Nilanjana Rai Reward Points : 27800 Member Since : Saturday, March 14, 2009
Metta Bhavana is an ancient Buddhist meditation that can help in developing of unconditional loving kindness and friendliness. To put it in a gist, this is what I know about Metta Bhavana. Can somebody provide more information on this type of Buddhist meditation?
Posted On : 4/9/2009 2:30:54 AM
Siddharth Ray Reward Points : 61200 Member Since : Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The Metta Bhavana is a meditation for developing loving kindness. Bhavana means cultivation or development, and Metta is a word that means love, friendliness, or lovingkindness. So this is a meditation practice where we actively cultivate some very positive emotional states towards others, as well as to ourselves. This meditation practice helps us to bring more harmony into our relationships with others, so that we experience less conflicts, resolve existing difficulties, and deepen our connections with people we already get on with. This meditation helps us to overcome anger, resentment, and hurt. It helps us to empathize more, and to be more considerate, kind, and forgiving. We can also learn to appreciate others more, concentrating more on their positive qualities and less on their faults. We learn to be more patient. In this meditation practice, we also cultivate Metta towards ourselves, so that we experience less internal conflict, and learn to appreciate ourselves more.
Metta Bhavana in Buddhism is a type of meditation that balances the insight meditations that purifies the mind and makes insights into a more profound reality. Buddhism says that the cultivation of benevolence must begin with oneself. Thus the Metta bhavana begins with the thought: May I be free from enmity may I be free from ill-will may I be rid of suffering may I be happy. There is a profound psychological truth in this, for the one who does not hate or despise himself, consciously or unconsciously can feel true loving-kindness for others. Metta, indeed, can be developed only if one gives to it boundlessly without discriminating and without expectation of some thing in return. It should be free of selfishness or attachment. The object of Metta meditation should be infinite beings. This meditation uses the techniques to develop good qualities that already exist in human minds and it further introduce new wholesome qualities. Metta bhavana is the most universally beneficial form of discursive meditation, and can be practiced in any conditions. Thoughts of universal, undiscriminating benevolence, like radio waves reaching out in all directions, sublimate the creative energy of the mind. With steady perseverance in metta bhavana a point can be reached at which it becomes impossible even to harbour thoughts of ill-will. True peace can be achieved through minds that are at peace. The practice of benevolence as a whole and practicing Metta Bhavana is also a way of paying homage to the Lord Buddha. The practice of universal loving-kindness transcends doctrinal differences and draws all being together by the power of a timeless and all-embracing truth. The classic formulation of metta as an attitude of mind, to be developed by meditation is found in the Karaniya Metta Sutta Sutta Nipata, Khuddaka-patha . It is recommended that this sutta be recited before beginning the meditation, and again at its close. This practice is invariably followed in the Buddhist countries. The verses of the sutta embody the highest concept to which the thought of loving-kindness can reach, and it serves both as a means of self-protection against unwholesome mental states and as a subject of contemplation kammatthana .
Posted On : 4/9/2009 5:54:51 AM
Maya Chowdhury Reward Points : 13600 Member Since : Monday, January 05, 2009
There are as many different ways of practicing Metta Bhavana as there are levels of intensity in the practice. The development of concentration through the systematic practice of Metta Bhavana acts as beneficial in counteracting the Five Mental Hindrances of the meditator including sensuality, mental inertia, restlessness and skeptical doubt. The achievement of full concentration of the meditator brings five absorption factors that are applied thought, sustained thought, followed by rapture, ease-of-mind and one-pointedness or unification of mind. The benefit of achieving deep concentration with this positive mind set is that it will tend to imprint the new positive conditioning while overriding the old negative patterns. In this way, old negative habits are changed, thereby, freeing one to form new, positive ways of relating. The proper practice of Metta Bhavana can lead to the achievement of ultimate serenity, peace and saturation of mind to reach the actuality of existence. Indeed, Metta Bhavana is a tool that allows the generosity and kindness to be applied to all beings and as to the entire universe. Even the practice of Metta Bhavana facilitates the practitioners to attain spirituality with much ease.
Posted On : 4/9/2009 5:56:36 AM
Maniam PS [Guru] Reward Points : 137200 Member Since : Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Mett or maitr Sanskrit has been translated as loving- kindness, friendliness, benevolence, amity, friendship, good will, kindness, love, sympathy, and active interest in others. It is one of the ten p ramit s of the Therav da school of Buddhism, and the first of the four Brahmavih ras. The mett bh van cultivation of mett is a popular form of meditation in Buddhism. The object of mett meditation is loving kindness love without attachment . Traditionally, the practice begins with the meditator cultivating loving kindness towards themselves, then their loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all sentient beings. Commonly, it can be used as a greeting or closing to a letter or note. Buddhists believe that those who cultivate mett will be at ease because they see no need to harbour ill will or hostility. Buddhist teachers may even recommend meditation on mett as an antidote to insomnia and nightmares. It is generally felt that those around a mett -full person will feel more comfortable and happy too. Radiating mett is thought to contribute to a world of love, peace and happiness. Mett meditation is considered a good way to calm down a distraught mind by people who consider it to be an antidote to anger. According to them, someone who has cultivated mett will not be easily angered and can quickly subdue anger that arises, being more caring, more loving, and more likely to love unconditionally. Recent neurological studies have shown that compassion meditation can increase one s capabilities for empathy by changing activity in brain areas such as the temporal parietal juncture and the insula and increase the subject s ability to understand the mental and emotional states of others as well as deal more effectively with external stressors. Mett signifies friendship and non-violence as well as a strong wish for the happiness of others , but also less obvious or direct qualities such as showing patience, receptivity, and appreciation. Though it refers to many seemingly disparate ideas, Mett is in fact a very specific form of love a caring for another independent of all self-interest and thus is likened to one s love for one s child or parent. Understandably, this energy is often difficult to describe in words however, in the practice of Mett meditation, one recites specific words and phrases in order to evoke this boundless warm-hearted feeling. The strength of this feeling is not limited to or by family, religion, or social class. Indeed, Mett is a tool that permits one s generosity and kindness to be applied to all beings and, as a consequence, one finds true happiness in another person s happiness, no matter who the individual is
Metta Bhavana
