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Guided Meditation: The Ethics of Metta; Dharmette: Goodwill - Liz Powell

The following talk was given by Liz Powell at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on December 26, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: The Ethics of Metta

Well, a warm good day to everyone. Very happy to be with you this week. Yesterday, we discussed how generosity is one of the foundational virtues that help us cultivate wholesome states of mind. One invitation from yesterday was to notice forms of generosity throughout the day. If anyone would like to type examples of generosity they noticed yesterday into the chat, please feel welcome to do that, and I'll read a few of them aloud in a few minutes. They are examples that not only show generosity but also frequently contain an attitude of kindness and goodwill towards ourselves, towards other people, other beings—in fact, towards everything we experience.

I'm dedicating this week's talks to beautiful qualities of mind, wholesome qualities of mind, starting with generosity and including the four divine abodes or brahmavihāras¹. These are wholesome places for the mind to hang out, to dwell. The intentions that motivate the divine abodes of goodwill, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity are relational. They seek the well-being and happiness of others, and in doing so, they actually support one's own well-being and happiness. So today, we'll focus on this wonderful intention of goodwill towards others: mettā² in the ancient Pali³ language, often translated as loving-kindness, friendliness, or benevolence.

I'll read a few of the examples that you typed into the chat, and as I do that, you might want to begin the meditation with these beautiful examples of goodwill, friendliness, and loving-kindness. One person shares, "Someone wrote me a long email letter." Another: "Kindness from my son towards my old dog." "My grandsons taking care of Grandpa, whose balance is poor." "A friend's flexibility." "Christmas cards full of humor and warm silliness." Yeah, beautiful. "Making books with grandchildren during a busy dinner with a long-arm stapler, fun for me and my kids." Cindy's daughter made them cinnamon rolls, and it took most of her day. That's wonderful.

So as we settle into the meditation, holding these beautiful forms of kindness in our hearts. Sitting, lying down, standing—whichever posture you're in, settling in with a way of meeting conditions just as you experience them in this moment.

Noticing sensations in the body, perhaps, and deliberately, consciously meeting that, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neither. Meeting any sensations that are arising with as much benevolence as is available to you right now. These bodies need tender loving care very often, and they return tender loving care.

Meeting the state of mind, the heart, moods, and emotions with kindness. Our feelings come and go—pleasant, unpleasant, very difficult, very joyful—greeting it all with friendliness. If the mind is preoccupied with something, meeting that with goodwill. Not viewing thinking as the enemy, as Gil⁴ was so eloquently pointing to last week. Meeting it with some thoughts, just letting them drift by. If others are very preoccupying, perhaps inviting them to drift into the background for now and promising to pick them up later. If they're important, they'll wait.

What would it be like... what might it be like to receive everything that arises in meditation as you would greet a friend? Whether this friend is bringing happy news or is sharing their most profound difficulty with us, receiving the friend with a heart of caring.

In a very kind, simple way, receiving whatever is arising in awareness in this moment. Whatever is most prominent, feeling it, sensing into it, allowing it to be known.

Knowing what's arising at its own pace. There's no need to go out looking for things. There's no need to dig, and there's no need to push away. Simply allowing experience to arrive. Some will arrive and stay for a while; some experience will be fleeting. Receiving whatever arises with benevolence, with kindness. Even what's unpleasant—what you thought might not be part of meditation, but actually is part of meditation. Taking your time, resting with what comes into awareness.

And if it's useful to you, perhaps silently inclining the mind towards wishes for your well-being. They might sound like what I'll offer here, or they might be your own unique wishes:

May I be free from hostility, free from affliction, from physical suffering. May I be free from distress, from mental suffering. May I live happily with ease. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be happy. May I live with ease.

Allowing your heart and mind to send these kind wishes to all of you, to all of your experience. Nothing left out. Wishing for well-being, freedom from harm—inner and outer harm—happiness, contentment, and ease.

If there are difficult conditions that are arising—restlessness, pain, any kind of difficulty—receiving it with the same kind of goodwill. Knowing that prior conditions sometimes result in these ways, and causes and conditions come and go. Sending it a kind wish: May I be calm and patient with difficult conditions.

And if, as you receive what's arising in awareness, what's most prominent is thoughts of other people in your lives, allowing that as well, and perhaps sending them wishes for well-being, for safety, for happiness, and for ease, or particular wishes that apply to their situation.

Dharmette: Goodwill

Yesterday I shared, and all of you shared, about generosity and how it's considered an important strength to develop in order to begin to ready the mind to fully take in the teachings of the Buddha and move towards freedom from suffering. Ajahn Sucitto⁵ lists generosity as one of three fundamental trainings of the mind that we need in order to benefit from the Dharma. The other two that help us get started on the path to freedom include the cultivation of virtues—ethics—and the cultivation of renunciation, which I like to think of as letting go of unwholesome impulses in favor of what's wholesome.

One of the wholesome kinds of states we can let go into is the first of these brahmavihāras, these divine abodes, and that is mettā in the ancient Pali language. Mettā can be translated as goodwill, loving-kindness, friendliness, or benevolence. It's a quality that tends to develop naturally over time with dedicated, regular practice of meditation and mindfulness. Sometimes people are surprised to find it welling up spontaneously; they find themselves feeling almost close to tears from feelings of kindness or feelings of compassion that well up.

It's also a quality that we can deliberately cultivate by inclining the mind in meditation and daily life towards these silent wishes of goodwill that we were offering in the meditation. Some of us offering goodwill, kindness, and friendliness towards oneself or others—both, really—as well as goodwill towards all experience. Greeting what happens, what comes up in meditation, with friendliness. There's this quality of kindness that rests on this fundamental willingness and benevolence towards other people and towards experience.

