A brief talk and guided practice of bringing loving kindness to ourselves and blurring the boundaries between this body and the rest of the world.

Questions are précised 00:15 Q1 Can you clarify why the Buddha recommended sense restraint in cultivating citta? What harm does sense desire to the citta? 04:20 Q2 I have a picture that the sense organs are shooting stuff into the citta. Is that correct? 12:42 Q3 How can I overcome sound distractions to focus more on my breathing ? 18:59 Q4 The Buddha said, light arose and vision arose. What does this mean? 20:27 Q5 If we trust in awareness, would this lead to attachment to citta and become another soul? 24:09 Q6 I feel emotions deeply and am sometimes affected by other being seen and unseen, like ghosts. Also getting angry gives me power and sometimes I feel that metta softens and weakens myself to others. How can I protect citta, one’s sensitivity? 30:45 Q7 How to distinguish between self-care and attachment?

Radiating metta to all beings

Receiving Metta from a benefactor, and sharing with others, including difficult persons

1. How do you handle fear and doubt? 13:27 2. Can you explain the difference between mental feeling and emotional feeling? 16:30 3. I experience angry and unproductive thoughts over damage caused by the neighbours over 15 years. What do you suggest? 26:55 4. I experienced bullying when I was at school and I picked up a habit of trying to sleep through my classes inform the connection between aversion and drowsiness. Can you offer some suggestions please? 31:58 5. My main practice is practicing metta. Is it important to develop my meditation and walking practice alongside metta? 40:18 6. There's a negative mind state that I thought I should investigate but seem to have no energy to do so. As I continued to practice the mind state disappeared. Is it still important to investigate in case this complete lack of purpose and meaning returns?

Morning Guided Meditation

Der Gegenpol zur Entwicklung von Weisheit liegt in der Entwicklung eines offenen Herzens. Dieses drückt sich aus in einer inneren Haltung liebender Güte, des Mitgefühls und der Mitfreude. Eine solche innere Haltung bzw. innere Absicht kann durch die Mettapraxis kultiviert werden. Die Betonung im Vortrag liegt auf Metta.

Mettā for another and oneself, expanding to all phenomena.

Obstacles to uncovering mettā; ways of responding to obstacles; supportive pathways in leaning towards mettā.

A talk and Q&A at Wat Marp Jan on the occasion of Ajahn Anan's birthday. Q&A starts: 35:18 Q1 May I know how can one start to train patient endurance? If one does not have any virtue, [does it mean] one cannot practice patient endurance? 39:48 Q2 Virtues mean high moral standards. How can one develop virtues? 43:33 Q3 How can I start to integrate meditation practice in my daily life when I feel I am still a slave to my cravings and often fall into their control and indulge in them? 46:50 Q4 How can I apply metta to myself and others and really mean it, when it comes to practicing in the sangha community. There is a difficult member in the sangha and saying may he or she be well is not working at least in my case it seems. Any advice please? 55:12 Q5 How do we train to rejoice in others' good fortune when we are having a bad time in our life? 57:52 Q6 What is your advice on doubt regarding which tradition to follow? 1:01:39 Q7 You spoke about developing equanimity [towards dukkha]. How can we practice this if the dukkha is overwhelming and we just want to escape the pain? 1:04:36 Q8 If I am unable to control my craving for food, does it mean I do not have virtue? I find myself gobbling down food and then it is never enough. I always tell myself it will be the last time but the cycle repeats tomorrow. 1:07:12 Q9 Could you give more detail about how to make an aspiration for one's next life? [example given]

Flooding the heart with mettā

How metta really works in our lives.

A dharma talk about the four brahma viharas and nature - how wild things help wake up the heart. Starring many wild and wonderful creatures and lots of retreat stories.

Metta as the vehicle for the sure hearts release with insight from bell hooks and others.

A short reflection and story about how metta can help us grow wisdom, and how wisdom can help us grow metta.

How the hindrances arise in metta practice, and how to meet them with mindfulness and antidotes. Especially focuses on the near and far neighbors of attached love and aversion.

A talk about the joys, benefits and healing powers of metta and samadhi practice.

A Guided Metta Meditation emphasizing the integration of Metta and Insight Meditation, including utilizing Sylvia Boorstein's phrase, "May I meet this moment fully; May I meet it as a friend," and variations of the second phrase such as "May I meet it with _______ (kindness, compassion, gentleness, patience, curiosity, receptivity, etc.). Includes a poem by Matty Weingast from "The First Free Women."

A wonderful translation of the Pali word Metta is friendliness. This talk looks at friendliness through an evolutionary lens, and explores ways we can cultivate a more open heart.

In this talk of a series of talks on developing metta or lovingkindness, we look at the question of how we connect and integrate metta with our development of clear seeing, with our mindfulness and wisdom. This is an important question, particularly given that most Western practitioners of insight meditation have separate practices in which they develop metta, on the one hand, and mindfulness and wisdom, on the other. Are they integrated? How? In the talk, we explore: (1) related strong cultural tendencies to separate mind and emotions, as in, for example, science, and much education; (2) how in the basic teachings of the Buddha, there seem to be separate practices; (3) how, both in the teachings of the Buddha and in later Buddhist traditions (as well as in other traditions), there is often a deeper vision of the unity of the awakened heart and mind; and (4) how we can practice to integrate metta, mindfulness, wisdom, and awareness.

We start with a short period of metta or some other heart practice, noticing how mindfulness brings us back to the practice when we are distracted. Then there is a longer period of mindfulness, hopefully infused some with metta, in the spirit of Sylvia Boorstein's wonderful invitation: “May I meet this moment fully. May I meet this moment as a friend.” We then have a second sequence of relatively brief metta practice followed by a longer period of mindfulness practice. The last part of the session is a guided practice of radiating metta, moving toward an integration of metta and a boundless awareness. b. Let it infuse mindfulness: Sylvia’s phrase. See how this is. c. Check periodically. Maybe do 2-3 minutes of metta. d. Radiating metta exploring a loving awareness.

From an online retreat at Wat Marp Jan | Day-3 Afternoon All questions précised 34:28 Q1 Regarding metta, do we keep repeating and radiating out the metta until we achieve concentration? 36:29 Q2 When your mind is not pure, how effective is that loving kindness to others? How pure do we have to be to spread metta? 38:48 Q3 When I meet difficult persons, it seems very difficult to generate loving kindness Online questions read out: 43:03 Q4 How can I know if I have really forgiven myself? 44:34 Q5 Can you please elaborate on using gestures to forgive ourselves 46:28 Q6 In metta practice, may we include teachers who have passed away, as well as beings in nibanna? 47:40 Q7 Is it OK to meditate using metta for a little while and then anapanasati for 40-45 minutes and finish with Buddha anussati? 48:08 Q8 I am a busy wife and mother and I feel angry with myself when I cannot find the time to cultivate. How can I find the balance?

Each action of body & speech infused with mettā is like handing out a mettā-candy. Fake mettā can lead to genuine kindness.

Guided Meditation - Anattā, and Mettā to Anattā

Settling Meditation; Talk - No Self to be Found & Mettā to Phenomena

Unblocking the opening of a spring, staying within while cultivating metta for another person/being, not spacing out when concentration gets deep, it is always possible to be friendly and kind

Exploring the characteristics of aversion or ill will, how "averting" can at times be skilful, and if an antidote to aversion is needed, compassion and particularly self-compassion can sometimes be more effective than mettā NOTE: recording cuts out after 30 minutes due to a technical error, sorry