The Loving kindness meditation (also called metta) is
'a practice of cultivating understanding, love, and compassion by looking deeply, first for ourselves and then for others' Thich Nhat Hanh - No Mud, No Lotus: 104.
I have resolved to practice this beautiful meditation every day throughout March, choosing Donald Trump as the 'difficult person'.
This is my motivation -
'To love is, first of all, to accept ourselves as we actually are ... in this Love meditation, "know thyself" is the first practice of love' Thich Nhat Hanh - No Mud, No Lotus: 104.
The practice begins with offering words of loving kindness to ourselves, then to others.
The steps I will follow will be
The steps I will follow will be
myself
someone I love
someone I have difficulties with (Donald Trump)
the whole world.
These are the words I will use -
May I be peaceful, happy and light and body and spirit.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.
May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving and delusion in myself.
May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May I be free from attachment and aversion but not be indifferent.
May I be able to live fresh, solid and free.
(adapted from Thich Nhat Hanh - Chanting from the Heart: 42).
Having first said these words towards myself, I then offer them to someone I love
(may you be ... etc.), then DT, then the whole world (may we all be ... etc.)
(may you be ... etc.), then DT, then the whole world (may we all be ... etc.)
I will practice this meditation every morning (UK time about 7am).
Feel free to join me at any time for one day or many days.
We can manifest drops of love that can join together to create an ocean of love.
I am also motivated by Robert F Kennedy's speech in 1966, sending forth tiny ripples of hope to build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a <person> stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he/she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
June 1966 from South Africa against apartheid.
I hope you are inspired!
