METTA PRACTICE (BETA VERSION)

[Rinsen]

Re: METTA PRACTICE (BETA VERSION)

We just recently posted a talk from the Toledo Zen Center about Metta Practice, perhaps some will find it helpful:

http://www.thedrinkinggourd.org/

Gassho,

- Rin

[AlanLa]

Re: METTA PRACTICE (BETA VERSION)

My metta practice the other morning evolved into a visualized group hug that started with me and then included teacher Jundo, my dad, a friend, a neighbor, and ended with Osama bin Laden. It was pretty cool!

[Taigu]

Re: METTA PRACTICE (BETA VERSION)

Hi everybody,

I think Jundo's initiative to introduce Metta practice is very important. Since I started sitting ( yesterday and a longtime ago) I have met countless people involved on the Zen path and I want to share a very clear observation I made over the years: Zen can be practiced with great enthusisam, dedication but if compassion is not cultivated the guys can end up like army boys and skinheads, harsh, almost violent and often abusive. I don't exagerate. As I started, in my teens, I was one of them; Intolerant and dead sure to be right surrounded by a flock of shaved ultra-sitters can could beat the lifeout of anybody different. If we are not careful enough, we may fall into this trap even in the name of holy crusades against the fake Dharma! It ranges from people jocking about other Zen teachers or traditions to the most extreme folks who confuse Zeal and Zen. In fact the traditional Japanese Zen monastic training can be seen as an army training, a boot camp style approach in which bullying, physical abuse are a daily reality. Dogen warned his students about the fact that one had to balance practice, compassion and wisdom, and people needed the "spirit and attitude of an old woman, of a grandmother". Otherwise, Zen that doesn't cure anything won't help your original problem and even give you a very good ground to make it worse. I have countless examples of this and I am sure you also do. My daily practice is to say thank you for everything and to everybody, and even for things I don't necessarily like or enjoy. It is a simple practice, and you can do it everywhere, in any kind of situation. Very handy and quick. You will be amazed how a smile and thank you can change the chemistry in your brain and turn the angry beast into a much more open being. The other practice I sometimes do belongs to a different Buddhist tradition, it is popular in american trantric circles and it is called tonglen. You accept and drink and take more and more of this negativity on the in breath and send, radiate and breath out joy, light, health, love. It is also very simple.

Gassho and...Thank you :wink:

Taigu

[Shindo]

Re: METTA PRACTICE (BETA VERSION)

Well said Taigu
Kind regards
Jools