Ajahn Sona Virtual Metta Retreat (1) - What is This Thing Called Loving-Kindness?
Dec 23, 2020
A guided opening into loving-kindness practice and why it matters universally. Contrasts inner contemplative skill with external achievements. Uses vivid metaphors like mansions and canoes to show how metta can move and be sustained. Covers practical methods, commitment to retreat, and how warmth and serenity can reshape daily life and even outlast a lifetime.
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Loving Kindness As An Innate Expansive Consciousness
- Loving-kindness is an expansive, unconditional friendliness that the Buddha described as a universal emotion extending to all beings and even beyond the planet.
- Ajahn Sona emphasizes it's innate in consciousness and revealed when unskillful emotional structures are relaxed, not something you must create from scratch.
Learning True Friendliness From Pets
- Ajahn Sona notes many learn true friendliness from pets, especially dogs, which model unconditional goodwill.
- He relates modern inclusion of higher animals in compassion and claims pets can reveal this emotion to us.
Buddhism Trains The Heart Not Just The Mind
- Buddhism focuses on the heart and emotions, using teachings as servants to improve inner quality of life rather than abstract philosophy.
- Ajahn Sona says emotional transformation changes how you engage the world, producing sympathy for others still in the 'shadows'.