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Happy Hour: The Joy of Cultivating Goodwill for All Beings

Introduction

So hello, hello, and welcome everyone to this rendition of happy hour. So we've been practicing metta^[1], cultivating kindness, loving-kindness, and systematically going through the categories one by one, lingering in each one, spending a little more time. We spent some time with the category of the being we're having challenges with. There are small challenges, big challenges, ourselves as our beloved challenging being. We spent time doing that on Monday, so I'd like to invite us to gently move to the next category, which by the way includes all the previous categories, surprise!

The next category being all beings everywhere. All human beings, all animals, all everything. It's all sentient beings actually in Buddhist practice. Maybe later we'll practice with all beings, plants and earth and all that too, but for now maybe we'll just deal with sentient beings for this session.

So this category, yes of course it includes our dear being, our benefactor, our good friend. It includes us. It includes the neutral being that we practice with who is the stand-in for all of humanity. It includes our challenging beings. It just includes everyone. So practicing with this category, which is all beings, allows our heart to really shine its goodwill, its kindness onto the entire world.

And again, there's so many different ways to do these practices. Doing them without metta phrases, with metta phrases, and the next few days we'll explore the different ways. So for today, what I wanted to invite us, as always we'll start with just settling with the breath with the body, and I'll include a lot more silence at the beginning just so that we settle and get in touch with our bodies and breath.

And then as we turn to all beings, I wanted to share, I wanted to bring in the Karaniya Metta Sutta^[2] that has some different categories in here, and I like these different categories here. I wanted to name them: "In gladness and in safety, 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."

I love the poetry of the Karaniya Metta Sutta. "Those seen and the unseen, born and yet to be born." Oh, how sweet. So I'll evoke some of these categories along with a whole bunch of other categories, and I'll invite you to be as creative as you wish in the way that you would divide beings into different categories.

I've shared before at some point that there is some prayer in my culture, I was born in Iran in the Persian culture and the Azeri Azerbaijan, which my grandma and mom were from. Anyway, my grandma used to say, "All those who were born on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a Monday, Tuesday..." so that's another way to divide. Because if you go through the whole week, all beings who are born on these different days, of course you'll catch everyone. So in the same way with the Karaniya Metta Sutta, medium, short, small, big, all sizes, you'll include everyone. So there's so many different ways to cut the pie, that's what I'm trying to communicate. And it's totally fun to be creative with this particular practice and have fun with all the beings who are two-legged, or who slither, who hop, who this, who's that. So anyway, let's just have some fun with expanding our heart, wishing goodwill for all beings. It's supposed to be fun.

Yes, and of course it's important. It's our heart's dedication, our hearts growing and growing in love and care, and it's not supposed to be grim duty. So whatever you love, you have fun with, you want to do more of. So let's have fun with this practice, this beautiful practice of cultivating goodwill. So with all that, let's start.

Reflections and Q&A

Yes, so we have some time if you wish to share reflections. You can raise your hand or type them in chat. Especially if you haven't shared recently, I especially invite you to share what came up for you, questions, comments, reflections for the benefit of the whole community.

Yeah, a reflection is coming from Dawn, "It is a practice." Yes, you want to say more about what you mean by that, Dawn? Where are you? I'm going to ask you to unmute. If you want to say more, you're welcome to, if not, it's okay.

Dawn: Good morning. Hi. I just mean it's something to keep doing and sometimes it's hard, but yeah. I guess I'm just sort of like going to the gym, mental, spiritual gymnastics for me.

Yeah, thank you for naming that. It's not always easy. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. And some categories, some practices might be easier than others, and some days the same thing might come more easily than another day, and it's all okay. That's why it is a practice, right? It is a practice. If you were all good at it, then we wouldn't be engaging in this way. So yes, it is a practice. Thank you for highlighting what you meant by that.

Other reflections? How did you find it?

Yeah, a reflection coming: "Rather than struggling with the flowing mind, having fun in the way the river of our mind drifts, playing and resting in the water creates a harmony of feeling into where it is." Yeah, I appreciate that reflection. And by the way, I've started this thing of if you send it to me directly, I won't say your name out loud, and if you say to send it to everyone, I'll say your name just in case you want to have privacy with sharing a reflection. But you know your name, so I appreciate this reflection that came. Either way works. Thank you, Nav, for the reflection.

Yeah, and part of this practice really is not struggling, exactly. Not struggling with the mind. It's a practice of metta. We are trying to cultivate kindness and goodwill towards ourselves, so having fun. Exactly, having fun. And this practice in particular, when we're imagining all these categories, slithering and flying and swimming and born and yet to be born, it just feels like a party. We're inviting everyone. We know we're inviting everyone to wish them well. So I invite you with this practice, really treat it with that sense of fun. And I appreciate Nav talking about not struggling, having fun with the mind drift to these categories and have a party. Like, "Oh, may you be well. Oh yeah, you're inviting more, you know, kangaroos that are hopping are now in your party. Oh yeah, may you be well too," right? You just keep wishing well, extending your heart.

Turn says, "All beings in the six realms^[3]." Absolutely. All the realms in Buddhism. There are the heavenly realms, all the happy realms that the gods are having a great time joyfully. All the hungry ghost realms, all the realms that are those who are suffering, and the animals. And we're kind of in the middle, the human realm. So yes, there's so many different ways to cut the pie, so I appreciate that.

