BV-Metta from Spirit Rock
Shortly after the global health crisis changed our daily lives in so many ways, I received some altar cards as a gift from Spirit Rock Meditation Center. A cover letter reads, “Together, we carry one another as we walk this path of insight, grounded in the way things are…. We do this for all beings everywhere, without exception.” Printed on each card is part of a lovingkindness meditation guided by Sylvia Boorstein, known as “the queen of metta.
Over the past months, I have realized how challenging it is to feel loving towards everyone, without exception. When I hear news reports about violent confrontations involving Black Lives Matter protesters, police, and federal troops, my heart is blocked with judgments about who’s in the right. As politicians debate about climate change, treatment of immigrants, gun control, and access to medical insurance, my opinions are so strong that I hardly listen to anyone with opposing arguments. If I dismiss the viewpoints of people who disagree with me, how can I expect them to listen to my views? As I was reflecting on this question, I listened to a man who has an extraordinary capacity to love.
On September 22, Anthony Ray Hinton spoke via Zoom at a Jung Center fundraising event about his book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. Although he was wrongly convicted of murder in Alabama and sentenced to death in a racist court of law, Hinton is not bitter about having spent 28 years in prison. There, he started a book club with six other men on death row. One of them was a white man named Henry Hays, a Ku Klux Klan member who had beaten and killed Michael Donald, a young African American. After confronting Hays about his crime, Hinton told him, “Everyone deserves compassion.” In the book club, the two men became friends, and, with Hinton’s encouragement, Hays read his first book by a black author, James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on a Mountain. When Hays was executed, his last words were, “All my life, my mother, my father, my community taught me to hate. The very people that they taught me to hate were the ones who taught me to love.”
This story renews my motivation to practice lovingkindness. For our brahma vihara practice tonight, I have made a few adaptations to the Spirit Rock altar cards. Metta phrases nourish us, reminding us of our interdependence, and motivating us to act kindly and wisely.
The first card is titled “Metta to Self.”
Close your eyes and, tuning in to the sensations of the heart, take two long deep breaths, in and out.
Sense yourself sitting, at ease, in your mind, in your body, in this moment, in this world.
Think of a blessing for yourself….
Now recite to yourself the following phrases:
May I feel safe. May I feel content.
May I feel strong. May I live with ease.
As you repeat these words, feel the echo of their meaning in your mind and body.
With a deep exhalation, let the phrases fade away.
Reconnect with your heart.
Now we’ll expand the practice and send Metta to someone who is near and dear.
Bring to mind a person whom you love tremendously—a parent, partner, friend, child, sibling, or teacher. Imagining this dear one and feeling your loving connection brings buoyancy into the mind. Visualize or have a felt sense of this beloved person’s presence. Imagine them receiving the blessings that you are sending:
May you feel safe. May you feel content.
May you feel strong. May you live with ease.
With a deep exhalation, let the phrases fade away.
Reconnect with your heart.
Now we’ll send Metta for those we do not know.
Let your body stay relaxed and easy. Smile and soften your jaw.
Sending blessings relieves the mind.
Think about familiar strangers in your life—postal employees, supermarket clerks, health care workers, curbside delivery people—those whom you see but rarely think of out of context.
Imagine a group of familiar strangers and send Metta wishes for them:
May you feel safe. May you feel content.
May you feel strong. May you live with ease.
With a deep exhalation, let the phrases fade away.
Reconnect with your heart.
Now we’ll expand the heart to include a person who is difficult for you to love. Consider that this person wants wellbeing just like you. We practice Metta so that eventually we will cut nobody out of our hearts. If you feel ready, send lovingkindness phrases to the person who causes you difficulty.
May you feel safe. May you feel content.
May you feel strong. May you live with ease.
Now we’ll send Metta to all beings.
Letting your mind expand far and wide, imagine all the familiar strangers in the world, all who share life with us—all those newly born, all toddlers, children, teens, adults, and elders, including those of all religions and those with none, those of every race, class, and ethnicity, the wealthy and the poor, the healthy and the ill, those in safety and in danger, and those in peace and in war.
We wish for all those people, all beings near and far:
May you feel safe. May you feel content.
May you feel strong. May you live with ease.
Feel the pleasure of resting with your heart as wide as the world,
The two-way blessing of universal kindness.