Healing though Metta Meditation:
I dove into Metta practice at a time in my life when I was being unkind to myself; pushing myself beyond all reasonable limits to complete a book and meet a publisher's deadline. In keeping with a lifelong (and unhealthy) tendency to "push through," I did not listen to my body's signals and pressed on. The result was a "crash and burn" health experience and a mysterious heart ailment. It was a frightening experience.
After diagnostics, no clear reason could be found for my heart difficulties. The prescription from my holistic physician was 30-days of rest. The prescription that Inner Wisdom whispered to me as I lay there day after day looking out the window and feeling incredibly anxious was "Be kind to yourself." This time I listened.
I spent the entire month focused on self-healing with Metta as my primary practice. I went deeper into the practice using books and dharma talks by Sylvia Boorstein. Something about her—her deep compassion, kind voice and grandmotherly presence—was soothing beyond imagining. My anxiety began to ease. My heart stopped hurting and symptoms of exhaustion gradually diminished. A feeling of equanimity and wholeness returned. I had never experienced such a deep sense of peace and well-being as the month I spent attuned to Metta.
I continued loving-kindness meditation to facilitate more self-healing, especially from long-term chronic anxiety. Today, I attribute this deceptively simple 4-line practice created by the Buddha himself to be a "master physician" as my anxiety is gone. After a 20 years of struggle. to be free of this debilitating dis-order feels miraculous.
As I continued to practice, Metta took me deeper into the heart of compassion: for myself, for my loved ones, and for those who have mentored and guided me. An expanded practice helped me get in touch with a new understanding and experience of compassion for others, especially people I didn't know or might never know. Our common humanity and acknowledgement of our suffering was finally accessed, as I had often hidden from the pain and suffering of others. Until Metta became part of my thinking/feeling process, the world and the suffering it presented often felt like "too much," so I avoided it.
In time, a grand opening of the heart occurred (because of ongoing practice); the healing of old wounds, release of unkind habits, and forgiveness of myself and others for a wide variety of things. Metta helped me open myself in ways that I never thought possible, especially to the plight of others. The path of self-compassion inevitably leads to other-compassion. This has been my experience with this powerful practice. I am still learning and growing and allowing Metta to take me deeper into my true self.
Today, I can say with all sincerity that no other spiritual practice has impacted and transformed my life more than Metta meditation. I bow to the Buddha for creating it and for all the dedicated beings who have brought it to the forefront in modern times for us to benefit from. Namasté!
May all beings be at ease ...
Jan Lundy, 2014
I dove into Metta practice at a time in my life when I was being unkind to myself; pushing myself beyond all reasonable limits to complete a book and meet a publisher's deadline. In keeping with a lifelong (and unhealthy) tendency to "push through," I did not listen to my body's signals and pressed on. The result was a "crash and burn" health experience and a mysterious heart ailment. It was a frightening experience.
After diagnostics, no clear reason could be found for my heart difficulties. The prescription from my holistic physician was 30-days of rest. The prescription that Inner Wisdom whispered to me as I lay there day after day looking out the window and feeling incredibly anxious was "Be kind to yourself." This time I listened.
I spent the entire month focused on self-healing with Metta as my primary practice. I went deeper into the practice using books and dharma talks by Sylvia Boorstein. Something about her—her deep compassion, kind voice and grandmotherly presence—was soothing beyond imagining. My anxiety began to ease. My heart stopped hurting and symptoms of exhaustion gradually diminished. A feeling of equanimity and wholeness returned. I had never experienced such a deep sense of peace and well-being as the month I spent attuned to Metta.
I continued loving-kindness meditation to facilitate more self-healing, especially from long-term chronic anxiety. Today, I attribute this deceptively simple 4-line practice created by the Buddha himself to be a "master physician" as my anxiety is gone. After a 20 years of struggle. to be free of this debilitating dis-order feels miraculous.
As I continued to practice, Metta took me deeper into the heart of compassion: for myself, for my loved ones, and for those who have mentored and guided me. An expanded practice helped me get in touch with a new understanding and experience of compassion for others, especially people I didn't know or might never know. Our common humanity and acknowledgement of our suffering was finally accessed, as I had often hidden from the pain and suffering of others. Until Metta became part of my thinking/feeling process, the world and the suffering it presented often felt like "too much," so I avoided it.
In time, a grand opening of the heart occurred (because of ongoing practice); the healing of old wounds, release of unkind habits, and forgiveness of myself and others for a wide variety of things. Metta helped me open myself in ways that I never thought possible, especially to the plight of others. The path of self-compassion inevitably leads to other-compassion. This has been my experience with this powerful practice. I am still learning and growing and allowing Metta to take me deeper into my true self.
Today, I can say with all sincerity that no other spiritual practice has impacted and transformed my life more than Metta meditation. I bow to the Buddha for creating it and for all the dedicated beings who have brought it to the forefront in modern times for us to benefit from. Namasté!
May all beings be at ease ...
Jan Lundy, 2014