Radiating metta to all beings

A guided meditation touching into each of the Brahma Viharas - the Divine Abodes~ metta - kindness karuna - compassion mudita - appreciative joy upekkha - equanimity

Welcome and Introduction to the Session; Settling Meditation, Teachings, Guided Meditation.

This is the John Makransky - Tibetan metta practice of receiving metta from a benefactor

This talk reviewed the Karaniya sutta about why and how we do metta

Following four weeks of Donald's personal retreat, he identifies a number of ways of deepening practice that he experienced and that we might bring into our lives. The invitation is to see what one or two or three ways of deepening resonate and seem to call us to our "next steps." Among the ways of deepening are going on retreats (understood as periods of intensive training), staying in touch with and periodically remembering one's deeper intentions, pausing and stopping regularly, clarifying priorities, the importance of working with the subtle energy body, opening to non-doing in meditation and daily life, integrating awareness and metta, and finding ways of regularly coming back if stuck, caught in reactivity, or lost in thought. The talk is followed by discussion.

This recording also includes Zohar Lavie.

Short intro and chanting of Karaniya Metta Sutta in Pali and in English

Reflections on metta and the power of ordinariness in cultivating this friendliness and goodwill in the heart-mind.

This talk explores metta and mindfulness as partners in liberation. It describes the abiding practice in 5 steps, and closes with 3 sacred going home stories.

This talk explores obstacles to Metta, with a focus on shame and grief, as well as their distinction to hiri and ottappa

Instructions for loving kindness, practice, and a guided meditation

What is Metta? How do we experience it? How do we strengthen it?

Closing of the Retreat

Dharma Talk

Guided meditation.

The Tibetan man & dog, the Indonesian woman, a working elephant, Henrik’s mettā story, the damn shirt

Méditation guidée

Mettā is an attitude of taking care, whether we deal with persons or material things

Distribute as many mettā candies as you can by being kind, open-hearted, friendly, and caring

Teachings on Brahma Vihara practice and guided Receiving Care meditation

We can conquer anger and hate by way of mental development, either by mettā or by insight & understanding

Reflections of the brahma viharas, guided mettā practice.

The Buddha stated that we can cultivate and develop the mind, mettā is just one aspect of mental training. A trained mind has also far-reaching effects on others.

Mettā is a friendly attitude towards others, treat others as if they were your best friend, Thérèse of Lisieux: Great Love

Basic instructions for the practice of mettā meditation

We continue to explore how we might practice metta (and other heart practices) in a way integrated with mindfulness, wisdom, and insight, building on last week's session. We begin looking at some of the ways historically and culturally that the "mind" and "reason" have been separated from emotion, dating from Plato and the Greeks, and continued in the modern world with the understanding of reason and science as separate from emotion (and the body). This has been a major part of our social and cultural conditioning, evident in how mainstream education occurs, and also linked with gender conditioning. We also examine how, dating from Buddhaghosa's text, the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), from the 5th century, metta and compassion has been labeled as practices leading to concentration, and not as linked directly with wisdom and awakening. This has been the basis for the 20th century Burmese approaches to metta and mindfulness, which have been the main influences in the West. However, when we look to the Buddha's actual teachings, as well as later Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, we find much more of a connection between metta, compassion, and wisdom. We can see this in a number of texts which we explore, including ones in which the heart practices are seen as leading directly to wisdom, and development in awakening. In the last part of the talk, we explore ways that we can, in our formal and informal practices, integrate metta and wisdom. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with about 10 minutes of settling with our mindfulness (or another) practice. This is followed by about 5 minutes of practicing metta where it flows as easily as possible, and then by a guided practice in radiating metta, extended to radiating in a boundless way. We then return to a brief way of practicing radiating metta without visualization, followed by returning to mindfulness, infused with metta.

Presentation of the Metta In Action projects

Dwelling in mettā, you are a beautiful piece of art, or you are adorned with a fragrant flower garland.

Short reflections on mettā for changemaking, and guided practice.

Genuine mettā can lead to forgiveness. Otherwise, we can engage in a forgiveness practice. Some reflections for forgiveness.

We often hear that the heart of the teachings and practice is to connect wisdom and compassion, clear seeing and the kind heart, developing what Jack Kornfield calls the "wise heart." Yet such a connection or integration can be challenging in several ways. First of all, we have major conditioning in modern Western culture to separate the "mind" and the "heart" (or emotions), as well as the body. Also we find tendencies in the Theravada tradition to see Metta practice as separate from Insight practice, as in the way that Buddhaghosa in the influential text, the Visuddhimagga, lists Metta practice as a form of Concentration practice, and in some of the ways that Metta is taught as a complement to insight practice in the West. In this talk, we begin to explore what it might look like to integrate more fully Metta and wisdom, mindfulness, and insight, both in formal practice and daily life. The talk is followed by discussion.

We begin with the basic instruction in metta (lovingkindness) practice, using the silent repetition of phrases. Then we move to a period of mindfulness practice, followed by metta practice, where the metta is most accessible, followed by an invitation to return to mindfulness practice, integrated with the energy and intentions of metta practice.

The near and far enemies of mettā become apparent as we go through the different categories. Mettā is a relational practice.

Short introduction to Metta. Benefactor, self, all beings, with chanting..

With mettā, we ennoble our heart & mind, but many other living beings benefit as a result of our mettā.

We introduce sending metta for all beings and the guided meditation leads us to offer metta to self, a dear friend or benefactor, neutral person, difficult person and then in the 2nd half of the meditation much guidance is offered for the ways we can include all beings in our metta.