Regarding it with kindly eyes.

Gently allowing your kindfulness to spread through the neck area to the shoulders.

And giving special attention to any areas of tension or tightness.

Allowing them to open up,

To unfurl in the light and warmth of the sun.

Shining this awareness down the arms.

Through the elbows,

The lower arms to the hands.

Regarding your body as a friend.

Listening for feedback.

Spreading your awareness through the chest.

Very gently,

With curiosity.

Noticing all the different sensations or maybe areas where you don't feel any sensation.

It doesn't matter what the content of experience is.

You see that you relate to that with kindness,

Tenderness and care.

Noticing the entire stomach,

Abdomen area.

The sides of the body.

Moving from the upper back down the back,

Leaving no area untouched by the light and warmth of the sun.

Your kindful awareness.

Shallower.

Find any areas which are painful or tender,

Perhaps aching or tense.

See what kind of awareness can soothe,

Soften those sensations.

Perhaps you want to penetrate directly into those sensations.

Maybe keep your awareness wide and expansive around those areas.

See what feels best to you,

What leads to deeper calm,

Deeper relaxation.

Allowing kindfulness to flow down into the buttocks,

To the thighs.

Allowing kindness to flow down into the buttocks.

Noticing the knees,

Perhaps more happening in that area.

Always remaining very open and curious.

Until you cover the entire lower leg,

The ankles,

Heel,

The sole,

The toes.

Wherever the light of mindfulness shines,

See that you also add the warmth.

This allows those sensations to open out,

To relax,

To be calmed and soothed in the light of loving awareness.

If you wish to continue going part by part,

Please do so.

We may wish to sense the entire body as a whole.

Noticing how it feels now.

Allowing the mind to go to any areas that it's drawn to,

That are in need of more attention.

Or perhaps just remaining with the general sense of the body.

Noticing the delight of the mind.

The relaxed,

Peaceful body.

Being kind to every experience.

Every sensation,

Every thought.

So there are all very special visitors into your home.

I hope,

Um,

This participants' abilities get better and better.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

Just allow it to stay as long as it likes.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

If tiredness wants to come in,

Allow tiredness in too.

So as we're coming close towards the end of the meditation,

Just notice how you feel now.

Compared to how you felt at the beginning of the meditation.

How peaceful are you?

You notice the delight in the peace and relaxation,

However much,

However little.

You notice the joy in the relaxed body,

In a slightly more peaceful mind.

How this pot.

How did your body and mind respond?

They were regarded with kindness.

So ring the bell to end the meditation.

Please listen to the sound of the bell.

At the end of the third ring,

You can gently open your eyes.

Very good.

So now it's time to be kind to the pillow.

And tomorrow morning when we meet,

You can continue to practice as we did now.

But also I invite you,

If you want to,

To consider three things that you wish for yourself.

Three wishes.

Such as may I be happy,

May I be peaceful,

May I be liberated.

Three wishes you really would like to manifest for yourself.

Perhaps things that you feel in need of.

And as you go to bed tonight,

You may wish these things to yourself.

Just repeat those wishes as you fall to sleep.

And hopefully you'll sleep very deeply.

Good.