The first phrases I offered to you were from a text called the Patisambhidamagga⁶ (sorry, that's a mouthful!), and it goes: "May they be free from hostility, free from affliction, free from distress. May they live happily."

Acharya Buddharakkhita⁷ was a monk who took ordination at the age of 26 after resigning from the military after World War II. He became a prolific writer who established the Maha Bodhi Society of Bangalore. He established schools, hospitals, hostels, and in addition, he wrote 150 books. This is one of the generous people in the last century and the beginning of this century who offered a lot of support to people around him and to us. In an essay about mettā, he pointed out that the aim of mettā practice is to grow boundless with practice, and to overcome all social, religious, racial, political, and economic barriers. Mettā is indeed a universal, unselfish, and all-embracing love.

That's pretty amazing to hear. We begin to understand that this practice of friendliness and kindness is aimed at nothing short of complete freedom from suffering for all of humanity without exception. It is the medicine that can heal the world, and this is why we cultivate it. It's the ultimate in ethical conduct.

I thought I'd read aloud to you Gil's translation of the Mettā Sutta⁸, and it offers a flavor of how thoroughly we can develop this loving-kindness, this goodwill. It also points to the benefits of mettā: how you can reach the state of peace and no longer be caught in round after round of stress and suffering. I'll make a few notes as I read it.

The first section is actually talking about ethical conduct: "To reach the state of peace, one skilled in the good should be capable and upright, straightforward and easy to speak to, gentle and not proud, contented and easily supported, living lightly and with few duties, wise and with senses calmed, not arrogant and without greed for supporters, and should not do the least thing that the wise would criticize." Notice that the last line is actually talking about renunciation, letting go of unwholesome behavior: "and should not do the least thing that the wise would criticize."

The next section describes the meditation or reflection we can do that leads to a collected mind, samādhi⁹—a collected mind that's wholesome. If you practice mettā very sincerely, it does reach levels of concentration and samādhi. So one should reflect: "May all be happy and secure. May all beings be happy at heart. All living beings, whether weak or strong, tall, large, medium, or short, tiny or big, seen or unseen, near or distant, born or to be born—may they all be happy. Let no one deceive another or despise anyone anywhere. Let no one through anger or aversion wish for others to suffer."

And the final section has to do with making a total commitment to mettā, to goodwill for everyone, for society as a whole: "As a parent would risk their own life to protect their child, their only child, so towards all beings should one cultivate a boundless heart. With loving-kindness for the whole world should one cultivate a boundless heart: above, below, and all around, without obstruction, without hate, and without ill will. Standing or walking, sitting or lying down, whenever one is awake, may one stay with this recollection. This is called sublime abiding here and now. One who is virtuous, endowed with vision, not taken by views, and having overcome all greed for sensual pleasure, will not be reborn again."

I love this sutta. I memorized it about 16 years ago, and for many years I would say it every first thing in the morning, mentally recite it, and reflect on what it was saying. Living in the ethical way described in this sutta is actually wholesome behavior, and it has a number of beneficial results, increasing happiness and peace of mind. The mind no longer gets stuck in remorse, worry, and restlessness. Over time, this cultivation of mettā is wise speech, it's wise action, and it's wise livelihood. In other words, as a whole, it is wise conduct that enables us to progress in this practice on the path to freedom.

By behaving in an ethical, virtuous way, and also letting go of unwholesome behaviors, the result is inner happiness and goodwill. As expressed in another translation of two lines of the Mettā Sutta: "May all be well and secure, may all beings be happy." That's really wishing for the best for everyone.

Not only does this ethical behavior or virtue result in your own well-being and the opportunity to make progress in the Dharma, but it also means giving a gift to other people and other beings. That gift is fearlessness and security: two beautiful words in Pali, abhayadāna¹⁰ and khemadāna¹¹. Giving those to others—can you imagine giving every being fearlessness and security? The planet would operate a lot differently if that were given.

The Mettā Sutta is also, in Pali, called a paritta¹². A paritta is a spiritual formula that safeguards one's well-being, protects us against all dangers, and is said to rescue one from mishap and misfortune. For me, it doesn't need to be a spiritual formula; it creates an inner state that makes it unlikely that you'll do things that have unfortunate results. It makes sense to me that when you're coming from a place of goodwill towards other people, you're not harming them, you're not doing unethical things. Other people are much less likely to want to harm you; they're much more likely to greet you with friendliness and with goodwill in return.

So I hope that you enjoy this cultivation of kindness and friendliness for yourself, for other people, and for other beings. Maybe if you are interested in treating this week as a retreat, you can cultivate these wishes of goodwill, these wishes of benevolence, all day today. For anyone you encounter, send them some silent wish for their health and happiness, their safety, their ease, and they won't even know that that's what you're doing. That's one of the joys of this meditation: you're silently sending these things to other people and other beings all day long. By doing this, you're really growing your own practice in your own heart.

Actually, there's a good question in the chat: "Where do I find the written copy of the Mettā Sutta?" Gil published a book called The Issue at Hand, which is available on the IMC website. You can link to resources and find the books that he's published, and I think that one is available free of charge, offered freely. The Mettā Sutta is printed, if I recall correctly, close to the back cover or the last few pages. It's a really lovely practice to memorize it and practice with it every day.

I wish everybody a lot of well-being and happiness today. For any of you who would like to continue this as a retreat, you can also join the evening happy hour tonight. I'm offering happy hour, and others are offering it. Tomorrow night I'll offer it again on Thursday, and I think Bruny is offering it on Friday. Nikki usually offers Mondays and Wednesdays, so you can join in continuing this practice from 6:00 to 7:00 Pacific time if you're up at that hour.

Thank you very much, and have a lovely day. Wishing you all well.