The Impermanence of Metta Bhavana
On Monday, I had gone for a Vipassana "appreciation" course taught by this Malaysian Chinese monk of the Burmese tradition.
He started off by teaching us shamatha meditation, i.e. meditation methods to calm and focus the mind. We started off by using loving kindness meditation, or metta bhavana.
In metta bhavana, you first cultivate the feelings of friendliness and love towards yourself, wishing to yourself:
May I be free from enmity;
May I be free from mental suffering;
May I be free from physical suffering;
May I be happy.
Having had a very rough night the day before, this meditation was a huge relief. I finished the two hours feeling very different from the previous night, being actually able to rest and to sleep.
The following two days, I've been so busy with myself that I have not really had time to sit and meditate for more than 20 minutes at one time. Consequently I have maybe meditated for around 20 minutes in the past few days.
The effects are much more obvious today: my mind has been swimming in thoughts about the past, and basically I have lapsed a little into living with ghosts again, with the memories coming back.
It's really important for me to get a balanced mind, so I think I will spend some time to sit down and meditate again today, to get back my balance and focus again.
He started off by teaching us shamatha meditation, i.e. meditation methods to calm and focus the mind. We started off by using loving kindness meditation, or metta bhavana.
In metta bhavana, you first cultivate the feelings of friendliness and love towards yourself, wishing to yourself:
May I be free from enmity;
May I be free from mental suffering;
May I be free from physical suffering;
May I be happy.
Having had a very rough night the day before, this meditation was a huge relief. I finished the two hours feeling very different from the previous night, being actually able to rest and to sleep.
The following two days, I've been so busy with myself that I have not really had time to sit and meditate for more than 20 minutes at one time. Consequently I have maybe meditated for around 20 minutes in the past few days.
The effects are much more obvious today: my mind has been swimming in thoughts about the past, and basically I have lapsed a little into living with ghosts again, with the memories coming back.
It's really important for me to get a balanced mind, so I think I will spend some time to sit down and meditate again today, to get back my balance and focus again.
posted by keninabu at
5:56 PM
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