This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Since we vowed to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words, let's start with some of the Tathagata's words. going to tell you where exactly it's from, but I don't know the abbreviation I-T. Does anyone know that one? Which? I-T. I-T. Well, the other one's from the Gemini Kaya, so that'll legitimize the whole thing. All right. Monks, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of

[01:01]

of the liberation of mind by loving kindness. The liberation of mind by loving kindness surpasses them and shines forth bright and brilliant. Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon's radiance, but the moon's radiance surpasses them and shines forth bright and brilliant. Even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, All these do not equal a sixteenth part of the liberation of mind by loving kindness. The liberation of mind by loving kindness surpasses them and shines forth bright and brilliant. Just as in the last month of the rainy season in the autumn, when the sky is clear and free of clouds, the sun on ascending dispels the darkness of space and shines forth bright and brilliant. Even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, All these do not equal a sixteenth part of the liberation of mind by loving-kindness.

[02:04]

The liberation of mind by loving-kindness surpasses them and shines forth bright and brilliant. And just as, in the night, at the moment of dawn, the morning star shines forth bright and brilliant, even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, All these do not equal a 16th part of the liberation of mind by loving kindness. The liberation of mind by loving kindness surpasses them and shines forth bright and brilliant. That repetition is pretty characteristic of the polycanon. When we talk about cultivating in our practice wisdom and compassion. Some plan says that those are two things. Here the Buddha talks about the liberation of the mind through loving kindness.

[03:07]

Interesting. One more. This one is from the Mijinamakaya. What student is the path to the company of Brahma? Here a monk dwells pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving kindness. Likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth. So above, below, around, and everywhere, and to all as to himself, he dwells pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill will. So we have this idea of... Let me back up a little. So we're talking about loving kindness. Or metta, usually translated loving kindness.

[04:12]

And I think that's a nice translation. We're trying to distinguish it from romantic love. It's a simple... attitude of goodwill. That's the best description I've found. It's a simple attitude of goodwill. And so the practices for cultivating that simple attitude of goodwill are very simple. One simple one is just smiling. It's just what? Smiling. Smiling. Yeah. And notice there are many people here who are natural smilers. the simple attitude that we will in that. And maybe we've heard some of the research that just smiling improves the mood. Or maybe if we don't care so much about research, we can look to our direct experience.

[05:17]

Just even a fake smile can turn into a real one. Or you can sign up for laughter yoga. heard of laughter yoga you just laugh and so loving kindness is just the kindly attitude towards ourself or towards others for yourself and others And we talk about the field of loving kindness, which I find hard to describe to someone who doesn't immediately understand what that might mean. But the Buddha in this last reading I just did talked about radiating loving kindness to one quarter. Think of roughly the front.

[06:22]

And so having that sense of goodwill That covers about all of you. But then also expanding it behind and then to the left and to the right and above and below. I haven't done the practice actually that way much in quadrants. Who here has been exposed already to the basic loving kindness phrases? What I would like to do is do a brief meditation. Actually do some metta practice because the essential technique, if you will, is very simple. And then everyone here will have some direct experience in the body and we can see where we want to go from there.

[07:25]

So we start as... I always do at least by simply checking in with the body, being present in the room. This time, this space, this breath, these sensations. The bottom on the chair, the hands in the lap are together or wherever they are. simply feeling the body breathe. And we feel the in-breath. And then as we're feeling the out-breath, we add the phrase, may I be free from fear and anxiety. And we just say this. Just wish ourselves freedom from fear and anxiety.

[08:32]

That's it. Next in-breath and then on the out-breath. Just repeating that phrase on the out-breath. May I be free from fear and anxiety. letting go of any judgment about what's supposed to happen in the body or mind and simply noticing what happens. And we say the phrase, may I be free from fear and anxiety. Now we'll switch to the second phrase on the out-breath saying, may I be at ease, at ease.

