THE HEART'S RESPONSE
One of my favourite meditation practices is called metta, or loving kindness. In this practice, we offer well wishes in the form of short phrases (may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe) to others and to ourselves. In the classical tradition we offer kind words to categories of people including those we love, people we don’t know well and even those we have difficult relationships with before expanding our sense of loving kindness to include all beings.
One of my favourite ways to practice this meditation is to use it as I go about my day, silently offering kindness to the people I see but don’t know well. Strangers I might otherwise look straight through or be indifferent to. When I really see these people (the person packing my groceries, the strangers I pass on the street) my hearts stretches a little bigger, my perspective widens and these people become more real, more whole and more vibrant to me. Whenever I do this I am reminded that deep down we are all so alike. We all share the same struggles, the same dreams and the simple wish to be healthy, happy and safe.
One quote…
Loving kindness meditation is an offering of good wishes to a variety of categories of people: benefactors, teachers, friends, people who are struggling, difficult people, and neutral people. Neutral people are those we don’t know or don’t know well, who we may see or interact with glancingly in the course of our day.
Pema Chödrön calls them (dramatic pause, cue organ music) “The Neutrals.” When I’m consumed with my To Do list, and my vision is narrowed to my tiny personal perspective, I paste The Neutrals into the collage of my days hastily with a sloppy slather of glue. Practicing metta opens my vision and reminds me that every single one of these people has a story, a rich life full of happiness and hardship, struggle and pleasure, delight and difficulty.
Sharon Salzberg
One question…
Who will you direct some loving kindness to this week?
Sent with love,
Melissa x