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  #1  
Old 11-02-2019, 01:17 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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The Actualisation of Loving-Kindness

Hi Guys.

This thread follows on my other thread called 'Mindfulness and Metta'.

I had requested on the other thread that people don't cut and paste their research there, but people want to do that, so please do that there; not here.

This thread is like a reminder and an opportunity to touch upon your own inner-heart and radiate good-will from there. The words spoken here will then be expressed with sincere, real-lived loving-kindness.

The actualisation of this is very beneficial. It raises happiness in you and extends it to others, who are also uplifted, further amplifying the positivity which resonates throughout the world.

In Buddhism this is a deliberate practice which helps to cultivate ones meritorious qualities, arouses love and happiness within you, and shares those merits generously with others.

That's how I explain the thing according to my understanding in my own words, and I want what I say to be of benefit to other people. It doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong or if a Buddhist monk can say it any better - Metta is this kind intent, the wish that you shall benefit and be happy - and that peace be the heart of all living things.
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Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha

Last edited by Gem : 11-02-2019 at 03:42 AM.
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Old 11-02-2019, 07:03 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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Knowing in this moment, as it is, you look deeply into your present state by knowing what your body feels like. There may be a pleasurable feeling in the body, and there might be a discomfort. It is simply true that this is the way it is, and you know what it is like.



You can see your own emotions as they are now. Whatever the emotion might be you can feel what it is like, and you can feel where it manifests in your body. You know how you are feeling, and what they are like as they manifest in the physical body. Your attention is curious as you look deeply to find out the truth, as it is for you.


You can see what thoughts arise, and how these affect emotions, and how emotions manifest physical sensation, and recognise the unified phenomena of mind and manifest.

Investigate and find out without trying to make it other than it is - yet the light of conscious awareness is having a positive effect on your body and mind because your pure awareness brings the light of consciousness to all you see.

There is a light from the universe which touches you right on the top of your head. You can feel it there if you pay careful attention, and you feel it beginning to radiate from atop. It starts to make your face feel tingly and vibrant - feel your face is radiant. The light from above tingles on your scalp, and it shines from your face. It starts to move into the throat, and perhaps you feel as if the throat is a little constricted, which is common and normal. Take your time being careful and thorough being aware of what this is like. The light diffuses further across your shoulders and neck relieving any accumulated tension that might be held there. Allow it to relax you - it begins to infuse down the arms, bringing a lively feeling to them. The hands feel intense with it, tingling with a myriad of subtle feelings. You bring one hand slowly to your breast and feel the energy from it start filling the chest cavity. Here in the heart area you know its pure, loving quality is purifying and healing. Feeling, the crown of the head, scalp, face, throat, shoulders and hands as it pours more fully into the heart-felt area. You can put your hand down now. Notice how the vibrancy is also in your back as it begins to flood the lumbar area and abdomen. Your body feels different now - infused with the love of the universe - revealing your densities and healing those accumulations. After a bit, it moves through the pelvis and thighs, suffusing the lower legs and then feet. The feet feel intense like the hands, and you're connected now, solid with the Earth. You can feel your toes tingle. From the crown it comes in and fills the body with pure conscious light. You know it is true in your experience. You can feel it.

It now begins to radiate from you into the space around you, resonating the atmosphere with its frequency, changing the vibration of the air. You breath in knowing it is wonderful, and exhale - kindness and love into the air that you share with all living beings. Feeling peaceful, breathe in: I am peaceful, breathe out: may you all be peaceful. Breath in: I am happy, breathe out: may you all be happy. Sitting like I am, I breath in contentment: may you all be contented.

Feel free. Be creative with your metta practice and use it for a greater good: your greater peace and happiness and the love of all things.
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Old 12-02-2019, 07:02 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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There is an air of freedom here. Metta for your inner peace and happiness. One can recite lines of the metta sutta, and it is bound to be helpful, or otherwise, any way of your own to bring happy, kind and loving feelings will be good for you.



You can be aware how is your heart now. It is possible you are reading this and having negative responses - oh Gem is such and such and so forth - I sometimes catch myself in similar negativity, but it is only a reminder to recognise how it creates misery, and desist once seeing its destructive nature.


It is truthful to know what is going on with you right now as it actually is to your own self-awareness. You can see truthfully if your state of thought and emotion has merits of positivity and good-will; or if it is negative and self-defeating. You can know what is true in this way.


So I talk about meritorious aspects of human beings: truthfulness, good-will, loving kindness, generosity. It is sensible to practice these in daily living because it brings untold benefit to you and other people. It is not sensible to practice negativity, malice, ill-will or dishonesty because it makes you miserable, and then you spread it to others.


Feed the right wolf.



It is part of Buddhism to cultivate your merits and cull your negativity, which requires self awareness to know what's really going on with you, and wisdom to discern what is worth cultivating and what should be 'starved out'.



You can know, 'I am feeling malice', recognise it is miserable, and cease that nonsense; and you can be aware, 'this is feeling loving kindness', and know it is good for you and everyone else. The more you feed the positivity the more it becomes you. The less you give to negativity the weaker it becomes. May you generate positivity and bring happiness to this world.



