Posts Tagged ‘loving kindness’
Practice Circle 4/26: Love is the Antidote to Fear
There is the liberation of the heart by loving-kindness; frequently giving wise attention to it — this is the denourishing of the arising of ill-will that has not yet arisen, and the decrease and weakening of ill-will that has already arisen. — SN 46:51 There is much fear in the world now. Most of us…
Read MorePractice Circle 5/12: New Attitudes of Mindfulness: Kindness
At Practice Circle, we have worked with Jon Kabat Zinn’s Seven Attitudes of Mindfulness: Acceptance, Nonjudging, Nonstriving, Letting Go, Patience, Humor, Trust, and Beginner’s Mind. In their terrific training manual for mindfulness teachers, A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness, Christina Wolf and J. Greg Serpa add three more: Curiosity, Kindness, and Gratitude and Generosity. When…
Read More10/12 Practice Circle: Soften, Soothe, Allow
How do we deal with truly difficult emotions when they arise in our daily life? Can we meet them without being overwhelmed or using distraction or numbing to avoid them? When Practice Circle meets again this Sunday evening at 6 Pacific, 7 Mountain, 8 Central and 9 Eastern, we’ll share another practice from Kristin Neff…
Read More7/8 Practice Circle: A Compassionate Friend
In a world in which hatred and blame seem to be winning, where can we find compassion and acceptance in the face of life’s suffering? We have a compassionate resource always available in our own hearts – in fact, the only place we can ever experience compassion is within ourselves. When Practice Circle meets again…
Read MoreDo We Need Attachment to be Kind?
Does kindness require emotional attachment and identification with one another? Several prominent ethical systems promote the idea that our altruistic tendencies are based on emotional closeness and familiarity. We’ll look at a few of those systems, as well as a Buddhist alternative. I hope you’ll stick around for the third section where we’ll get to…
Read MoreBrittle Metta
We may practice kindness, but anger and hatred will take over at times. We’ll deal with one syndrome involving anger and talk about ways to approach it that may be helpful. Thich Nhat Hanh on embracing anger Check out my Patreon page!
Read MoreKindness Towards Everyone?
When we practice loving kindness, are we really supposed to direct kindness towards everyone? Does everyone really deserve kindness? We will look at the early texts as well as a recent article in Tricycle Magazine by scholar Andrew Olendzki. We will also consider some of the teachings of Socrates and the ancient Greeks. The Sutta…
Read MoreOn Mettā
Where do the instructions for mettā practice come from? The suttas give relatively little instruction on what actually to do, beyond generating universal good will that we find in the Mettā Sutta (Sn. 143-152), and the practice of focusing on each direction, in an oft-cited pericope: [W]ith his heart filled with lovingkindness, he dwells suffusing…
Read MoreLoving Kindness Meditation: History and Practice
What is Loving Kindness (mettā) meditation and how did it develop? Many people today practice a form that probably originated centuries after the Buddha’s day.
Read MoreLovingkindness Now and in the Past
In contrast to the dominant role that mettā (lovingkindness) and the other Brahmavihāras (compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) play in contemporary Buddhist practice, they seem to have played a relatively minor role in the earliest tradition. One looks in vain for much elaboration on mettā’s dhammic role; largely it seems to have been seen as…
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