Guided Meditation: Metta; Dharmette: Social & Communal Harmony (2 of 5) Training in Reflection

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Metta; Social & Communal Harmony (2 of 5) Training in Reflection. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The following talk was given by Kodo Conlin at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on July 18, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Metta

So, good morning, good day, welcome back. It seems to be Tuesday. Meeting again on the theme of social and communal harmony. Let's begin with setting this morning for the meditation. We'll start with just a little bit of grounding, collecting ourselves in the body and the breathing. Then we'll shift to a mettā^[1] meditation. In a way that is very similar to how Bhikkhu Anālayo^[2] teaches mettā meditation, we'll first generate the feeling, and then we'll radiate it in all directions. But first, let's get grounded. So let's find our aligned meditation posture, whether we're reclining or sitting.

Right here. For our time together, there's nothing else we need to do. Welcome back to these senses, this body. If you like, take a few deep breaths, savoring the sensations that come. Nothing to do but allowing the mind to collect. This thought, that thought, just like raindrops all around.

Yes, the attention is moving this way and that. To rely on the breathing, each breath in, each breath out, to call us back.

Continuing with this meditation, we will switch the emphasis to loving-kindness, mettā. If you have a loving-kindness practice, you can start by arousing mettā in the way you know best. And if we're just starting a loving-kindness practice, to very gently generate the feeling of goodwill with the support, maybe you have a phrase.

"May I be happy." Saying this to yourself internally and feeling the wish that accompanies the phrase: "May I be happy." "May I be healthy." "May I be safe." "And may I live with ease." Then, repeating at a pace that's appropriate for you, arousing this inner sense of goodwill.

As we continue with the phrases, it is important to register the effect. It could be a lightening or brightening, or maybe a welling up in the heart. This wish for well-being, this goodwill. The feeling of wishing well-being is like a light, maybe a soft candlelight in the heart, maybe a bright afternoon sun. The light filling us.

And now we can radiate that light, shine it out on all beings, one direction at a time. First to the front. We might even imagine there's a curtain in front of us, so the light can't quite yet shine on all beings. But in one swift motion, draw back the curtain, and naturally, without pushing, the light shines forward. May all beings in this direction be happy. May they all be happy.

Shining the light of mettā now to the right. Quickly drawing back the curtain. May all beings to my right, all beings, be happy. No need to push, just let the light shine.

Now to our back, just the same. Draw back the curtain and let the light of goodwill, of mettā, shine to all beings in this direction.

And to our left, just the same. Draw back the curtain and let the light shine. May all beings be happy.

Allowing the light to shine in all four directions. No need to push. Now also above, drawing back a curtain and letting the light shine upward. And so also below. All around. Radiating in all directions. May all beings be happy.

You can rest in this nourishment. And when the feeling fades, if it fades, arousing it again: May all beings be happy.

Now as we come to the end of the sitting: May any goodness that's accrued, any merit, any benefit, nourish us in our practice and benefit all beings everywhere, without exception. May all beings everywhere be happy, peaceful, and liberated.

Dharmette: Social & Communal Harmony (2 of 5) Training in Reflection

So good morning again. What a joy. For the topic for the week, we will continue with the Buddha's teachings on social and communal harmony. Ah, just pausing and feeling so refreshed from the mettā practice.

Yesterday we talked about Right View as the forerunner of harmony, mostly in terms of what Gil^[3] might call conventional Right View, which translates as mundane Right View. There are two aspects: one is that our actions are consequential, and the second is that we can discern what is beneficial, what is helpful, and what is unhelpful.

The trajectory for the week is mostly moving from personal practice to the social, though of course, on inspection, it's pretty difficult to isolate these two. Today we will extend this practice of Right View and we'll bring it into clear, practical terms for the purposes of cultivating communal harmony.

So the theme specifically for today is that for Right View to transform us in our communities, it takes our effort. It takes our effort. I'd like to introduce this by pointing out it is said that Nibbāna^[4], the final goal of this practice, is the destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion. Just to point out, the highest goal in this sense is defined in terms of its social implications: the manifesting of a life freed of greed, hatred, and delusion.

