This dharmette and guided meditation provides an introduction to the Brahma Viharas and metta practice, as well as guidance on metta for the "easy being."
The goal of offering metta for a difficult person, is not to change their behavior, but to make sure our hearts don't get colonized by the 3 poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. And for many of us, it's not Metta that is the gateway, but equanimity and compassion. After a 15 minute silent meditation, Booker sings Loosen by Ally Halpert as a lullaby.
A response to where we are in this time in our history when everything might seem a bit topsy turvy and upside down. The political commentator Melissa Harris Perry refers to this kind of confusion as trying to stand up straight in a crooked room. Many of us have been secluding, isolating, putting up walls as armour, as protection - in order to not feel the full catastrophe. Many of us are here because we’re ready to lay that armour down, to engage with life and be alive again. And so this afternoons reflections will be on how we can rest in Metta as refuge.