[09:41]

Wishing ourselves ease. And then finally, trying the phrase, may I be happy, meaning contented, joyous. May I be happy. Wishing ourselves simple happiness. Now what we'll do is bring to mind someone for whom we have natural affection.

[11:20]

We like them. Natural fondness. And we direct the phrases towards them. So bringing them up as clearly as we can in the mind. May they be free from fear We're simply wishing this for them. May they be free from fear and anxiety. May they be at ease. May they be happy. May they be happy.

[12:21]

We'll spend a few more breaths on this. Please notice especially that we can wish this for a person even if we suspect that their current state might be otherwise. have the kindly attitude present. May they be happy. Okay, what did you notice? Okay, I'll tell you what I noticed. Except I just got three hands at that time, so we'll go. Go ahead, Greg.

[13:32]

I noticed the calm and the last of my body until the second I heard the gunshot. Then I packed right back up again. That was interesting to notice that. Where did you feel the calmness and then the tightness? In my core. In your core. Is that here for you? All the way up. All the way up. All the way up. The entire, well, from the pelvis to the throat. It's sort of an adivation of a column from the pelvis to the throat, but not narrow at the spine. It's sort of the core. inside the trunk that include, I guess, certain organs like the heart, heart, lungs. I'm just curious. Yeah. Curious what different people feel. Thank you. Yeah? I feel kind of a little sad in thinking about wishing something that may not already be

[14:41]

present I mean before you said that I was already kind of thinking about the situation of the person and how I felt like I was kind of wishing something that wasn't already the case you know what I mean so like kind of thinking about their suffering a little bit kind of choked me up like the back of the throat like in the chest a little bit kind of feeling yeah just a little sad thanks for sharing that That's part of why we'll also do compassion practice. Anyone else? Any other kinds of experiences? Yeah, thanks. Nice, thank you.

[15:49]

Part of why I'm asking the question about where people feel it in the body is partly because of curiosity. Um, but also partly to bring awareness. Some people might realize, oh, I don't know where I feel it in my body. And it's good information. It's good information to hone in on. Yes? Yeah. I felt it from my heart, and I was visualizing my children. And to me, it just felt... because they're grown and they're on their own. But it just felt this very lovely connection of sending them goodwill because I don't have a lot of control or anything in their lives to make their lives better.

[17:07]

But on that level, it was very good that I could give them something. Thanks for bringing that forward. Is that a something or a fly? Yeah. The person I thought of, for some reason, I think of them as being always kind of cheery and happy, so I guess I saw them like that. I saw them in that way. In my mind, as I thought about wishing them happiness and freedom from anxiety, it was interesting that they became kind of serene, more calm, and their expression of more giddiness became just very relaxed.

[18:11]

Relaxed, softer. So your image of them in the mind shifted. And it seems like it can reveal maybe your relationship with the person as well. Why do I see them as always that way? Maybe that's because I'm projecting that into them as well and being that way with them. There could be lots of different kinds of information in there. You know, I guess that the giddiness or lappy, kind of smiley nature is somehow suffering as well, and just more of a quantumist look is a little more free from suffering. Thank you. I agree too much. Thanks, John. experience some nervousness and tension this time around I don't try to analyze what that's about sometimes I have some insight into what that is for me and sometimes not so much what I found with the practice is that what I found and what's said about the practice because they match up here is that it's an antidote

[19:48]

can be an effective antidote to anger and also fear. So there's a story from the Buddhist canon, which I couldn't find, but it's there. My teacher has read it many, many times. And it's probably good to tell it in a very shortened version anyway, because this is only an hour-long class. But the Buddha's monks were... in the forest to do retreat and there were some tree spirits in this section of the forest where they decided to make their retreat and the tree spirits weren't very happy that the monks were there because this was their part of the forest and they didn't want a bunch of monks hanging around there and so they started making distressing noises and the canon also says letting off distressing smells as well So farting tree spirits or something like this, but nauseating smells and noises.

