Good morning. Buddhism has a long tradition of using animal stories to illustrate different teachings on morality and psychology and often the main characters in the story represent different people in Buddha’s personal history.
In addition I would like to offer those of you who do not know me a little background to my being here today. I have been practicing Buddhist insight meditation for about eleven years and I’ve made metta or ‘loving-kindness’ meditation a part of my regular practice for about 9 years. I have been leading a Buddhist meditation group that has been sitting on Tuesday evenings here in Guelph for over three years and have been studying the Buddhist suttas or teachings with a local teacher for 8 years.
I hope everyone had very nice St. Valentines Day and received lots of cards and sweets. Yesterday I realized that I should probably learn a little bit about the history of Valentine’s Day so I could appear well informed for my talk today so I went on the internet to see what I could find about the origins of Valentines Day. I was not completely surprised to learn that it had its roots in a pretty wild and quite popular Roman fertility festival held every year on February 15. The Christian story of St. Valentine who was executed on February 14 in 270 AD for performing marriages against the wishes of the Roman Emperor Claudius ll may or may not be true but it is the basis for our modern practice of St. Valentine’s Day as a day for celebrating romantic love.
My own understanding of St. Valentines Day was formed largely in the early grades of elementary school when we used to exchange Valentines cards with the other students in our class. Now when I went to school it usually ended up that you gave cards to the students who were your friends and the teachers you liked and received cards in turn from the other students who were your friends. So the exchanging of Valentine cards was not really about expressions of romantic attachment but more of friendship and support. “Would you be my Valentine?” really meant ‘can we be friends’.
You may not think that the 2500 year old Buddhist practice of metta from India and our modern practice of card giving at Valentines have much in common but I think they share at least this one strong and important link. They both express a strong intention to care about and connect with another being. In Buddhist teachings and practice intentions are very important because they have a key role to play in how the eventual results of all our actions will affect us. Our actions may be skillful or unskillful but if our intentions are good then we can at least reflect that they are wholesome.
Good intentions, like skillful actions, also need to be cultivated with persistence over time if we are to make them a quality that penetrates deeply into our lives. So even though Valentines Day is to me a good idea because it touches upon the qualities of love and goodwill that connect us to a broader view of our selves in the world what we really need to do is extend and cultivate these brief expressions in a way that is exemplified by the Buddhist practice of ‘metta’.
The word metta comes from the Pali language, the language the Buddha’s teachings were first written down in, and is usually translated as ‘Loving Kindness’ or as unconditional love or friendliness. In the Buddha’s teaching on metta, the Metta Sutta, the simile used to describe metta is the powerful love of a mother for her child. This is an example of unconditional love and caring which can also transcend the merely human realm and be seen reflected in the lives of many diverse beings.
Metta is also one part of a broader practice which cultivates the mental qualities called the Brahmavirharas or four ‘divine abidings’. In addition to ‘metta’ the Brahmavirharas include; ‘mudita’ or compassion, the recognition and response in the heart to the suffering of another being; ‘karuna’ or sympathetic joy which connects us to the beauty and joy in others and in the world around us; and ‘upekka’ or equanimity which helps us to balance our heartfelt wishes with the recognition that things are the way they are and ultimately beyond our control.
Metta practice in Buddhism began when a group of monks who had been sent deep into the forest to practice meditation became very frightened by the sounds and experiences they were having which they thought came from the actions of angry tree spirits who inhabited the area and wanted them to leave. They went to the Buddha and asked to be sent somewhere else to practice. But the Buddha said no and gave them the instructions on how to practice unconditional friendliness. They then returned to that place deep in the forest and eventually, through the strength of their practice, they became beloved of the animals, plants and spirits of the forest. This story, which ends so well, illustrates that metta supports and helps us to realize, to make real, the important qualities mutuality and interdependence.
