The Buddha’s Words on Kindness (Metta Sutta)
This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in saftey,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
Everyone learns differently, learning about yoga and Buddhist meditation is no different. Some people try out yoga because their friends are trying it - word-of-mouth is enough to get them started.
Others choose to start yoga and meditation driven mainly by a health scare, or a chronic health condition such as back pain, arthritis - even temporary conditions such as weight loss and pregnancy can
benefit from yoga and meditation.
Then, there are those (and I happen to fall into this camp) who like to understand WHY something works. Not necessarily a scientist, but we would like to know enough about the premise of yoga and meditation
to be able to satisfy our own minds and more important, any skeptics out there, why yoga and meditation has an impact on your mind and body.As psychology developed, its practitioners believed they needed to focus on the observable in order for psychology to be considered a true science. So they ignored ideas like the soul. Some took this exclusion a step farther and ignored the mind, focusing their studies merely on behavior. These relatively few individuals had a powerful influence on the way many of the rest of us think about ourselves.
One of the most common problems I’ve experienced is tight shoulders or shoulder “kinks” and stiff necks. Early on, it became obvious that yoga and meditation helped tremendously with this chronic 20+
year-old problem.
Yoga helps back, shoulder and neck pain in two main ways: reducing stress leading to chemical build-up in your muscles and joints and stretches that keep muscles loose and limber. A combinaton of
meditation, breathing and yoga asanas that focus on upper body stretching are extremely effective in reducing this pain.
So maybe we should take another look at this whole soul issue. What if, as innumerable sages and spiritual masters have believed through the millennia, we are a soul that has acquired a body? If we do not live inside our bodies, but our bodies live inside us, how does that change the way we do our lives? How does that change what we feel about ourselves? What if our spirit does survive earthly death? How would that change the way we live before death?
If the soul survives death, and perhaps returns to a new body, what is it that survives? What characteristics of your so-called self would persist if your body was no more? What might cause consciousness to persist in the absence of a body? Where might the idea of attachment fit in? Could the soul be persistent, but not permanent and unchanging?