Kindness towards everyone Buddha Talk


Buddha Talk


Several people want to find Buddha Talk and Kindness, but have you heard about Buddha Talk and kindness in terms of article.


So today we're going to talk about the practice of loving-kindness is it's something we have to extend towards everybody coming up.


I think that's what a lot of us may want to know. There was an excellent article in the most recent or one of the latest tricycle issues. It's by Andy Olenski. It's called no exceptions. It's in the winter mm sorry spring 2018 issue tricycle magazine, and Andy's one of my teachers.


Let's Start Buddha Talk With Kindness


I like him a lot, and he's often got critical and exciting things to say, and this is certainly no exception so to speak because his article is about there being no exceptions to the rule of meta practice or loving-kindness practice and if we go to probably the most famous route of loving-kindness training the meta Ceuta or the Sutra on loving-kindness we find that the Buddha says whatever beings there may be of whatever kind they may be may they be happy without exception without anybody being left out.


It says we should not despise anyone it means that we should not wish misery upon anyone simply because of our anger or for any reason it says though basically that we should not have enemies this is the mindset that we should come to life with that nobody is our enemy that we wish misery on no one. This idea of being without exception that we should want to happiness and well on everyone or all beings without exception is one of the most profound and all teachings in all of Buddhism.


There and two questions may arise for us when we consider this issue the first question is should we wish this of them is this I mean really should we want to this of them or or or do they I mean in other words do they deserve this do they deserve happiness does everyone deserve happiness and the second one which is related to the first is can we wish this of them is it possible even to do this and for the Buddha and I think this is an example of true wisdom for the Buddha.


Right things of Buddha Talk and Kindness


It was true that we should wish this of everyone that everyone was was worthy of happiness everyone should be happy, but people who do ill people who do harm the people who hurt other people they do this out of some deep unhappiness in themselves either that or they do it out of some illness of being not mentally unstable mentally ill in some way which they can, not themselves affected.


But it's important to note that we don't engage in loving-kindness practice out of some magical notion that we can change people only through our actions that somehow by doing what we're doing, we are absolving other people of their crimes or making them better.


People immediately that certainly is not the case we are affecting the world. Still, insofar as we're transforming the world we're changing people close to us let's say by being less prone to anger and hatred ourselves that will rub off to the benefit of people around us in our most closed circles. We can hope that that kind of a positive attitude will perpetuate itself will kind of ripple outwards.


But anyone person, of course, has a limited kind of effect, so we're not doing this to absolve others of their crimes or to reach out magically and make people better we're doing it to purify our minds that is the aim of Metta practice or eleven kindness practice within the Buddhist tradition is to make ourselves better people is to make ourselves less prone to anger and hatred because hatred is a poison.


One of the things that we come to realize and see directly in meditation in formal meditation is how hatred destroys us from the inside we can feel the pain the anger or the sadness that passion provides us we can when we are in an angry state it's not a pleasant state it's not a state that it's a state that when we're not in meditation when we're caught in may feel exhilarating, it differ provides energy for sure.


It may even feel good, but that is a kind of incorrect view. It's a seeing thing incorrectly. If we can calm yourself down and get out of the type of madness that engulfs us in in hatred we're able to see directly that this kind of hate isn't to our benefit so in other words leaving aside others leaving aside the evil actions of other people leaving aside the terrible things that people do to each other.


It's merely to our benefit to try to get out of not a kind of a cycle of anger and hatred that tends to wall us off from the world. There's a very important, and I think a useful distinction that we find in.


Greek Philosophy of Kindness and Buddha Talk


In ancient Greek philosophy and among people like Socrates a distinction between what's right for somebody and what's only good for somebody all of us aim for what's right for us even people who do great evil even people who do great ill they do it out of a sense that they're doing good.


Moreover, they're doing the best benefit that they can, and they will justify themselves as long as you wish them to because they will always have some justification for what they're doing. They'll think that by doing this every evil thing, they're getting some more significant benefit.


