Caressing the body with loving attention.

Receiving lovingkindness.

Four Chants by Greg Scharf & Liz Fitzgerald. 1) An Invitation To The Devas, 2) Karaniya Metta Sutta in Pali, 3) Karaniya Metta Sutta in English, 4) Buddham Vande - (a simple repeating chant of reverence for the triple gem)

Understanding the Boundless Quality of Love. (Metta)

Journey into consciousness and presence through the use of attention and metta

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.

Day 6 Brahma Vihara Practice: Metta for Neutral Person

A skillful attitude of mind for practicing

The practice of lovingkindness (metta) brings many benefits. It makes the heart more responsive, brings about purification of mind, develops concentration, connects us to all beings, and brings happiness.

Guided Metta meditation preceded by some reflections on kindness

Guidance for bringing metta practice from the retreat into our daily lives, in these three inter-related areas, bringing in the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the last part of the talk, at the time of his birthday and the public celebration of his birthday.

Metta practice carries a profound intention: To bring kindness and an awakened heart to all beings and all situations in our lives. We explore the nature of this intention, and some of the main ways that metta develops: through a basic stabilizing of our lives and awareness, particularly in living ethically, and in formal practice, as concentration develops; through a process of purification of that which blocks or stands in the way of metta; and through an integration of metta in our lives, to the point where metta is less a doing and practice, and more a way of being, which we then bring into the world.

coming out of self view; bringing forth energy; recalling the spiritual faculties; applying wise energy regardless of the system used; calm as a consequence of faith and confidence; two recollections; don’t let the citta be bound by historical or domestic considerations; willingness to do the work; feeding the citta; mindfulness of the body, the inevitable decay of the body; what is it that evades or finds truth uncomfortable; differing views of Samadhi; the” I-am” looking for support; learning to push away the hindrances through experience; noticing craving, ill will and resistance; using metta, compassion, mudita, upekkha to approach unification of the citta by removal of the 5 hindrances; now is the time to rise up to it; restlessness, boredom, doubt; know them as they are not as myself; this is not worthy of this citta; using the wisdom factor to find appropriate attention; who is that?; feel how it is; going beyond thought; discernment of the release of grasping; the shift moment and the growth of confidence in it; noticing the struggle to find something; what about the measurelessness/ the sign-less?

metta (good will/ loving kindness –the experience of the lovability of beings), karuna (compassion – sees the vulnerability of beings), mudita (sympathetic joy - experience of the enjoyment of one’s own and others’ good states)and upekkha (equaminity – the ability to be present with the ups and downs of phenomena); the citta has 2 inputs – feelings(from body or mental perception) and associations/ images/ impressions; skillful intention and the associated joy; volition and sustaining volition as a characteristic of the citta; to others as to myself; the citta adopts various clothes, one of which is “me”; the citta is abundant, rich, calm, exhaulted, measureless/ suffusing, free from hostility and ill will; the significance of the metaphors of language; the measureless empathy of the Buddha; “just like me”, we are all like this as a source of the volition; it’s not so much object oriented as cultivating states of mind and freeing the citta from any state of ill will; identifying the signs that lead to the bonding with / settling of the citta and unification of the mind; find one that works for you; the object one chooses to facilitate this is not important; pitfalls and sidetracks to be avoided in the cultivation – the story of other particular people and of the self, thinking of the past and the future ; finding satisfaction and comfort; the wisdom faculty sees it has been identified and sustained and not owned personally

need to take a long view of spiritual development; caution with idealism; moving from head to heart; the importance of checking in with yourself; listening sympathetically internally; trusting the retreat form; taking it steady to steady the citta; patience; recalling, it’s like “this” now; dukka is not personal, not ‘mine ‘; good will points to the exit; Christian sin /guilt and Buddhist “bap”/ bad karma; going into the head closes down the heart; gestures and offerings of courtesies to others; dana – the spirit of the heart; sila – manufacturing mutual harmlessness; metta, karuna, enjoying gladness and goodness; anumodana; dissolving the boundaries of self and other; seeing what the citta responds to; equanimity – it’s like this now; the citta can be bigger than the conditions it meets; the measurelessness of awareness; living in the wide sphere; thanking mistakes as a necessary way of learning

Instructions and guided meditation

This talk explores some of the many facets of this beautiful and liberating quality of heart and also offers some different ways of approaching metta as a meditation practice.

In the spirit of beginning again and with a renewed zeal for the promised goal of a mind liberated from suffering and a heart available for impartial compassionate response, this day is spent practicing Mindfulness and Metta Meditation.

In the spirit of beginning again and with a renewed zeal for the promised goal of a mind liberated from suffering and a heart available for impartial compassionate response, this day is spent practicing Mindfulness and Metta Meditation.

In this guided offering, we explore Metta as a technology — a software upgrade we put into the hardwiring of our conditioning that requires a learning curve AKA practice.