We have never met most of the living beings on our planet (and beyond), and many we have met we don’t know all that well. As we expand our loving kindness practice to include all beings we have to consciously learn how to actively care for those we don’t know well. Rather than having the typical challenge of reactivity, this group of beings is hard to love precisely because we don’t know them well. If we have learned to care for a larger group of friends and community members, then this next larger group is more accessible.
How does samadhi--the unification of the heart--develop with metta practice? And how can we use the absorption factors in metta practice to help us develop deeper metta adsorptions?
Exploring the common tendency of the mind to get caught in comparing, and how the practice of mudita or appreciative joy can be both an antidote and an ally, that helps stop mana from arising in the first place
A short guided meditation attuning to the body and the heart-mind, noticing how we're relating to experience, and inclining in the direction of appreciation and gratitude
Compassion is a central quality of the heartmind that enables us to meet and to respond to suffering in a skilful way . It is both the ability to deeply resonate with suffering and the motivation to alleviate it - in ourselves and in other beings. Compassion frees the mind from unwholesome mindstates, opens the heart to the interconnectedness with all beings and in this way also supports the unfolding of wisdom.
