Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
Lesson 14 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday LifeDavid Nichtern
Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
Lesson 14 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday LifeDavid Nichtern
Lesson Info
14. Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
Lessons
Introduction - Why Meditate?
15:12 2How to Meditate - Taking Your Seat
12:59 3Placing Attention on Breath
04:32 4Labeling Thoughts as Thinking
06:35 5How to Meditate - Leaving Some Space
12:19 6Bringing Meditation Into Everyday Life
11:30 7Digging Into the Practice Part 2
05:51 8Obstacles Along the Way
08:29Obstacles Along the Way Part 2
08:59 10Body, Emotions, Mind, Stress, Anxiety
26:56 11Body, Emotions, Mind, Stress, Anxiety Part 2
06:28 12The True Meaning of Success
18:28 13The True Meaning of Success Part 2
03:40 14Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
04:39 15Compassion for Ourselves & Others Part 2
29:34 16Compassion and Mindfulness
26:27 17Compassion and Mindfulness Part 2
08:11 18Happiness and Joy
18:15 19Happiness and Joy Part 2
04:06 20How to Go Forward
10:59 21How to Go Forward Part 2
07:31Lesson Info
Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
So in today's uh session we're going to look at another contemplative practice that many people have have have heard of or practice. And it's a compassion practice. It's dedicated towards the notion of cultivating compassion. But in specific it's called loving kindness meditation. And that is also called meta. A lot of people have heard of metta meditation which is M. E. T. T. A. Which is the original polly translation of the word. And then if you heard the Sanskrit word, it's my tree, M. A. I. T. R. I. Those all mean now we're we're not in Kansas anymore. And here in U. S. Of A. We're talking about cultivating a feeling of unconditional friendliness. You know sort of a generosity of spirit and uh open heartedness towards oneself and towards others really seeing if we can develop those qualities. So uh what's the benefit of that? Well, if you have two choices to cultivate a kind of field of aggression and grouchiness and irritability which some of us are black belts at, aren't we? And ...
or to cultivate a kind of um uh huh receptive, open hearted, uh, curious kind and loving attitude towards one cell phone, others you can as they used to say, you make the call, that's a choice that we have um in the buddhist teachings, we said that we're inherently free already to make that choice. Um so it's just a question of then, what kind of habits do we have and working with habits? So in this particular type of meditation, we recognize that we are already making certain choices and habits, We already have done that. And so now we can re up and in a way it's um it's like placing your bet again and saying, where do you want to actually place the bet? Do you want to place it on developing a grouchy, irritable, uh negative state of mind? Or do you as long as you're gonna have a state of mind, you know? Um uh or or would you like to sort of um cultivate the qualities of that we that we described with the loving kindness meditation. So this is called the relative practice and we recognize that it has consequences. You know, if you lean one way or lean the other, it's gonna have consequences that are rippling through. Uh I think everybody mentioned sort of their relationship with others in this uh in this aspiration. So how would you like that to go? And how would you like your relationship with yourself to evolve? And the practice of loving kindness is beginning to recognize that we are always cultivating something and we can choose what that is. So in this case it's a very simple, very simple direct sort of cultivation of certain qualities that we associate that are generally associated with the kind of open hearted approach to living. So if you're wishing something for a friend loved one, let's take the simplest example of this. And you have your own child or your mother or your best friend or even your dog. Uh what do you wish for them? In that case when your heart is actually open and you feel, you know, kind of tuned in and you're, you know, you can think whatever it is that you think of now think of somebody that you really love and that has been very good to you and kind to you in your life. So if it's your mother that's okay, your dad, you know an aunt or an uncle or grandma. Sometimes people with their grandma or the pet and just allow that feeling to kind of be present. Like uh it's very soft, very open hearted kind of feeling. And who would you think of? You know, just in your mind now start getting ready to think of somebody who makes you, who makes you turn into butter. You know, does anybody have trouble finding somebody like that in their life? Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. You have somebody in mind, this is like, you know, this is not like a you know, I'm not going to guess who it is, I'm not a quiz show, but if you have that person in mind, just gonna notice how that makes you feel to think about that person in that way and what would you wish for them?
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