Topics Include: 1) Lovingkindness or metta, the second aspect of right thought. 2) Seeing lovingkindness as the antidote to hatred or ill will. The negative aspects of responding to hatred with hatred. 3) Lovingkindness: an intense feeling of selfless love for other beings. 4) Contrasting the feeling of metta with desire or attachment. 5) The development of a metta practice. Beginning with developing metta for ourselves and then shifting that basis of identity with others: the power of empathy. 6) The fundamental reality of the Buddha’s teaching: there is no difference between self and other. The challenge to be grounded in absolute reality. How we respond to the world depends on how we respond to ourselves. 7) The universal wish to be happy and free from suffering. How what we hold for ourselves, we share with all other beings. 8) The progression of metta from the self to others in one’s life. 9) How to make the transition from conventional the absolute reality in seeing the hatred and ill-will in today’s society. Learning how to communicate to reach a sense of commonality in our human experience. 10) Understanding the Dharma from a more evolutionarily advanced perspective and its connection to the teaching of metta.
October 17, 2020
49 min.