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    RECOMMENDED DAILY Metta PRACTICE

    Hi,

    Our core practice is always Zazen ... "Just Sitting" Shikantaza Zazen.

    But I wish to introduce a touch of "Metta (Loving Kindness) Practice" as well (many Zen teachers have done so), and I recommend it once a day at least. It can also be done at any time when, for example, some feelings of anger, resentment, jealousy or the like start to well up in us directed at a fellow sentient being. A bit of Metta can be good medicine for that.

    While I do not intend this to replace our core practice of Shikantaza by any means, I have taught at various Zen Sangha that have well introduced a bit of Metta Practice. I think it adds a little something vital to our practice on the "Compassion" side of the equation.

    For those not familiar with the term ...

    Metta (मैत्री, a word in the ancient Buddhist Pali language) has been translated as "loving-kindness," "benevolence," "good will," "love" and "sympathy." It is one of the Ten Paramitas (Virtues) of Buddhism. The metta bhavana ("cultivation of metta") is a popular form of meditation in Buddhism. The object of metta meditation is loving kindness (but, of course, without demands or attachment). Traditionally, the practice begins with the meditator cultivating loving kindness towards themselves, then their loved ones, friends, strangers, difficult or hate-filled people in our life or world (perhaps the most difficult part of the practice) and finally towards all sentient beings.
    I might suggest a few minutes of Metta practice as a nice way to end the day before bed (or, for example, at the closing of your evening Zazen) or sometime during your day. Perhaps just before turning into bed for the night, or right after finishing your evening Zazen (and before rising from the Zafu), or any time, you might recite or chant the following ... (and, as stated, it is also good during your day when encountering folks who "just plain get your goat"!

    (Note that, for reasons of our Soto Practice, I have modified some phrasing common to other traditions to be more embracing of conditions 'as they are'. For example, we should aspire for people to be healthy as well as "at ease in all their ills", not merely the former.

    Note also that we include people who may have done or being doing truly ugly actions in the world or in our lives. It is perhaps the hardest to wish "health" and "peace" to such people. However, please understand that we do so with the sense that, if such people, or other people like them whom they represent, truly new inner "health" and "peace," then they would not be or have acted in such hateful ways. In Buddhism, we do not really believe that there are "bad people," only people who "act badly" due to the disease of inner excess desire, anger and divided thinking within them. Thus, wishing such people well is really asking for peace in life and in this world.)


    To begin, take a moment to quiet your mind, and focus your attention on recalling the experience and sensation of loving kindness. Try to summon such feelings within, and hold them throughout your sincere reciting of the following. Reach into your emotional memory, and try to recall and hold in your heart what loving kindness would feel like. Try smiling gently, and mean it. That simple step really does something to put us in the right frame of mind.

    You will then begin by offering Metta to yourself. If distracting thoughts arise, let them pass and return to your Metta practice from there, again and again, just as in Shikantaza. While reciting, try to maintain the experience and sensation of loving kindness to the beings mentioned, even a difficult or violent person. Note that the word "suffering" in the following refers to the Buddhist idea of Dukkha (see this talk on the Four Noble Truths for an explanation: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...y-Dooby-Dukkha)

    1. May I be free of suffering; may I feel safe and still.

    2. May I be free of enmity; may I be loving, grateful and kind.

    3. May I be healthy and at ease in all my ills.

    4. May I be at peace, embracing all conditions of life.



    Next, repeat the chant with a specific close loved one(s) in mind ... and it can be more than one person ...


    1. May he(she/they) be free of suffering; may he(she/they) feel safe and still.

    2. May he(she/they) be free of enmity; may he(she/they) be loving, grateful and kind.

    3. May he(she/they) be healthy and at ease in all his(her/their) ills.

    4. May he(she/they) be at peace, embracing all conditions of life


    Then, repeat the above in succession for a specific close friend(s), a specific neutral person(s) (someone or ones you neither like nor dislike), and then a difficult person(s) (no need to start with the most difficult person, but someone or ones with whom you have frictions or feel negative emotions ... However, it is a good practice to focus on truly problematic, hateful or harm doing individuals. That is perhaps the most valuable and difficult practice of all).

    Close with all beings:

    1. May we be free of suffering; may we feel safe and still.

    2. May we be free of enmity; may we be loving, grateful and kind.

    3. May we be healthy and at ease in all our ills.

    4. May we be at peace, embracing all conditions of life
    It can be said to oneself, out loud or inwardly. It can be spoken, and need not be sung or chanted. It need not be considered a "prayer" to some force outside us (we will leave that to silence), and can be thought of as simply our aspiration for a better world for all living beings. Truly, 'inside' and 'outside' are not two, and one can effect and greatly change the other.

    One can ask if there really is a power to this practice to work change. I will say yes. Our hateful thoughts, words and acts can have real impact on ourself and on the people around us, creating pain and problems for people. Such behavior adds some drops of poison and ugliness into the world. So, in equal fashion, our kind thoughts, words and acts can have real impact, direct and indirect, on ourself and those around us and impacted by our behavior. In this day and age of modern communications, actions and words far across the world can have effects, great and small, on all of us. One does not need to believe in some mysterious power to Metta in order to understand its positive effects. If I wish my friend or loved one ill or well, it will have great potential to touch them.

    We practice this as a regular part of our monthly Zazenkai. Please see here (from the 3:34:00 mark) for an example:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=BdPvpteITdQ

    May there be much Metta for all of you in our Sangha.

    Gassho, Jundo
    Last edited by Jundo; 11-02-2021 at 04:31 AM.

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