In one of my recent emails from Karma Gaia, there was an article on Loving Kindness Meditation, which brought back a flood of memories of about 13 years ago when I was enrolled in the Mediation Class of Master Sam (a well-respected Buddhist monk in Cambridge), who taught me a lot about meditation and specifically Loving Kindness.
He shared with us the difference between Loving Kindness and Compassion in our lives.
With COMPASSION we feel deeply for the person and situation and feel we MUST change things, whereas LOVING KINDNESS we share as much love and kindness we can to someone as they go through whatever they are dealing with.
That statement changed many ways that I saw life and how I can love others and participate in life.
LOVING KINDNESS is an ever-growing concept as you start to put it into practice in your life. A definition could include the quality of feeling love and being kind toward yourself and other people—a practice that focuses on trying to develop and share love and kindness.
It is thought that the heart of a genuinely honorable person is filled with loving kindness and respect for others, and there is often more loving kindness in these difficult situations than in happier ones.
As you ponder this concept of Loving Kindness, I hope you take time to read and absorb the article below and take time to do the meditation and create your own meditation and time in life to share YOUR loving kindness.
The Brian Banks
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Loving-Kindness Meditation
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is an ancient Buddhist practice that cultivates goodwill and universal friendliness toward oneself and others.
Loving-kindness “Metta bhavana,” the first of the Four Brahma Vihara meditation techniques that the Buddha taught to cultivate happy emotions, is translated as “meditation” in English.
According to recent scientific studies, LKM improves mental health in a variety of ways that are consistent with the teachings of the original Buddha. A more thorough discussion of the practice’s advantages is provided below.
4 Brahma Viharas: Known also as the four divine abodes or the four immeasurable, the Four Brahma Viharas are a quartet of Buddhist meditation techniques, of which LKM is the fundamental practice. These are a set of complementary meditation practices that focus on cultivating positive emotions:
• Metta (loving-kindness)
• Karuna (compassion)
• Mudita (appreciative joy)
• Uppekha (equanimity)
Each of these positive meditation practices provides the foundation for the next. For example, we need to generate loving-kindness to cultivate compassion, and we need both loving kindness and compassion practices to cultivate the appreciative joy that celebrates others’ talents and success.
The Buddha suggested the following three exercises as a way for them to change their conflicting emotional states:
• Loving kindness overcomes hatred.
• Compassion overcomes cruelty.
• Appreciative joy overcomes envy.
Equanimity is the ultimate state of tranquility that is reached when these three practices are integrated. This is the emotional foundation of freedom from suffering.
Benefits of Loving-Kindness Meditation
The story is that the Buddha taught the benefits of metta meditation to monks who were having trouble concentrating when meditating in the forest, allegedly because of disturbances caused by tree spirits and earth devas.
From a secular standpoint, one could argue that the monks were taught metta by the Buddha to help them conquer their dread of being alone in the forest while meditating, where they were vulnerable to various threats. The practice’s justification is that compassion for all living things drives away fear since fear and loving kindness are incompatible. Metta is protective, both physically and mentally.
For example, most of us will be familiar with how feeling afraid and anxious can make you more vulnerable to harm when traveling alone far from home. When targeting a victim, those with malicious intent search for signs of vulnerability.
Here, the same reasoning holds true. Since fear and love are incompatible, the Buddha taught his monks metta. A lack of fear made the monks less vulnerable, calmed them down, and created less disturbance in the forest. According to legend, the tree and ground spirits were appeased and even shielded the monks from harm when they started practicing metta meditation.
Source: Karma Gaia