January 8 – Metta as renunciation

By | January 8, 2024

Dear Friends,

Right intention includes abandoning ill-will and cultivating goodwill (metta, also known as loving kindness).

There are many ways to practice metta. You may be familiar with using phrases directed toward a benefactor, self, friend, neutral person, difficult person, and all beings. (See this post from 2021 for a discussion on this practice.)

There’s also a practice to radiate kindness to beings in all directions. (This post from 2019 gives some context on this practice.)

Pascal Auclair leads a beautiful kindness practice, which uses phrases, but in the context of renunciation – letting go of our judgments about self and other to allow kindness to flow. Here’s a meditation from 2019 (30 minutes):
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/59924

In whatever way you choose to practice, notice this intention to let go of ill-will in order to cultivate goodwill.

With good wishes,
Andrea