Summary of Live session, February 6, 2022: The theme of this week’s Live session was ‘The Four Faces of Love’, a phrase from meditation teacher Gil Fronsdal for the Buddhist teachings of 1) loving-kindness; 2) compassion; 3) sympathetic joy (joy in the happiness of another/others); and 4) equanimity. These four heart qualities are known in Buddhism as the Brahma Vihara, ‘divine abodes’, or beautiful qualities of heart.
I shared how these qualities can arise naturally when we let go of clinging and contracted states of mind—and that we can train our heart-mind to develop and deepen these qualities through practice. We normally begin the practice with ourselves—using phrases, if these are helpful, such as ‘May I be happy… May I be safe… peaceful… live with ease and kindness…’ We then extend the practice outward to someone who it is easy to wish well to… to ‘neutral’ person/s… difficult person/s, and out to include all beings.
As well as using phrases, which help focus the mind and engage our cognitive functions, we can also connect with the bodily feelings that may arise—for example, inviting pleasant feelings of kindness and care to spread through the body and mind—as well as using visualization, for example, imagining a difficult person whom you are sending loving-kindness to as a baby or young child, who wants to happy, safe, loved…
These heart qualities are also called ‘boundless’ and ‘immeasurable’ since rather than reaching a limit of who and how many can be included in our wishes and intentions of loving-kindness, the more our heart opens, the more capacity it has to open further—and, ultimately, to include all beings everywhere without distinction.
Poems and quotes I shared include:
• Sri Nisargadatta, 20th Century Indian teacher and sage: ‘Wisdom tells me I’m nothing. Love tells me I’m everything. Between the two my life flows.’
• Lines that Thich Nhat Hanh learned as a very young monk in Vietnam: ‘Waking up this morning, I smile // Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me // I vow to live each moment deeply // And to look at all beings with the eyes of compassion.’ (In Thich Nhat Hanh, ‘Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet.’)
• First half of the poem ‘Saint Francis and the Sow’ (‘sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness…’) by Galway Kinnell—who was American, not Irish, as I said. (His parents were immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. Thank you, Francine)
• Martha Postlethwaite’s poem ‘Clearing’ and the final lines from Mary Oliver’s ‘The Summer Day’ (‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do // With your one wild and precious life?’)
Wishing everyone a week of kindness, joy, and connection—and see you at 9am eastern next Sunday for our 75th weekly Live session. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 💜
