Reflecting on Metta

Equanimity is central to the Buddha's teachings and practices, and so underlies and supports both mindfulness and metta (loving-kindness). For Samma Sati, Right Mindfulness, to develop, equanimity needs to function to keep us connected with experiences even when they are difficult or challenging, to deepen insight into the true nature of reality. In metta practice, equanimity keeps the heart open when conditions are not ideal for kindness - and they are often not ideal!

When universal love leading to liberation of the heart is ardently developed, unrelentingly resorted to, it becomes the foundation of our life. We travel in a divine vehicle, our inheritance from the Buddha, the sublime abiding of mettā, loving kindness. This is our shelter from unwholesome states, a true salve for impure and damaging mental afflictions. More and more as we purify the mind, it triumphs over hateful feelings and forgiveness and compassion are perfected. Indeed, by the power of loving kindness, we are crossing the stream to the farther shore, awakening to the Deathless.

Chanting of the Karaniya Metta Sutta in Pali and English. Begins with the chant of invitation to the devas followed by a chant of devotion to the triple gem. Ends with a short chant of blessing.

Metta

Guided Meditation and Dharma Talk on Metta from our Monday Night Meditation Class with Mark Coleman

Receiving with compassion what is difficult / receiving joy / experiencing mutual equanimity. Guided meditation on the boundless with Open for the first 14:15 minutes. " there is an aspect of Open that is establishing the field of awareness that is the atmosophere in which Metta arises." Four part contemplation, first two separate speaker, last one the entire group 1. "Observe the opening of awareness to every cell of the vody, naming what it is like. This awareness is inclusive and spacious." Contemplate something in your life that is difficult, feeling your heart vibrating with the pain". " Be present to the pain waith compassion for this being, the compassionate response". "Listener, how was it like to receive this?" 2. Now the gift of our practice is to touch joy, something positive, wholesome, uplifting. Let it infuse you, vibrate within you." Listener, touch the experience of hearing about joy. 3." Whatever experience that might be present of mutual or sympathetic equanimity,where the heart balances together." 4. "What is manifesting now? Resting perhaps in the shared human experience of the whole of it; the hurt, the joy the boundless."

This talk explores how metta flavors the mind to embrace what arises in an atmosphere of non-resistance, and influences what the mind takes birth in.