[20:56]

So the monks go on back to the Buddha and say, look, we can't, we need to relocate and, you know, pick the wrong section of the forest. And the Buddha essentially tells them, well, do this, do metta. Do metta. So radiate loving kindness for these tree spirits. So the instruction in metta practice is always to start with ourselves, doing loving kindness for ourselves. And I find that if I skip that part, doing loving kindness for others can be, there can be a block there. But I also invite you to play around with that. and see if that's true for you or not. So the Buddha said, radiate loving kindness for these true spirits. And of course, in the story, they did this, and the spirits quit bothering them.

[22:01]

We're also odd, amazed, etc., etc. Very happy all of a sudden to have the monks of the forest. So that's that story. Another thing I wanted to say about the practice of metta is that it's not magic, i.e. we shouldn't expect that because we've spent significant time wishing for so-and-so to be happy that we're going to walk out the door and they're going to magically be happy. Though our practice does affect things. what I found is that it does affect relationships, sometimes in a very powerful way. So especially if I'm experiencing anger towards someone or ill will to get to the point where I can do meta for them somehow.

[23:04]

And the phrases, by the way, aren't magic either. They can be changed. You can use different words and... You know, God's going to come bonk you on the head because you didn't say free from fear specifically. So there are many versions of those phrases, including usually, may I awaken. May they awaken. So regarding metta practice, is there anything big I've left out, or did anybody have an experience and they're going, wait, wait? Yeah. Can you consider it inconsistent with Shikantaza?

[24:10]

Inconsistent with Shikantaza? I have a lot to say about Shikantaza, but I won't say it right now. Yeah, I wouldn't do them at the same time. Because Shikantasa is all the senses open. And Metta is setting a particular intention. So they're different. You know, my eyes were closed. I don't think you should mention it. Because you were asking what was going on in your eyes. Just now, you said, oh yeah, when we were doing that, my eyes were closed. I think there's actually a lot of misunderstanding about what shikan quasi is. So that's my answer for now. Okay, a little more about metta. Please raise your hand anytime. I especially like... Conflict is the word that's coming up right now.

[25:12]

So I would rather... I would rather someone raise their hand and say... whatever it is, then walk out of here and feel like, oh, everybody got it but me. It's such a simple practice. I'd like everyone to be able to feel like they can use it, even though we're just getting a little introduction right now. I had a great question. I had it suggested to me once. It might be beneficial to start with another practice. for several minutes, the beginning of Zazen practice, and then go into Shikantaza, and at the end of Shikantaza, the last few minutes, go and circle it again, extending out whatever that may be. Yeah, so they're not in conflict. They're just to do one and then the other, the other, and then the one, yeah. John? In the introduction to Pema Chagrin's book on loving kindness, she talks about when you start to Maybe she's not even talking about loving.

[26:16]

Well, actually the chapter is loving. But it says that you're going to meet with your darkest side, actually, when you start to reflect on yourself. And you have to go, you know, kind of accept your darker side as well. Sometimes people come up against particular obstacles. That is one thing, that sometimes metapractice is the thing, and sometimes it's not. Sometimes we go to say the phrases, and I say we mean me at different times or different people I've worked with, because we're all lots of different people. We go to say the phrases, and what we take away from that practice session is, oh, there's something, there's some piece here for me to work with. And so instead of just forcing the phrases, we try to see what that piece is and how to work with that.

[27:23]

Was there something? Yeah. Question? They seem like a strange question in a workshop, but what if I don't know what is best for someone? What if someone needs to suffer to realize something, to move forward with their life, to free themselves from some hindrance? The great thing about metta is that the practice, even though we're doing metta for others, the practice is for us. And so what we're doing and wishing ease and joy for others is working with our own capacity to have an open heart. One thing I haven't mentioned yet, but it's pretty basic and I'd like to mention, is that usually the practice is done first for ourselves and then for someone with whom it's really easy to do loving-kindness for, things very naturally.

