2020-12-11 Brahmavihāras Loving-Kindness (5 of 5)

Insight Meditation Center13min

Gil Fronsdal

00:02

We come now to the last talk on mettā – the brahmavihāra of mettā. When the brahmavihāra of mettā becomes strong, it's said to be immeasurable, without boundaries, limitless, spreading out in all directions.

Gil Fronsdal

00:29

We find in the teachings of the Buddha that he held loving-kindness up as a very important way to live a life. It's a reference point or a teacher that helps us to be kind and to have goodwill in our speech and our interactions with other people. If we have to have difficult words with someone, the Buddha said, first, make sure you have goodwill in yourself. Prepare yourself for that, and have goodwill for the conversation.

Gil Fronsdal

01:06

And if there's no goodwill, then that becomes your teacher. That becomes the material for mindfulness and really seeing what's going on there. Chances are, if there's no goodwill, you're not really granting other people their freedom – giving them their freedom. I like to think the freedom Buddhism champions – the liberation Buddhism is about – is less your liberation – that you become liberated – and more that you give liberation to all things. All things now become free of you.

Gil Fronsdal

01:50

So, freedom, goodwill – cultivating goodwill – is very helpful. It's healing. It's developing. It's a wonderful way to develop a non-striving, non-conceited approach to doing mindfulness practice, meditation, developing concentration and mindfulness in a field of goodwill, and to having that as a background.

Gil Fronsdal

02:24

And as marvelous as goodwill is, as strong as it can become, it is also associated with the Buddhist path of liberation. There are a variety of steps along the way as mettā practice deepens. Liberation is part of it. A point emphasized by the Buddha is that when one's goodwill is strong, one is liberated from ill will. When goodwill is strong, there is no ill will, so there's no hostility.

Gil Fronsdal

03:04

The Buddha actually says it's not possible to have any ill will, aversion, or hostility, if there is mettā. Cultivating and developing mettā – getting the hang of it, understanding it and having it accessible – helps us be free of ill will. The idea is to make it accessible. Become familiar with it. Develop it as a habit. Practice it, develop it, and think about it, so that when you need it, it's available. You know how to find it in yourself, evoking it in a genuine way – a way that really has integrity, not something that's just a surface coating of ourselves.

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