If this makes sense to you and you can see practicing loving kindness makes you loving and kind as a person, you then see some sense in deliberately cultivating your merits. Not only for your own sake, but also for the benefit of others.



So please take one minute to generate a little joy in your heart, and wish happiness to all others.



May we all be happy.
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Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha

Last edited by Gem : 12-02-2019 at 09:25 AM.
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Old 19-03-2019, 06:57 PM
7luminaries 7luminaries is offline
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May we each have (and make) opportunities to be present and kind to one another.

May we make special effort to be present and kind to those in our lives...our families, friends, co-workers, neighbours, strangers, and all who cross our paths.

And may the merit of our efforts accrue to all beings and be offered on behalf of their spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing.

And thank you for this thread, which allows for reflection on lovingkindness and the need for lovingkindness in the world.

Peace & blessings
7L
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Bound by conventions, people tend to reach for what is easy.

Here we must be unafraid of what is difficult.

For all living beings in nature must unfold in their particular way

and become themselves despite all opposition.

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Old 19-03-2019, 08:18 PM
Molearner Molearner is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
That's how I explain the thing according to my understanding in my own words, and I want what I say to be of benefit to other people. It doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong or if a Buddhist monk can say it any better - Metta is this kind intent, the wish that you shall benefit and be happy - and that peace be the heart of all living things.


Gem,

Do unto others as you would have them do to you? Or is this 'metta' distinguished by emphasis on intent as opposed to action(doing)?
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Old 19-03-2019, 08:37 PM
Rain95 Rain95 is offline
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You can only be angry at someone if you want or expect something from them.

I remember that passage (paraphrased) in the Carlos Castenada book where Carlos is telling his teacher he is mad at this or that person and his teacher Don Juan asks him, "If a mountain lion showed up and stole our fish would you be mad at him?" Carlos says no. Don Juan asks him why not? Carlos says, "Well because the mountain lion is just acting according to his nature." Don Juan says, "So are those people you are mad at."
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Old 19-03-2019, 09:13 PM
sentient sentient is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain95
You can only be angry at someone if you want or expect something from them.

I remember that passage (paraphrased) in the Carlos Castenada book where Carlos is telling his teacher he is mad at this or that person and his teacher Don Juan asks him, "If a mountain lion showed up and stole our fish would you be mad at him?" Carlos says no. Don Juan asks him why not? Carlos says, "Well because the mountain lion is just acting according to his nature." Don Juan says, "So are those people you are mad at."
That good old fraud – Castaneda - did bring up many valid points in his books.

*
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Old 20-03-2019, 12:10 AM
Gem Gem is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molearner
Gem,

Do unto others as you would have them do to you? Or is this 'metta' distinguished by emphasis on intent as opposed to action(doing)?


Hi Molearner,


There is Buddhist text called the Metta Sutta which is kind of like a prayer, but Buddhist don't pray to a God, rather, they are affirming the true pure intent of their own hearts. You can google the sutta if you like. It's very short.


Buddhists do have a 'golden rule' of sorts, though it is usually worded in the negative like, do not do to others what you don't want others to do to you.


In the reality of practice (at least in the school I'm familiar with) the meditation is a purification process. It, in effect, removes 'impurities' from the mind and 'blockages' from the body.



The mode of practice is what I'm calling conscious awareness with equanimity, or pure awareness, which means to observe without personal reactivity. Buddha described it something like 'with ardent awareness, having removed craving and aversion toward the world'. It is like, 'this' is happening, and I'm OK with it'. Thus the stronger elements of dislike and hatred are quelled - as are the stronger cravings of greed.



The mind starts settling down because it isn't so agitated by circumstance, and you become more open to whatever is going with you. This allows the old junk in you to be there, so ideas about 'healing' and so forth seem less relevant, but because you allow it to be 'as it is', it is free. The old emotion which we hold inside starts to come out, but unlike before, this time we don't react, we are no longer adverse to the feeling, and our aversion to the initial traumatic events begin to wane. Where this usually involves a grudge where we were hurt by others, forgiveness starts to replace the hard feelings. After a while you might find yourself recalling that offender and realise you now only want them to be happy. That wish or disposition, 'may all beings be happy', when realised as true of your heart, is metta.
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  #9  
Old 20-03-2019, 03:18 PM
janielee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molearner
Gem,

Do unto others as you would have them do to you? Or is this 'metta' distinguished by emphasis on intent as opposed to action(doing)?

My opinion is it's not the same. It's much more intimate than that - and it's not defined from intent or action, it's from the cherishing and genuine love that is the encouragement of the Buddhas.

JL
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Old 20-03-2019, 04:38 PM
Rain95 Rain95 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sentient
That good old fraud – Castaneda - did bring up many valid points in his books.

*

Yea a lot of Zen in those books, as in movies like the Matrix and Star Wars.

The whole movie, "The Matrix" was basically written as a metaphor to enlightenment.
Yoda.... “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” yup that is a fact... we are only in the present moment,
you are either awake or not.... "trying" is a delusional concept manufactured by thought.
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