Practicing Loving-Kindness

Hi All,

So I discovered this lady on youtube. I don't remember her name, but she has a website called the enthusiastic buddhist. She gave this little exercise which was pretty similar to telling people, "God bless you" or "Have a blessed day" in your head. Basically, the exercise involved mentally saying to people,"May you be happy and live without suffering," or something like that.

I tried doing this today and noticed some interesting things. At first, I just felt like I was saying (in my head), just to say it. It didn't feel like it meant anything. So, instead of just saying it, I tried to imagine the person I was directing this towards being happy and living without suffering. This helped to make the good will seem more tangible.

Another thing I noticed was that I had a harder time doing this sincerely with certain people. There were some people who I was a little envious of or who I felt like didn't deserve to be happy. I didn't out right think, "this person doesn't deserve happiness," but I was reluctant to give my good will away. I was judging people! I don't think of myself as a judgmental person, but this exercise showed me how we can judge people in insidious ways. It really gave me insight on how I can work to be a better person.

I wonder if anybody else has tried something like this. What was your experience? Do you think an exercise like this might be useful in day to day activities? How else, other than meditating, can we grow the trait of or practice loving-kindness?

Agalo, you might find 'tonglen' interesting, its very easy to do.

Yes, this is known as metta. It's an integral part of a lot of people's routine.

A good suggestion is to practice it just after meditating, before getting up.

Think "May all beings be happy. May all beings be free from delusion" etc. it's a really good practice. It's not some hippy dippy feel good I love you you love me thing either.

As you felt, there are tangible results.

[Samana]

There's a very nice 5 minute Metta instruction (loving kindness/goodwill towards others) from Ajahn Jayasaro on YouTube which many people find beneficial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3_lqd4Sgfc


and also there's an audio about Metta meditation from Ajahn Sucitto for anyone who's interested:

http://www.cittaviveka.org/index.php/teaching/audio-talks/266-ajahn-sucitto-instructed-metta-meditation


Hope you find them beneficial.

Best wishes,

Sam