[28:32]

And then we move on and do loving-kindness for a neutral person, maybe that resident that we've seen a bunch of times but we don't really feel attraction or aversion towards yet. Or the classic example is the clerk in the grocery store. We don't have many of those around here. And then we would do loving kindness for someone we don't like and just see if we can do that and what happens and just learn. So we all have an edge somewhere. So not to worry if we don't get to doing meta for a difficult person. But that's territory where... People can often find an edge if they don't find it before then. Often people find an edge, meaning a difficulty. Something where it's not so easy. Often people find that just in doing loving kindness for the soul.

[29:34]

Yeah, so give me just another second here. could, if you wish, since this is all about kindly intention, have a phrase such as, may this person have what they need to grow. So, same intention, but maybe words that work better for you. Anne Rand wrote a book called The Retreat of Selfishness. And that was her... Her idea of what? Her idea was that unless you take care of yourself, you can't take care of anybody else. But how does that idea of selfishness, can that be translated into your loving kindness for yourself? Can I bring together Anne Rand of Buddhism?

[30:45]

I used to love Anne Rand because she's all about, to my read, just like all about personal. And that part of us that knows, I know I'm just taking a little part of it. I'm taking the part I like and talking about, but there's a part of us that knows that we can stay in integrity and do what we need to do and be bold and courageous and brilliant in life. And everybody else is going to be okay. Like they'll find their own resources. Yeah. I don't want to debate Ayn Rand too much. Is it selfish to do loving kindness for ourselves? Interesting. Have you heard the teaching?

[31:49]

Can't love others until we can love ourselves. Yeah, of course you have. Or it's hard to give when there's nothing to give away. So for some people, this loving kindness toward the self process is very quick. Each phrase once. And again, whenever I say some people, I also mean some me's, some mind states. So me on one day might be one way, and me on another. Period of meditation might be another way. Where was I going with that? Oh, so I think the process is very quick. Sharon Salzberg, who's the loving-kindest lady, talks about doing that for herself for a whole year. Before she felt like it was time to now do that for someone else. How can you say that? I mean, I can't. There is that truth. Yeah. I can't. So you might also find that this formulaic way of doing it isn't quite the thing for you.

[33:00]

So what we're doing is so simple. We're cultivating a skill that can be cultivated because we would like to be more... compassionate, loving, open people. And there's so many creative ways of doing that. Smiling, or someone suggested to me yesterday, or simply remembering, oh, I'm in a room full of human beings. Might be enough for people just opening the awareness. Or one of my teachers says, oh, imagine my beating heart and everyone else's. And that there's a connection. I can separate it. Okay. Or you can just do metaphor. The field in front of you, right? And not worry about whether they're self or others or you like them or you don't like them. Metaphor.

[34:03]

Metaphor. Wow. Oh, you guys are going to throw me off for jokes here. All right. Yeah. Do you know when I talked about that? Yeah. All right. Sometimes I visualize that just as a, like a swatch of color or something. like a nice kind of mist. Oh, does it go all the way over there? Okay, one more maybe, yeah. So I clearly like where you're coming from because that was what came up for me when I was first exposed to it. But what I found is that I've done a lot of work around my own sense of unworthiness. And just, you know, maybe it's the self-loathing part, that little corners. It's like exploring all those different places.

[35:04]

And that's what in my first working with the Meta practice. And then to me now, it's like starting out with... myself it's like putting the oxygen mask on myself first you know and then being able to do the next step so it's it's like a it's a for me it's been a process of self-exploration and strengthening in my own core and my own sense of my own self and um sending myself well it's it's very very powerful so but I understand that from you. This is selfish or whatever. Thank you for that metaphor, putting the oxygen mask on ourselves first for the small children next to us. Because that really makes clear this is different than selfishness.

