Metta Practice

This talk was offered at Cloud Mountain on June 8, 2021 for the retreat "Dispelling Our Delusions: Exploring the Vipallasa and Drawing Inspiration from the Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns".

The fourth of the brahmavihārās, Upekkhā, is a well rooted flexibility; a deeply steady openness; a kindly unshaken intimacy with all things.

Intention, Mindfulness and Gratitude are the three wholesome states that are the foundational practices to awaken joy

Equanimous and spacious, we can allow all things to arise and pass within a calm and sensitive awareness.

We inquire into doing and not-doing in five ways: (1) identifying the importance of a number of different kinds of "doing" and skillful effort in meditation; (2) pointing also to the centrality of a kind of not-doing (or letting go of doing) and receptivity in meditation; (3) the importance of investigating the "doer" and one's identity as a doer, in a number of different ways, in meditation and daily life; (4) the vision of a doing that comes out of being, that comes out of a deep not-doing, a vision that we find in different spiritual traditions--here we mention ways that this vision is found in Jewish, Christian, Taoist, and Buddhist traditions; and (5) how we explore and cultivate this doing coming out of a deep not-doing in daily life, in "flow experiences," in activities in which we are deeply grounded, and in such areas as sports, music, art, and dance.

This guided meditation was offered at Cloud Mountain on June 7, 2021 for the retreat "Dispelling Our Delusions: Exploring the Vipallasa and Drawing Inspiration from the Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns".