Thanks for your loving kindness
I would like to first extend my gratitude to all of you again for your understanding in re-scheduling the classes and for your kind wishes before I went for my retreat. Especially for the latter: I am indebted to you for my being able to grow in my practice. Let me explain how you helped me so much.
The retreat I attended focuses on Metta Meditation. Metta meditation is simple to explain: metta is loving-kindness. It is epitomised by the love of a mother for her only child. Metta meditation is simply having the good wish in your heart that all beings be well and happy, to extend that kind of motherly love to all. As I found in the past 3 days, this is not that easy to practice! First: my love experience is only limited to love of a child to a mother. We were told to think of a loved one and generate that kind of love. So I thought of my family, my good friends, my teachers, etc. Still something missing. I have got love in the form of friendship, respect, mutual understanding but love of a mother for her only child!? That’s a tall order! Unconditional love! I know I am still falling short. I thought of my best friend’s child. . . ah.. . . something’s happening. I feel a joy at simply the recollection of her face. I do not need to know what she likes, what she does, I just love her. Ok. Something there, I thought. Still I have not even held her in my arms – I have not got to be with her for that long. So the feeling lasted as long as my very short memory of her lasted. Which was very short. Ok. Drawing a blank. The tough thing is that we need to generate that love AND extend it to ourselves first before extending it to others. That means I need to feel that kind of love towards myself as the first step in the practice. Wow. I thought I was going to sit there in a blank for 3 days!
Then I remembered on Thursday after yoga class, some of you wished me well and hoped that I would enjoy my retreat. As I recollected your wishes, I felt a small glow begin from within that made me feel good. Then I took the words and good intentions of your wishes and wished myself well and wished myself happiness – and then my metta meditation practice began! In the subsequent sittings, I did the same thing, I recalled your smiles and your good wishes for me and felt the glow of metta spark off. I wished myself to be well and happy, wished for my students, recalling your faces one at a time, to be well and happy, and then extended this practice to more and more people and then to the folks in the vicinity and the whole island and world. And slowly, the sense of being removed to a place a peace and joy happened – so that when I opened my eyes at the end of the practice, I am always so pleasantly surprised that I am still here – that all that joy is already present within me. So I owe much thanks to you for being my students – for allowing me to experience metta and to deliver this love to others.
Lots of insights from a meaningful retreat. I will update them one at a time on this site to share them with you. Will also upload some thoughts I scribbled down during the retreat. Of course will share more with you in class -- See you back in class this week! May you all be well and happy.
The retreat I attended focuses on Metta Meditation. Metta meditation is simple to explain: metta is loving-kindness. It is epitomised by the love of a mother for her only child. Metta meditation is simply having the good wish in your heart that all beings be well and happy, to extend that kind of motherly love to all. As I found in the past 3 days, this is not that easy to practice! First: my love experience is only limited to love of a child to a mother. We were told to think of a loved one and generate that kind of love. So I thought of my family, my good friends, my teachers, etc. Still something missing. I have got love in the form of friendship, respect, mutual understanding but love of a mother for her only child!? That’s a tall order! Unconditional love! I know I am still falling short. I thought of my best friend’s child. . . ah.. . . something’s happening. I feel a joy at simply the recollection of her face. I do not need to know what she likes, what she does, I just love her. Ok. Something there, I thought. Still I have not even held her in my arms – I have not got to be with her for that long. So the feeling lasted as long as my very short memory of her lasted. Which was very short. Ok. Drawing a blank. The tough thing is that we need to generate that love AND extend it to ourselves first before extending it to others. That means I need to feel that kind of love towards myself as the first step in the practice. Wow. I thought I was going to sit there in a blank for 3 days!
Then I remembered on Thursday after yoga class, some of you wished me well and hoped that I would enjoy my retreat. As I recollected your wishes, I felt a small glow begin from within that made me feel good. Then I took the words and good intentions of your wishes and wished myself well and wished myself happiness – and then my metta meditation practice began! In the subsequent sittings, I did the same thing, I recalled your smiles and your good wishes for me and felt the glow of metta spark off. I wished myself to be well and happy, wished for my students, recalling your faces one at a time, to be well and happy, and then extended this practice to more and more people and then to the folks in the vicinity and the whole island and world. And slowly, the sense of being removed to a place a peace and joy happened – so that when I opened my eyes at the end of the practice, I am always so pleasantly surprised that I am still here – that all that joy is already present within me. So I owe much thanks to you for being my students – for allowing me to experience metta and to deliver this love to others.
Lots of insights from a meaningful retreat. I will update them one at a time on this site to share them with you. Will also upload some thoughts I scribbled down during the retreat. Of course will share more with you in class -- See you back in class this week! May you all be well and happy.