This tradition has changed little since the time of the Buddha. I recently listened to a recorded talk by Jack Kornfield, a leading western meditation teacher and spiritual advisor describing his experiences as a young Buddhist monk during the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s in the Thai forest. Each morning he would arise well before the dawn and light a candle on a tree at each end of a short section of path and practice walking meditation. As he walked back and forth between the illuminated trees he would practice metta for all the different creatures of the forest; those on four legs, six and 8 legs or those on many legs or no legs at all. Monks were often sent to practice into areas where dangerous animals were known to live.
Metta is often taught as a prescription for fear because it is a practice for cultivating an unconditional open-heartedness to all things -even the things that frighten us. Not only to the people, situations and things in the world that are difficult to face but also to the difficult places we hold in our own mind & heart. We can learn to have metta, that we can be open-hearted and accepting to even the tangles that are part of our own being. In this way we can begin to acknowledge all that is true in our lives instead of stepping over or avoiding what is difficult or unpleasant.
The formal practice of metta is very simple. It consists of repeating several phrases of friendliness and open-heartedness silently to oneself as clearly as possible. If taken too lightly the repetition of the phrases could become an exercise in sentimental affirmation but with clear intention they can be an expression of a strong aspiration for well being for oneself and for all living beings.
This simplicity also makes metta practice particularly useful in the context of our very busy lives. We can practice at almost any time and any place; while in line at the grocery store or bank machine, while driving, or while walking on the treadmill at the gym. I particularly like to practice in the time before falling asleep and in-between waking and getting out of bed in the morning.
Traditionally there are any number of metta phrases but the following four are the ones I use most often.
“May I be safe and free from danger.”
This phrase recognizes the role that the necessities of life have in affecting our well being. Food, shelter, clothing and medicines are our most basic needs and life quickly becomes un-endurable without them. It is an invitation to reflect upon what our true needs really are.
“May I be happy”
This phrase can encourage us to examine our psychological well being. Just as the body has basic needs in order to survive the heart and mind also have requirements that allow them to support our well being. What is happiness and what are the conditions that support happiness in our lives are questions worthy of reflection.
“May I be healthy”
From its earliest moments of existence the body is in constant flux, changing from moment to moment and heart beat to heart beat. Like the vast world itself there are always parts that are passing away and parts that are being renewed. To me this phrase asks us to bring a caring awareness and understanding to the physical processes of life, to their persistent and yet fragile nature.
“May I have ease of well-being”
This phrase reminds me of the importance of not holding too tightly to thoughts and feelings and the things that come and go. In the midst of the changing and contingent nature of our existence the importance of cultivating a spacious and openhearted attitude of acceptance of all the conditioned aspects of life can ultimately lead to a boundless sense of freedom, to enlightenment.
In North America metta meditation practice is taught in retreats lasting for a day, a weekend to a week or longer. The practice will vary slightly from teacher to teacher but they usually follow the principle of repeating phrases of well-being to a widening circle of beings. The Buddha once said that you could search the world over and not find anyone more deserving of your love than yourself. So traditionally metta practice begins by establishing the intention to open our heart to truth of our own experience and the wish to be happy.
Next we begin to include others starting with someone we have gratitude towards or care strongly about; a friend or mentor or one who has been a benefactor to us. Following that we begin to extend metta to a neutral person, someone who you do not have any strong feelings for. A person we might know only in passing, a generic human being with whom we might share the wish to be happy. After the neutral being we come to extend metta to a difficult person, someone who we may dislike or have problems with, though not necessarily the most difficult person in our lives at least not when beginning to practice. Following the difficult person we begin to include, to radiate outward, the intention for well being to all living beings.
I would like to close this part of my presentation with a quote from one of the collections of the Buddha’s teachings, the Majjhima Nikaya; “The purpose of the Holy Life does not consist in acquiring merit, honor, or fame, nor in gaining morality, concentration or the eye of knowledge. That unshakeable deliverance, the sure heart’s release, that indeed is the subject of the Holy Life, that is its essence, that is its goal.”
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This is what should be done,
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: in gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
