Radiating kindness to groups of beings

Kim Allen gave the fourth talk in a seven-week series on lesser known Buddhist teachings titled "Thus Have I Heard." This talk explores how practice can be difficult, especially when it helps us become aware of the dark corners of our minds such as fear and dread. Fortunately, the Buddha taught us to train our minds so we won't give in to those tendencies, and instead live a skillful life with wholesome qualities such as generosity, virtue, and loving kindness.

Receiving lovingkindness.

Understanding the Boundless Quality of Love. (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.

Metta