[36:07]

It's empowering. It's healing. I want to be sure to go over compassion practice at least briefly. There are people who do metta practice and just have a sense something's missing. Like you brought forward a little earlier. So loving kindness practice, metta practice, and compassion practice are like yin and yang. Compliments to each other. One way of saying it, I just read Alan Wallace, so these are some of his words. He says very simply, meta addresses the positive and compassion the negative. Or another way he points to this is that meta addresses sometimes potential. May this person be happy. Doesn't really address whether they are or not right now.

[37:10]

And then compassion. addresses sometimes the actual. Of course, that's not always so. We're not always suffering miserably. At a level, maybe you could argue that's always so. So the phrase for compassion practice is, may I be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. It's just that one phrase. So we'll do just a little bit of this. I'll guide us through again. We'll do less than we did for the Metta practice just so we can get a sense of what it feels like. In this practice, we actually usually begin with someone

[38:11]

we know is suffering. Someone we know is suffering, or think we know is suffering. And if no one comes to mind, just give the closest approximation you can to someone to do the practice for. Someone we know is suffering. And then we direct the phrase, may they be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. So this is more a daring witness kind of practice. May they be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. out just to exercise the muscle, bringing to mind someone we like.

[39:38]

May they be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. Now we'll bring forth a neutral person, like I described earlier, someone we don't particularly like or dislike. May they be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. And finally, what's sometimes called the hostile person, someone we have difficulty with.

[40:48]

May they be free from suffering and the sources of suffering. Just noticing now how the body feels and how we're feeling and how we know that. What sensations in the body we're labeling. Open heart, closed heart, or open or closed in general. Tense, nervous, at ease. So pitfalls in that you would figure out. One is definitely the slight or overt tinge in the mind when we're working with the hostile person.

[42:04]

That kind of may they wake up so they keep being so darn hostile. why I don't do this it's because I have a hard time knowing who's a hostile person like when you said choose somebody you like I accidentally thought of somebody who I thought was a hostile person and before when you said choose somebody to send loving kindness to I have just been thinking bad thoughts about them And so, yeah, sometimes, like, people are the hostile person, but I just, I always got stuck, like, I had to plan it out, and I got stuck on who's the good person, who's the bad person.

[43:10]

All right, so that, I see that as similar to the comment of, gosh, I can't tell. Yeah. So, maybe you know this already, but. don't worry about who's the good person and who's the bad person. Yeah. I mean... One instruction in a meta-retreat where you might be doing this for lots of meditation periods is just do meta for whoever floats into the mind. And the idea behind the progression is, as I know, it is simply to go from what might be very easy... what might be a little more difficult, but it's okay. And there might be times, back up just a little, I asked a Tibetan, so Vajrayana teacher, I said, I'm teaching metapractice.

[44:20]

and I haven't really had... It's true and not true. I haven't had, like, meta-transmission. So somebody who's really done this practice with a lot of students say, okay, now you can teach it. And in a lot of the Tibetan practices, they feel like, oh, it's dangerous. She said, well, meta-practice is fine, because you really can't mess it up. You're not going to... yourself or others by attempting to wish yourself and others well. So this is just one way in or roadmap for doing that. And you're really fully authorized to do meta practice for anybody in any order and teach your friends about it. She really can't go so wrong with Metta.

[45:22]

Yeah. What do you do when you're cultivating Metta or compassion for, you know, the hostile person and you experience that, like, kind of like, I don't really mean this feeling. Yeah. Or just an obstacle or something like that. You know, frankly, Sometimes I find it easier not to particularly wish them well, but to... Sometimes I actually visualize myself bowing at their feet. So if we could hold that image, you might see what I mean. If you think about that image, you can get kind of weird ideas about submissive gestures and such. Actually, so holding the bow in the sense that it's just a mutual kind of honoring.

