Welcome to day 16 of mindfulness with the moon.
Today we will be exploring the first Brahma
Vihara,
Metta,
Loving-kindness.
Why teach metta?
Why metta?
Why loving-kindness?
Jack
Kornfield says,
Because it's who we are in the end.
It's what our true nature is,
Which is consciousness and love itself.
And we can't get carried away from it.
We are interconnected.
As Archbishop Tutu says,
In Africa,
When you ask someone,
How are you?
The reply you always get is in the plural.
Even if you're speaking to just one person,
A man would say,
We are well,
Or we are not well.
He himself may be well,
But his grandmother is not well.
So he is not well either.
The solidarity,
This isolated human being is really fiction.
So metta,
Loving-kindness,
Is who we are.
And without love,
Awakening is not possible.
So people ask Jack Kornfield's teacher,
Ajahn Chah,
What is dhamma,
This beginning of dhammapada?
There's many meanings to dhamma.
Dhamma,
He says,
Is the heart.
It's that beating heart of us,
And it's the beating heart of the universe,
Of all things.
So teaching loving-kindness in our culture can be especially difficult because of how much
Self-hatred and self-judgment there is.
And love can often seem weak or unmanly,
Or unmanly,
Leaving us vulnerable,
Out of control.
And that,
You know,
Ultimately what we think we need is strength.
But Jack Kornfield reminds us that the power of love
Is what we need.
People are mistaking the power of love.
The power of love is what lets mothers lift cars off of their children.
Martin Luther King,
After his church was bombed,
He said,
We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering.
We will meet your physical force with soul force,
With love.
We will not hate you,
But we cannot in all good conscious obey your unjust laws.
And we will soon wear you down with our capacity to suffer and with our love and winning our freedom.
We will appeal to your heart and conscious that we will win your freedom as well.
Let's practice with Metta.
Loving kindness.
Take some deep breaths.
You will hear three bells to start the meditation and three bells to end.
We will work with some phrases of loving kindness.
That you can practice and that you can use
As a place to come back to as your mind wanders throughout the meditation.
And we're going to start with a practice of loving kindness towards other.
And then we'll end with a practice of loving kindness towards ourselves.
Some of the phrases you might hear are,
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be well in spirit.
May you be well in body and mind and may you live with ease and happiness.
Go ahead and make sure that you're in a comfortable seat,
Letting your body rest and your heart be softened.
Be softened.
It is often best to practice loving kindness by directing Metta towards those you love.
Picture,
Imagine,
Think of someone who you love a lot.
Where love comes easily and where love feels uncomplicated.
Start where it's easy to first open your heart.
Perhaps it's a child or even an animal who you connect with.
Notice your breathing.
We will follow the traditional phrases for loving kindness that I mentioned earlier.
So to this being that has come to you,
You can offer them.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be well in spirit.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be at ease and happy.
As you repeat these phrases,
Hold this loved one with Metta
And adjusting the words and images that resonate with you.
Over and over,
Just letting the feeling melt through your body and mind.
Taking a few more breaths with this being who came to you.
Thanking them inside for coming.
Sending them on their way with loving kindness.
Over the next couple of breaths,
I would like to invite you to call forward in your awareness
Someone who feels challenging to you.
Someone where you feel you have some conflict or
Something just doesn't feel quite right.
Something just feels sticky.
And see who comes to mind.
Again,
It could be a being like a pet.
Or it could be a fellow human.
Or something else.
And with this being that has come to you,
Notice what happens in your body.
And if it feels comfortable for you,
You can practice bringing Metta to this situation.
To this being.
Saying kindly.
May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be at ease and happy.
Repeating these phrases of Metta over and over with this being present with you right now.
May you be at ease and happy.
Taking a few more moments with this being who has come to you today.
And thanking them for being here with you.
And saying thank you.
And thanking them for being here with you.
And sending them back to where they came.
With tenderness and love in your heart.
Being gentle with yourself as emotions arise.
Trusting that this too is welcome.
Breathing.
Through the rest of the meditation today,
We're going to now shift this Metta loving kindness towards yourself.
Perhaps you'd like to envision loved ones gazing back at you,
Wishing you well wishes.
Can you offer to yourself the phrases of Metta?
You can say things like,
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be well in body and mind.
May I be at ease and happy.
Notice what arises as you direct this Metta loving kindness right towards yourself.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be at ease.
As you repeat your phrases,
Open yourselves to whatever images or thoughts arise.
As you repeat your phrases,
Open yourselves to whatever images and feelings arise with these words.
Approaching this meditation as an experiment,
Just sensing what words and images best soften and open your heart.
With whatever is arising,
You can offer this phrase,
May this too be held in loving kindness.
Taking a few more deep breaths with yourself.
Thanking yourself for sitting in meditation and offering loving kindness towards yourself and your experience.
As you end your meditation,
Sit quietly for a few moments and notice the feelings that are arising in your body and heart.
Is there a new sense of space and tenderness that you can feel?
Throughout your day,
The more you can bring yourself back to this place of interconnectedness,
We can offer ourselves freedom from what Tara Brach calls the trance of scarcity.
And you can practice this anywhere.
Offering yourself this phrase of loving kindness as you walk,
Drive,
Conduct tasks in your life.
And you can send metta,
Loving kindness,
To the strangers as you make eye contact on the street.
To the homeless man who you see regularly.
Knowing that ultimately love and kindness is where we get to return.
See you tomorrow.
