Pariyatti.org (S.N. Goenka/dhamma.org); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Hug of altruistic love (metta, boundless friendliness) for all the world (pariyatti.org) |
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| This work of poems by Ian McCrorie, a Vipassana teacher appointed by S.N. Goenka |
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| Sometimes men just don't get it. Give it a rest! |
Valentine’s Day is coming up this week. This offers us a wonderful opportunity to contemplate what love means on the path of Dharma. This poem by Ian McCrorie words it beautifully: "Pure love" is not passionate but compassionate.
As human beings it is easy to confuse "passion" with love.
Taking steps on the Buddha's path will help up realize that what we call love is often driven by desire, full of projections and expectations. For this reason it is ripe for disappointment.
Practicing vipassana (insight meditation) will help us purify our minds/hearts so we can eradicate defilements like passion and selfish "love," which have craving as their base.
Pure hearts and minds are full of compassionate love with overflowing loving-kindness (metta) towards all beings. Happy Valentine’s Day!
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| Loving-Kindness (S. Salzberg) |
With much mettā,
The poem comes from Children of Silence and Slow Time, a collection of poems by Ian McCrorie, a Vipassana teacher appointed by S.N. Goenka. It offers reflections that are a result of his own experience in Buddhist caves, forest monasteries, and retreats. It is available in print, eBook, free PDF, and as a free audiobook read by the author.
Lovely titles on metta
The Pāli word mettā is a multi-significant term meaning "loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, boundless love," and so on.
If these qualities are sufficiently cultivated through the development of loving-kindness meditation, or mettā bhāvanā, the generating of boundless universal love, the result is the acquisition of an inner power that preserves, protects, and heals us and others.
McCrorie's book aims to explore the various facets of mettā theory and practice. The examination of the doctrinal and ethical side of Buddhist mettā proceeds through a study of the popular Karaniya Metta Sutra, the Buddha's "Discourse on Universal Love" and several other short texts.
Two essays
This booklet contains essays on the four Sublime States by Ven. Nyanaponika and the practice of loving-kindness (
metta) by Ven. Nanamoli.
The four sublime states, which are known as the Brahma Viharas (the "Divine Abidings" or "Supreme Abodes"), are the lofty mental states of
- love
- compassion
- joy in the joy of others
- equanimity.
Ven. Nyanaponika gives a brief description of each and includes contemplation exercises. He concludes with a section on their interrelationship.
Ven. Nanamoli's essay focuses on the basic divine abiding of loving-kindness, translating in his lucid style the key passages from the Pāli language canon what the Buddha taught in terms of the practice of mettā.
The Buddha's Ancient Path
(New eBook release) Pariyatti has just released this eBook bundle (Mobi, ePub, PDF). This is a comprehensive work based on the Four Noble Truths, the central framework at the heart of Buddhism, and the Noble Eightfold Path, which is the fourth noble truth, the practice.
Written by Western Buddhist monk
Ven. Ñāṇamoli (born
Osbert John S. Moore) a scholar and a well-known British teacher who lived in Sri Lanka. He had the Pāli canon and Commentaries at his fingertips, so this book is full of related stories and quotations of what the Buddha said -- many of them hard to find elsewhere in English. Print version comes with free eBook bundle.
Pure love is one-way traffic
In one of the 10-day Goenka course's evening talks,
Vipassana Meditation Teacher S.N. Goenka speaks about love and attachment to the "self" or "I."
He states that from "I"
we increase the sphere of wrong view as we start forming selfish images and images of others around us -- "
my son," "
my wife," "
my husband," and so on. While fabricating these images we develop a great deal of
attachment.
“On the apparent level,” Goenka says, “you keep fooling yourself; ‘I love my wife,’ ‘I love my son,’ ‘I love my father’… If you go deeper you will understand you don’t love anybody [because there is no self, no other, no beings to feel anyway toward, only impersonal/"
empty" becoming or
anatta]."
Goenka tells the story of a king and queen who lived at the time of the Buddha. The king becomes a good meditator. So does his family.
One day after a one-day sitting, the king asks his wife, “Whom do you love the most in the world?” The queen smiles and answers: “The same question came to my mind while meditating, and I realized ‘I love myself’ [yet] I don’t love anybody.”
The king agreed as he, too, had examined himself and found he only loved himself. They went to the Buddha and told him. The Buddha exclaimed, "Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu!" or "Excellent, excellent, excellent!"
The realization that you only love yourself, Goenka says, is the beginning where you can start rectifying yourself. “So long as one remains under the illusion that ‘I love so-and-so,’ one does not come out of the madness.”
About whom you say ‘mine’…you got a dream, you got certain aspirations, Goenka explains. “You want that person to fulfill that dream, and that’s why you are loving them. Your love is expecting something in return. And when you are expecting anything in return, you are not loving this person.
“You are loving yourself. You are loving your own aspirations, you are loving your dreams. It's self-centered love. It doesn’t help. Pure love is one-way traffic; you just give.”
Although traditionally Valentine’s day celebrates romantic love for a significant other or a secret crush, it has a broader aspect to it as well -- the appreciation of friends and family.
The Buddha emphasized the importance of friends on the path by saying that friendship is not half the path, as Ananda stated, but rather the
whole of the path (or the monastic meditative life). Lesson 3.1.8 from ETP is called
Upaḍḍhasuttaṃ, “The Importance of
Kalyāṇa-mitta (friendship on the path).”
- Pariyatti.org is a charitable, nonprofit, educational support system for the Dharma community. Pariyatti exists because of funds donated by supporters. FACT: Did you know that Pariyatti provides Vipassana Meditation Centers worldwide with English books for The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutra) courses in the tradition of S.N. Goenka free of charge?
Daily Words of the Buddha
Apādakehi me mettaṃ,
mettaṃ dvipādakehi me;
catuppadehi me mettaṃ,
mettaṃ bahuppadehi me.
I have love for the footless;
for the bipeds, too, I have love;
I have love for those with four feet;
for the many-footed I have love.
- (AN 4.67) Gemstones of the Good Dhamma compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika
Dharma Verses
Jyoṅ ikalaute pūta para,
umaḍe māṅ kā pyāra.
Tyoṅ pyārā lagatā rahe,
hameṅ sakala saṅsāra.
As a mother overflows with love
for her only son,
may we keep feeling love
for all the universe.” –S.N. Goenka
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