Bill asks, "How do you know if you're doing it right?" You know, doing it right, that's a good doubt question that can come up. As long as you're wishing well, you know, categories come up and you're wishing them well, "May you be well," you're doing it right. That's it. It's not that complicated. Don't make it complicated. It's just wishing well, cultivating kindness. And after we keep doing this, at some point it becomes both easier and our heart starts to kind of glow and shine and feel like, "Oh yeah, you too, you be well. Oh yeah, you too, you be well too. I wish you well also." It just comes. The wheels get more oiled.

So yeah, as long as there's a sense of goodwill coming up, you're doing it right. And if the opposite comes up, and as long as you have goodwill for that, you're doing it right. It's all about cultivating kindness. So wherever you bring kindness in, you're gentle with yourself, for example, as Nav was saying earlier, not struggling. Not struggling and just having the sense of harmony. "Oh yeah, the mind is drifting. It's okay, dear mind, it's okay." With kindness, meeting the mind, then yeah, you're doing the practice right even if you're not thinking about slithering and flying. As long as you're bringing in kindness at any point, you're doing it right.

So yeah, dear ones, let's practice in community. So the invitation for small groups is, you know, you're all in some ways all beings to each other, right? You're both connected and disconnected. One degree of separation, many degrees of separation. So actually, here's the invitation. When you come to practice meetings today in small groups, my invitation is first, don't start talking just yet. Actually take 10, 15 seconds, 30 seconds in silence and just do metta for each other, for the other person or two in your small group. Then just do metta, just goodwill for this other human being. And then after that, then you can see, you know, there's a timer so you can see whenever, say 20 seconds, do 20 seconds of silent metta for each other. And then whoever is moved can start sharing and holding each other. Yeah, let's try that. And if you need to leave, understandable, but don't hop off out of fear, this is a really nice community. Okay, so I'm going to create the breakout rooms. Here we go. Let's see. Okay, having trouble again. Okay, here we go. All right, created, opening the rooms, here we go.

[Breakout rooms]

Hello everyone, welcome back. So we have about a few minutes left for reflections about your practice. And again, especially if you haven't been sharing recently, I'd like to invite you to share how the practice was for you, both individually and or in groups. And also, the invitation really is to offer each other safety. So just reflect on your own practice, not on anything anyone else said, speaking from your own experience. So yeah.

Jerry says, "You're right, the small groups are very kind and safe. Lovely." Yay! Thanks for sharing that, Jerry. It makes me happy. That's my sense about this community. You're really kind. We're here to cultivate kindness. Yay! So that's what we try to do in small groups too. It is practice, it's not "Hey, just go talk amongst yourselves." It's like, "Hey, you've just been practicing in your mind, now come on, let the rubber meet the road. Can you practice it with other people? Can you hold them with kindness, wish them well?" It's lovely. Thank you, Jerry, it delights me. This is a special community, very very dear to my heart.

What else? What else is coming up for you, please? I'd love to hear your reflections, especially if you're new, I would love to hear your wisdom. What came up for you? Questions, complaints, it's all good. And you can raise your hand by going to reactions, raise hand. Great, Emily, here you go.

Emily: Hi. One question that comes up for me, this practice tends to be pretty difficult for me, and I've heard some people say, you know, just keep doing it and then something shifts. And I feel like I've heard other people say try to do it in a way, like shift what you're practicing so you're actually feeling the feeling, maybe get a little more creative with it. Do you have any thoughts on kind of like, I don't want to feel like I'm banging my head against the wall, like torturing myself, but I also want to kind of have faith in the process that it could change.

Yeah, I appreciate that. So both are true, both are true. One is that, you know, it's okay to try, please be creative and start to do what is easy, what you connect with. Please do that. And yet, don't necessarily think that that's the only way, because even if it feels like it's not working, right? You're just saying, "May you be well," but there's not a sense of cosmic love. You just say, "Oh, may you be well." Trust that you're planting seeds of kindness. It's working in ways that you can't quite understand in your conscious minds. I've seen this with so many practitioners, I've seen it over and over. So please take this as a borrowed trust, borrowed faith from what I'm saying, that even if it feels like nothing is happening, it is happening. You change, you shift in ways that you'll surprise yourself.

So don't think that that's banging your head against the wall. You're just doing the practice, you're just planting seeds. And it's also wise to, you know, be creative. It's like, "Oh yeah, I like fish, so I'm just going to wish fish well," right? Or whatever. Or all the doggies and cats come to my mind, and that's okay too. It's skillful means cultivation. Great, thank you for that Emily.

Michael says, "Sweet and full of joy." Oh, that's sweet. Yay. Lovely, that's lovely whatever happens, yeah. And I invite the community to also have mudita^[4], vicarious joy for Michael, because that's another way we can practice by celebrating other people's practice as a way to actually practice for ourselves.

And Jaime says, "Each of us in my group agreed it was easy to open and really receive metta from each other. Oh, that's lovely. Brought us a lot of gratitude for this sangha^[5]. Thank you." Oh, that makes me so happy. Oh, to receive metta from each other. What a lovely note to end on.

Ah, so thank you all for your practice. Thank you for practicing both for your own benefit and for the benefit of all beings and supporting each other in this sangha. What a beautiful sangha to practice and support each other in this cultivation. It's harder to do it alone, it's much easier to do it in community.

So let's dedicate the merit of our practice. May all beings everywhere be safe, happy, healthy, and have ease. Us included. May all beings be free and know their own goodness.

Thank you all.