Metta: How Best to Cultivate Metta for Ourselves?

A great thread, which I’ve not noticed up to now.

I had so much trouble with the standard “self - loved/respected one - neutral person - enemy” sequence. Then a few things happened. Ajahn Kemavaro introduced me to starting with those physically close, then further and further away (I call it the geographical model) to finally encompass the whole world or universe. I came on a guided meditation on the Insight Timer by Trudy Goodman called “Lovingkindness to the Body” which is a lovely way of doing a body scan, thanking each limb/organ for the work it does for oneself. Recently I read the brahma vihara first half of Analayo’s Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Texts; he says that the four person formula is a late accretion and that in the EBTs metta and karuna were simply radiated out, and he talks in a convincing way of doing well wishing in a reciprocal way that involved “me and you” equally.

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Much mudita :heartpulse: :slight_smile: :heartpulse:

I’m very grateful to you also :hibiscus: :white_flower: :cherry_blossom:

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To cultivate metta for oneself is the same as for the others, since there are no others, other than those you make up yourself - so, indulge into harvesting metta!
Don’t think about this “meditation” being this or that, just fill and fill and fill … When the heart is crammed with good stuff, it will start producing heat and wholesome activity caused by being contained into a confined space, and when a certain level is reached, the Heart will bubble over and start pouring out unconditional love to a world fallen totally in love with itself. And when this effect kicks in, one can let go and this feeling is the drop that connects with your ocean of past good karma, - and now find yourself as a noble surfer, riding the waves with one hand in the air giving a high five! :slight_smile:

Instructions for the Journey
by Pat Schneider

The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don’t grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It’s easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.

And if all that fails,

wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.

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Thank you @awarewolf , such a wonderful comment.
This really brightened my day (it needed a bit of brightening today).
:smiley: :blush:

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Come on lets go, lets go … :sunny: It’s Hammer time one more time!!!

stupid or not … stupid is what stupid does, humdidum … dadai!! :slight_smile:

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I really find metta practice coming to me in a effortless way these days, just doing daily walk about’s wherever I am at the moment, and let the mind pick and choose from a vast library of music, poetry, movies, happy meetings before and now, and basically don’t minding all of these zombies around me

Zombies, because they are not here, they are off to somewhere planned, and all of them just rushing bye …- **good bye good bye **: :anjal:, I say silently when moving about feeling fine :slight_smile:

Maybe a billboard sign arises on the way, maybe with a sentence contains a word that resonates with citta, like “flying” … which then the mind suggest’s this dear song from the past to build a stronger and more powerful metta in the mind and body

https://youtu.be/xf0_3DsAkt0

Another great tool for metta practice is to look into a strangers eyes and just “let it flow”, it’s amazing how funny and uplifting this is, and how easy. When one is kind at heart, one’s eyes won’t wobble looking into a strangers eyes and at the same time uttering kind words while letting the eye movements live in full free flow … pure Healing, I say
It’s easier than looking into eyes of one you know, or think you know, and vice versa - then one is attacked by all these expectations, own and the other and so on - but when one find a perfect moment, and look into the eyes of one you love, and say it directly into “the eye” … just wow …

About looking: If this is going to work, one has to hold it! - don’t look away because one gets doubts and sensations in the body - just know that this is just fear, and if one is to move further, one has to get to know what “fear” is, and realize that it is a “bluff”, but a very solid one i say. Hold It! and exchange metta, or build up metta by exchanging feelings with solid eye contact, yes it is CONTACT - Emptiness to Emtiness!

Peter is my Rock, and we often walk along in silence or singing together, don’t minding anything at all, here today gone tomorrow :slight_smile:
https://youtu.be/evN6DIGPIJM

Sometimes i say a lot … :wink:

And many apologies if I offend somebody thinking that this is not “teravada metta mediatation”, I do all that makes me kind, and besides, my wife say i am! … :wink:

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Ajahn Sona and Birken Monastery are holding a 10-day online Metta Retreat, starting today.

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