Breath Meditation & Metta Meditation

sukhita

Recently, due to certain anxiety problems, I have switched from breath meditation (shamatha) to metta meditation. I have noticed a lot of similarities between these two types of meditation:

• In breath meditation, I am mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths and if any distraction arises, I note it it without engaging in it and come back to the breaths.
• In metta meditation, I am mindful of the meaning of each word I recite mentally and if any distraction arises, I note it without engaging in it and come back to the words.

In both types of meditation, I am practicing "mindfulness"; and in both these meditations I experience a sense of calm. But in metta meditation, I am additionally practicing loving-kindness and compassion. I am not sure why, but since I started practicing metta meditation, I am coping much better with anxiety. Could it be that now I'm practicing both mindfulness, calm, and metta - all in one sitting? I don't know... but it feels great.

Any ideas? Am I mistaken in what I'm saying above? Am I doing something wrong?

PietroPumokin

i would say so, metta meditation is a mindfullness meditation, but its aim has a different place... and it is might be making you less anxious ( social anxiousness?) because love levels out disturbing elements in your relationships with other people

i switch between mindfulness meditation and metta occasionally when i meditate, i think when you pair them together, they can be complementary. mindfulness / vipasanna gets you more intensely related to the mind and calmer / clearer, while metta is less intense in this respect but more intense in the field of creating awakening in others / compassion, kindness , etc

andyrobyn

Hi sukhita, sounds to me as if your current approach is aiding presence of mind - I have had difficulties with anxiety myself in the past and I understand how developing enough tranquility to allow for meditation practice can be challenging.

Dazzle

Hi sukita,

If you seem to be getting genuine benefit from your practice, then you should continue with it.

Hope its ok for me to mention this, but for the benefit of anyone looking at the thread who isn't familiar with Metta meditation, there's a video of Bhante Vimalaramsi talking about it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixmba3jAEEk

More at Buddhanet here:

http://www.buddhanet.net/metta.htm


...and for samatha meditation there's a series here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7a9Ur2x0o


With kind wishes to all,

Dazzle



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sukhita

Thank you, Pietro, Andy and Dazzle, for your kind words and inputs. I loved the video of Bhante Vimalaramsi talking about metta meditation. He keeps it simple - excellent for beginners.

TheJourney

I would say metta meditation towards yourself would be quite useful for anxiety.