[46:31]

And I might have come up with that because I'm a visual person. So that's my answer. Hostile person is usually... They have some quality that you don't like, right? And you only don't like it because it's something you're denying from you or your world or some part of yourself maybe that you don't like that's put on that person. Sometimes I think about it that way. Like, this person who's exhibiting this behavior that I find hostile or annoying or whatever is just something I don't accept in myself. Yeah, okay, so you're offering that another way, you work with pasta, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, you bet. Sometimes we do a whole exercise where we take those qualities, we being, this is an exercise I've done before, list all those qualities I don't like, and then flip them around, like how else could that be seen?

[47:46]

Bossy can also be seen as assertive, confident. Other experiences, questions? Or should I keep talking? I mentioned right before some people came in the simple practice of smiling. all try smiling right now if we wish. Some people can be remarkably resistant to trying that. Just what happens. As you will. As you will. So I find a significant shift there. And often I'll get the question don't we want to be be okay with things as they are.

[48:49]

So what's this all trying to change the mind state around? And we change the mind state around because we have the power to change the mind state around. Positive mind states tend to, I can say it's stronger than tend to, positive mind states have a clearly more beneficial effect on the world. Go around smiling and that has an effect that can be witnessed. That can be felt when we see somebody else smiling or we see somebody else glaring at us. Interesting. So that's giving a gift all the time. Walking down the street smiling. Grinning like an idiot. So that's a kind of metta. There's another practice I will talk about. Just so you have it. Some of this is just tools in the toolbox. And that's the practice of empathetic joy, sympathetic joy.

[49:55]

So you may have heard of the four divine abidings or four kinds of love. So metta, loving, kindness, compassion, equanimity, and sympathetic joy. Equanimity is the kind of love you have to have for your grown-up child. Don't know what the heck they're doing, but I sure love them. Okay, so empathetic joy. This is the simplest practice in the world, except maybe for smiling. I don't know. Empathetic joy. You bring to mind someone who you understand to be naturally happy. You think of as naturally happy. You don't have anyone in your life you could think of, maybe the Dalai Lama. Maybe you've seen pictures. And you just bring that image to mind and enjoy it.

[50:56]

Make sense? It's empathy, joy, practice. Another version of that is you notice that someone is joyful as you're going about your day. You notice that someone in this room is smiling. There are a number of people. And you notice that and enjoy it. It's a bit of joy and a bit of joy. I have daily meta practice, and where I run into difficulty is practicing meta towards a person having problems with. I kind of expected to make the problems better next time I see them, and it doesn't work. Do you feel it changing your attitude by the person?

[52:08]

I mean, I guess I do well. I'm doing the meta practice, but then when they, you know, but there was one person that told me to stop smiling because it made them sick when they saw me smile. Maybe I was wrong. So it's like, I feel like, you know, I've done this meta practice and I've overcome all this hostility and I'm okay with, you know, whatever happens next time I see this person. But the next time I see this person, it's just, it's no good. And then I'm like, oh, I must be doing the metapractice wrong. Maybe I should just stop with the loving kindness because it's not helping. Well, here's the reminder for that situation. It's not about you. Even if they think it's about you. It couldn't be. And I forget that when I'm working with a difficult person, I remind myself that it's like, right.

[53:27]

So I can really cut through everything. And even in the moment, even an extraordinarily difficult person, I can just remember this isn't about me. I don't have to come up with some story about what they might be experiencing. I'm trying to fix it. Like, can I meet this with an open heart? However I do it. And then I can start getting excited about meeting that person again. I don't. And, you know, intimidate creatures far and wide. How are we doing? Anything else before we close? All right. Well, we just got a little... Introduction to that. Oh, one more thing that's coming up to say just as a possibility to play with.

[54:31]

So, again, doing metta practice any old way is fine. There's the classic progression of self and then person we have an affinity with, neutral person, hostile person. There's also other ways of progressing like everyone at Tassajara and everyone in California, etc. Or everyone who's experiencing a difficulty that's similar to mine. So I hope that people play with this a little. Get some direct experience. Ask me if you have questions. Or just figure it out. Yes? Yeah. Loving kindness. Compassion. sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Subtle. Thank you.

[55:33]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[55:53]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_90.78