Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
How Does One Begin the Practice of Metta?
The practice of metta is interesting; though, it is questionable if it for me or not. It is worth a try. Is there a spacific rite to begin the practice of Metta?
0
Comments
care about eg a baby or puppy or your mommy, etc.
The whole purposse is to create a state of loving-kindness.
with metta
be primarily focused on pleasing others (unlike most of my posts)
First, recite and memorize if you're able to, the Metta Sutta. At least print out a copy to read. Meditate with a focus on this.
Think: Happy, at rest,
may all beings be happy at heart.
Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, blatant,
seen & unseen,
near & far,
born & seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.
Second, observe how you feel about people, and work to cultivate this metta. Start with people who are easy to feel compassion for, and think about them. Then move to people you don't know at all, like the strangers you meet all around you, like the cashier at the store, and think about their lives. Then move to people you know or read about that you definitely don't like, and start picturing yourself in their place, what fear and insecurities and pain caused them to be the way they are.
Third, put your metta into action. Start asking yourself, "How can I help this person?" when you encounter someone. For a cashier, it might be a smile and not taking your frustrations at the long line out on her, since she's been standing there all day with aching feet catching heck from her own boss. That sort of thing.
You can find some instructions here:
http://www.buddhanet.net/metta.htm
with kind wishes,
D.
Please excuse me if this seems like a "poor me", as it is not meant to be. However, there is fear; or, phantom passion about metta that pangs my core and shakes my heart. It is so much that it causes crying. Can anybody relate to this?
The view of metta is very new to me and there is much......(There is crying right now.)........that my mind does not understand about it. In being, this is worthy to witness and this makes my feelings uneasy as if there must be something wrong with my parts of being. My emotions, which cause this crying, are very mixed.
If you have had this experience, will you share it? Anyone who has is welcome to.
My awareness deepens when it is brought upon the practice of metta; though, my conscious does not understand it yet.
Namaste
You see, the connection that metta seeks does not mean you only see the suffering of the world. Along with people's problems, you share in their joys and triumphs. If you have a child, don't you laugh along with them when they're happy?
Metta is an overwhelming feeling of good will to everyone. That is not a sad thing, really. It's like a great weight is put down that you didn't even notice you were carrying. You don't have to divide the world into good and evil, or friend or foe, and act accordingly. They're all just people and you treat them all the same.
Start this practice in a very simple, very gentle way. Visualize someone whom you love very much and are close to. If you cannot think of someone, then begin with something as simple as an insect, a pet, a blade of grass, or even your own hand. Say to this person (or thing) in your heart: "May you be happy. May you be free from suffering. May you know peace." Say this with all your heart. Say it with the love that transcends all differences and problems. Smile. Feel the genuine selfless love in what you say.
After some time, add another person, perhaps someone like the woman who sells vegitables at the market - someone that you do not know well - a neutral person.
Practice this way, not just when sitting in meditation, but through the day.
Go very slowly. Include yourself in this.
When, after as much time as it takes, maybe even years, you feel very comfortable with this practice, and it has deepened for you, begin to add people with whom you have some difficulty. Maybe a person that you have had an arguement with.
Most important is to watch your own mind and learn as you go. Do not force your heart. If this practice is painful or upsetting to you, go back to something so simple that it again feels safe for you. This is ok.
with love,
DM
Agreed.
It seems to be ordinary, to me anyway. The tears did seem to be the release of the overwhelming empathy that was deliberately released towards collective suffering. The urge to tear up came from neither joy nor sadness for the world, yet, both. On the screen of my mind the world is witnessed as a lost and wounded lot who all thirst to heal one another.
The mixed emotions seem to be that there is a part of my self that clings to a kind of iconoclastic grudge towards others. If metta is practiced it would mean an end to this grudge and it would be loving kindness given to adversaries who my self would rather kick in the eye, sometimes.
The practice of metta seems rather large to me because, in all honesty, there is a kind of bonding relationship that has been developed throughout the years with this kind of iconoclastic self. This means that there will be a drastic change about my manner. Metta seems to be an art worth practicing.
So, here we go! Let's see what happens.
Metta
Yes. Metta does seem to be of this way. It is phenomenal. It is worth the practice; just, a little scary, it seems. It makes sense that this practice would take simplicity. It was overwhelming today. The practice of metta summons true compassion to be understood when it is practiced consciously. Awareness is profoundly deepened by this action. It almost seems bigger than the mind will be able to fathom at this stage of my life.
Metta.
What can be done? Where should one of metta start in a community? How is metta openly practiced for a wounded lot? There is lots to learn about the work of metta in order for me to apply the work of metta for a wounded lot. My mind has jumbled ideas to these questions but no real answers yet. This is where the jewel of the sangha is required.
with warmth
I was seeing a "wounded lot". He was seeing "heaven". I think my wounded lot was in my own mind, as his heaven was in his.
Keep it simple, Witness.
Many years later I stayed in Korea, where old people with no sons or grandsons to take care of them are simply left to survive as best they can. One old woman lived in a box at the end of our street and picked through trash to survive. The retirement home was indeed heaven compared to that.
How can we express our feeling of loving kindness to others?