For the past two weeks I have been trying out a new form of mediation called Metta meditation. Metta meditation is a type of meditation that focuses on compassion and love. Metta is a Pali word meaning kindness, good will, and benevolence. This kind of meditation comes from traditions in the Buddhist religion, specifically the Tibetan and Theravada lineages. To do this, one sits down cross legged on the floor with closed eyes, making sure that the spine remains upright. To begin one generates feelings of kindness and benevolence towards yourself, and then to others. A popular progression is co concentrate on feeling kindness and compassion towards yourself, a good friend, a neutral person on your life, a difficult person in your life, all four of these people equally, and then gradually send these thoughts to the universe. This progression makes sending these feelings to people you may dislike easier by starting with yourself and loved ones. In conclusion to this meditation, you should have developed a feeling of wishing happiness to everyone in the world. Another easy trick to send these good thoughts is to visualize the suffering of others and send them love, or imagining someone and wish them happiness.
To be honest, I was a little skeptical of this type of meditation, it sounds a little cheesy to me. Nonetheless, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and the holiday season I decided to give it a shot and try Metta meditation once a day for about 15 minutes. To my surprise, I felt really good after completing the meditation each day. Wishing happiness to others, especially people I do not know personally, is something I do not do very often. But when I started to routinely remind myself of my love for myself, family, friends, and people in the world, I found I had a more accepting attitude about my self image, and that I was getting angry less. Especially during the holidays when my huge extended family stays with my immediate family and I in our small house, tensions start to arise because we are all sharing a small space. However, I found myself getting angry or annoyed less during these tensions, because I was able to have more compassion due to my Metta meditation.
I believe Metta meditation can contribute to the greater scope of nonviolent practices because the core of this meditation is unconditional forgiveness, love, and kindness towards all kinds of people. The thought process of self love and love of others helps to humanize the enemy, and increase your compassion towards others. Additionally, the core concepts of nonviolence is to recognize the human in all people and to use kindness during disagreements or violence. Metta meditation could help many people develop compassion for themselves, friends, and family in their everyday lives which can improve relationships, as well as develop compassion for people in the media who may anger them which leads to a happier lifestyle.
Hey Kayla, I too began to meditate and experience a change in attitude and thoughts because of it. I like how you used your thanksgiving break as a chance to give it a try due to the stressful nature of the holiday. As the project comes to an end though, do you think there are other ways you will will continue to use nonviolent techniques in your everyday life?
Kayla, this post was extremely heartwarming to read for me, since I too, am someone who often dismisses practices that sound cheesy or too emotionally focused for me. It is inspiring to hear that once you gave it a try, you found that it ultimately was worthwhile, and allowed you to become in touch with an area of yourself that you weren’t yet aware existed. I strongly believe in the tension release that yoga brings, and agree with you when you say that the practice of yoga in itself (and this specific style especially) connects to a wider representation of nonviolence/nonviolent beliefs due to the way it calms you down and forces a person to spend a few minutes focusing solely on the release of aggressive thoughts, and the inviting of warm, loving ones. I think if everyone allowed themselves a few minutes per day to give yoga a try, we would live in a world with far more calm, level headed people, and therefore a less blatantly violent one. Thank you for sharing, and I’ll absolutely be trying this style of yoga next time I practice!