So there is a distinction between what we might call apparent good and good and one of my a professor is actually of ancient Greek philosophy used to describe it this way the award he used to say unparent and I have children I wish my children good I want to them happy life I want to them true happiness and what when I say that when he says that what he's saying is there are different ways that could be understood.


It could be that I wish them the good that I see in other words I want to them to be to do things that make me happy in other words that seemed good to me or it could be that I wish them to do what's right for themselves even if I don't realize that also if it's something that I can't quite see myself and what I wish for them is their real good, uh it's.


It's a parental kind of ideal, and this is interestingly reflected in the meta Sutra in the suit of loving-kindness where the Buddha says that this is the kind of attitude that a mother would have to her only child and that is to wish real true good for them. The mother who is not egotistical who was not too caught up in her sense of self is a mother who's going to say I want real what's suitable for this person not what is right for them and in that sense, we can extend this to all people because look you can take your favorite punching bag in the media.


Nowadays who's doing terrible things, I think we all have various people in mind this person no doubt has an idea of what would make him happy. We don't want this person to be comfortable doing that thing because that thing is terrible, but we can certainly extend a heart and a mind of loving-kindness to this person or anybody saying I wish they're perfect for them.


I wish them to be happy. I want to overcome this temporary insanity. This being gripped by false ideas and incorrect ideals to flow away from them so that they become pleased and genuinely better people. In that way, we can extend this to all beings without being blocked by our understanding that some people don't wish the best.


The tendency of Buddha Talk and Kindness


I think seen in this way we can get away from our kind of knee-jerk a tendency towards punitive action towards a variety of punitive response towards people who do ill in the world towards an ideal of genuine care of real compassion for other people of real awareness the people who do sick don't do sick because they think they're doing ill they do ill.


Because they think it's for the best in some sense even if the best is they make a whole lot more money and therefore are happier now, of course, that's a deprived notion of happiness and a problematic idea, but we have to admit a lot of people hold it and they're only doing themselves ill by keeping it because they're only going to ensure a miserable life of striving without ever.


Having the real happiness that it takes from seeing things without necessarily grasping at them, that's the first question now the second question is, can we do this? The first question to repeat was you know should we do this? Are these people deserving of our wish that they'd be happy? The answer is yes; they are worthy of our request would they be pleased that they'd be genuinely well that second, the second question is can we get it into our minds to wish that as Andy Olinsky put it.


I believe that the jerks and monsters in the world that they all be happy can we do that I think this is a question it's an open question for any one of us I hope to have given you some pointers of kind of mental operations that you can go through to get your way through the some of the ordinary blocks on the way to that. It's a path that will take a while.


As I mentioned in a prior video and one of the very famous books of later Buddhist teaching called the Vasudha maha buddha Gosa talks about a path towards this kind of end where you take where you start with people who are easy to wish love for and loving-kindness for kindness for and then you work towards somebody's less secure somebody you don't know at all.


So it's a blank to you and then finally to somebody severe he was an enemy quote-unquote and but when you get to the enemy, you should only think of them in neutral terms you know you shouldn't try to think of them as your best friend because that will probably fail. Still, you start by thinking of them in neutral terms, and in that way, you can get by stages to a place perhaps after however many months or years or whatever.


It is a practice you may get yourself to a place where there's nobody in that enemy category anymore where you're seeing nobody as your enemy where you wish misery on no one, and that is precisely what the Buddha hopes. It might be that a whole lot of the people in the world are neutral to you, but then you can work on that and then by stages bring them into this circle of people who you consider your friends or people who you find who you have a friendly attitude towards.


Summary of Buddha Talk and Kindness


That is the practice that we're all on the path along. I admit freely that this is a complicated practice, it's tough for me for all the same reasons I imagine it's difficult for many of you. Still, I think having this in mind both are essential to aim in a particular direction and that there are ways that we can do that little by little, I think we can get ourselves there, so if this is the kind of practice that interests you.

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