Search results for: Metta

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  2. The Demands of Goodwill
     … And so metta has its difficult side as well, because it requires you to be very scrupulous, very thoughtful in how you deal with yourself and with other people. It’s often thought of as a nice “feel good” kind of practice—and it does create that energy of feeling good about yourself: that you don’t have any evil intentions toward anyone. You … 
  3. Shoulds & Desires
     … There’s a passage in the beginning of the Karaniya Metta Sutta: “This is what should be done by one who appreciates the state of peace.” I was sitting in on another course on the brahmaviharas one time. They were going over this sutta line by line, and they started with the first line. As soon as they hit the word should, a hand … 
  4. The Buddha’s Secret Weapon
     … Once, when I was in Barre, they were giving a course on the Karaniya Metta Sutta, the one we chant often. I had taught my course the week before, and I was staying on to do a little study, a little meditation of my own, So they asked me to sit in on this other course. The teacher got to the very first line … 
  5. Skilled in Aims
    That chant just now is called the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta because the first words are* karaṇīya*, “what should be done.” The whole phrase is, “what should be done by one skilled in aims.” To be skilled in aims, you have to think about the long-term: What would be conducive to a true, long-term happiness? Much of the sutta is about goodwill. You … 
  6. Acceptance Isn’t the Issue
     … Or as the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta says, “May no one despise anyone anywhere or wish for anyone to suffer.” Goodwill doesn’t mean, “May you be happy as you are, doing whatever you’re doing.” It means, “May you learn to be skillful.” That’s seeing yourself not as a static thing, and seeing other people not as static things, but as agents, able … 
  7. Wilderness Wealth
     … For lay people, when you’re here in the relative wilderness of Metta as opposed to your homes, that reflection gets you started in the right direction. You see that the problem of suffering is not anything “out there.” It’s largely in the way you perceive things, the way you fabricate things. And the process of meditation is a progressively refined understanding of … 
  8. Protective Meditations
     … contemplation of the unattractiveness of the body, and mindfulness of death. It sounds like a rather random collection and, in the sense that they focus on different defilements, they are diverse. Metta is usually used as the antidote to anger; contemplation of the body as an antidote to lust; recollection of the Buddha as an antidote to discouragement and nihilism; and recollection of death … 
  9. In Heedfulness We Trust
     … When I came back to Wat Metta after all those years in Thailand, it was hard to get used to this, because over there, this is the time of evening when the mosquitoes are out. And it’s not just a matter of not liking the feel of the mosquito bite—the mosquitoes that carry malaria come out at this time of day, too … 
  10. Contentment
     … Here at Wat Metta, we’re part of the forest tradition, but physically we’re widely separated from where most of the tradition is being practiced in Thailand. It’s by trying to maintain the culture of the noble ones that we maintain a sense of closeness to the rest of the tradition. The same holds true when you leave the monastery. Try to … 
  11. Your Goodness is Your Protection
     … That’s a huge misunderstanding that comes from the passage in the Karaniya Metta Sutta about developing an unlimited mind of unlimited goodwill for the world in the same way you a mother would protect her only child. This doesn’t mean that you try to protect the entire world as a mother would protect her child. There’s no way you can do … 
  12. Volunteer Spirit
     … I’ve told you the story about the person who once complained about the first line in the Metta Sutta, “This is what should be done by those who want to aim at a state of peace.” He said, “Wait a minute. What’s this ‘should’ in here? I thought Buddhism didn’t have any shoulds.” The “should” there is conditional. If you want … 
  13. Marshalling the Emotions
     … Ajaan Suwat, when led the meditation here at Metta, would often say, “Start with a sense of pasada, that this is your way out. Stick with the practice with that sense of conviction, confidence, desire. If you approach the meditation in a desultory way, you’re going to get desultory results. You really have to be devoted to what you’re doing here.” Or … 
  14. Fix Your Views
    Fix Your Views October 27, 2021 There’s a line in the Karaniya Metta Sutta that’s sometimes translated as not holding to fixed views. I’ve been tempted to take that translation and send it in to the people who collect fake Buddhist quotes, because the word fixed doesn’t appear in the passage. There’s no place where the Buddha says fixed … 
  15. Pleasant Practice, Painful Practice
     … It’s even possible to work with metta or any of the brahma-viharas as the basis for your concentration. As long as you then use that concentration as a basis for further developing the factors for awakening—and in particular, discernment about what you’re doing as you create a state of mind—that, too, can be one of the pleasant ways of … 
  16. A Promise to Yourself
     … There’s that passage in the beginning of the Karaniya Metta Sutta, “This is what should be done by those who appreciate the state of peace.” I once sat in on a class being taught by someone else on that sutta, taking it apart line by line. As he got to the first line, a hand shot up, “I thought there were no shoulds … 
  17. Goodwill as Right View
     … Sometimes we think of metta as kind of weak and namby-pamby. It’s not. It’s a power. This is the power that the Buddha depended on in order to gain awakening, to teach his teachings. After all, the four noble truths: What are they but an expression of goodwill? Taking everybody’s suffering as the big issue and showing how we can … 
  18. Duties
     … There’s that first line in Karaniya Metta Sutta, Karaniyam-attha-kusalena yantam santam padam abhisamecca: This is to be done by one skilled in aims, breaking through to the state of peace. No one is forcing you to aim at the state of peace. The Buddha never set himself up as a god. But, he says, if you look at the world the … 
  19. Tough Goodwill for a Tough World
     … Which is why that sutta we chant every now and then, the Karaniya Metta Sutta, talks about how to live in a way that’s actually in harmony with universal goodwill: You’re easy to instruct. You don’t have lots of activities going on that involve taking advantage of other people. Your senses are under control. There’s a whole list at the … 
  20. Honesty
     … Ajaan Suwat, when he was here toward the last year or two of this time at Wat Metta: Up to that point we’d been doing the chanting in Pali with Thai translations. He turned to me one day and said, “It’s about time we started doing it in English around here.” So he had me do the English translations we chanted just … 
  21. Right View as Tool
    There’s a line toward the end of the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta that describes the ideal meditator as “not attached to fixed views, but consummate in vision.” That’s how it’s often translated. It turns out, though, that the word “fixed” is not in the original. In other words, “not attached to views but consummate in vision”: That’s what the line actually … 
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