Hello everyone and welcome back.
In this talk I would like to discuss the practice of Metta or loving-kindness meditation from the Buddhist tradition.
The Metta practice is an imperative aspect of our meditative path towards inner peace.
Metta or loving-kindness is the ability of the mind to avoid dwelling in aversion towards that which is unpleasant.
And without question,
As we move deeper and deeper through the layers of our embodiment,
We will bring up unpleasant sensations in the body,
Unpleasant mind states,
Unpleasant feelings,
Unpleasant emotions.
This is part and parcel of our human embodiment.
The aversion or the conditioned aversion of the mind to these unpleasant states is what truly causes us our suffering.
And so the practice of Metta is the training of the heart-mind to befriend this embodiment.
To not have to constantly seek for that which feels good.
To accept and honor that when we are born into a human body we will also experience the unpleasant both in the physical and the mental body.
So the practice of Metta meditation is often considered a prerequisite to the path of insight or what's referred to in the Buddhist tradition as vipassana.
Metta is the ability to rest with equanimity in the face of discomfort.
As opposed to having to get away from that which feels uncomfortable,
Unpleasant,
Or painful,
The Metta practice is a radical journey to accepting that which the mind typically pushes away from.
As we continue to train the mind or the heart-mind as it's often referred to in Buddhist circles,
In the practice of Metta we develop the ability to befriend all that which is arising within our embodied experience.
As opposed to continuing to be enslaved by the conditioned preferences of the mind to go after that which we like and try to hold on to it and to push away that which we dislike.
Metta allows us to embrace the totality of our human experience.
Whether it be pain in the knee,
Anger in the mind,
Jealousy in the heart,
Or something as mundane as the wandering mind or the thinking mind,
Can we have Metta for those states?
Sometimes we sit down to practice and the mind is focused,
Clear,
And mindful.
Seemingly effortless in our ability to maintain our focus upon our object of contemplation.
And then at other times we sit down to practice and we ask our mind to pay attention to the breath and it seems virtually impossible.
The mind is distracted or the mind is wandering.
As opposed to the mind creating suffering for itself by judging itself because it's wandering or thinking of this or thinking of that,
Metta is the ability to have loving kindness for these states.
To not compound the unpleasant with suffering.
And then pain is just pain,
Anger is just anger,
Thinking is just thinking.
We're no longer dwelling in aversion,
Succumbing to the conditions of the mind to bend things to its liking or to curate or attempt to curate life so that everything is pleasant.
This is the practice of Metta meditation and loving kindness.