I'd like to look at the social aspect of the Buddha's teaching through his teachings as a father, actually. There are a handful of suttas where he teaches his son, Rāhula. Rāhula was known later in his life, of course, as the Buddha's foremost disciple among those desirous of the training; he really wanted to practice. So I ask the question: is desire enough? Because Bhikkhu Bodhi^[5] points out in his book, Social and Communal Harmony, that the process of personal transformation does not occur automatically. For Right View to exercise a positive influence, personal effort is required. He goes on to say it requires "a deliberate endeavor to harmonize our conduct with our understanding and intentions." A deliberate endeavor to harmonize our conduct with our understanding and intentions.

So I'd like to pull out some of these themes and look at them in terms of one of these teachings of the Buddha to Rāhula. One of my favorite sutta stories is called the Buddha's Advice to Rāhula at Mango Stone^[6]. Now, the setup is that Rāhula is very young; he is supposed to be maybe seven years old. He joined the Buddhist order very, very young. Of course, we know that he's going to be known as the disciple that is foremost desirous of training. So maybe it meant all the more that his father, the Buddha, admonished him in this sutta about the importance of never telling a deliberate lie. He has this beautiful image of throwing away the water in a water dipper, and says that if we're willing to tell a deliberate lie, there's no evil we wouldn't do, and we're throwing away our life in the training.

So that's the setup, before he says, "What do you think, Rāhula? What is the purpose of a mirror?" And being an astute young one, Rāhula says, "For the purpose of reflection." The Buddha says, "Ah, so too, Rāhula, an action with the body should be done after repeated reflection. An action of speech should be done after repeated reflection, and an action by the mind should be done after repeated reflection." And then the reflection that he explains to Rāhula, he repeats nine times. There are nine variations on this, so I'm going to read this whole paragraph because I think it's that important. The teaching goes like this:

"When you wish to do an action with the body, you should reflect upon it: 'Will this action I want to do lead to my own affliction, or to the affliction of others, or to the affliction of both? Is it an unwholesome bodily action with painful consequences, painful results?' When you reflect, if you know this action that I wish to do with the body would lead to my own affliction, or to the affliction of others, or to the affliction of both, and it is an unwholesome bodily action with painful consequences, painful results, then you definitely should not do it. But when you reflect, if you know this action that I wish to do with the body would not lead to my own affliction, or the affliction of others, or the affliction of both, it's a wholesome bodily action with pleasant consequences and pleasant results, then you may do that action with the body."

So he's teaching here—the Buddha is teaching a seven-year-old a basic reference point by which he can begin to train himself in the ethical life, by which he can take his understanding of the consequential nature of action to develop his discernment. Develop his discernment about what's harmful and what's helpful in his actual life. He's training Rāhula in Right View.

What's interesting about this to me, first of all, is that it's not a complicated philosophy about causality; it's something observable here and now. Observing harm, observing not-harm. Something that would be evident to a seven-year-old child and is a sound basis for our own development.

Of course, the Buddha goes on to encourage and admonish Rāhula to reflect in this way before any action, during any action, and after any action. More or less saying, "Rāhula, every action that you do, analyze it in these terms. And if you find at any point in the process, 'Oh, I'm going to harm someone,' stop, don't do this. And if you reflect, and to the best of your understanding this action will not generate harm, unbeneficial actions, or affliction for myself or for others or for both, then go ahead."

Every action. I hear this and my eyes get big; it's a lot of reflecting to do. We act a lot during the day, and at night, perhaps. Maybe it's that the monastic life is one of relative simplicity, so there's extra time for such circumspection, but still, we can aspire. I take Bhikkhu Bodhi's point here that it takes our effort to infuse our conduct with Right View, and maybe it's not every action, but what we can muster.

A second thing I want to bring up is that this observation of the world that we live in, the life that we live—how often do we have to act on partial information where we really don't know if we're going to cause harm or benefit? The layers of causality are so complex. The request of this particular practice, I think, normalizes the fact that we can't always know for sure, but we can reflect as best we can with the information that we have. And if, to the best of our discernment, it looks like this action that I'm about to do will cause benefit rather than harm, then I go ahead.

And then while I'm doing it, I still have time to reflect. And then after, yet again. I think the part of the invitation that is reflecting after the action recognizes that we don't always have the information at the beginning. And it also recognizes that sometimes we'll be wrong; sometimes we do harm.

So there's a significant variation in these instructions to Rāhula for after you've done an action. The instruction is: if you find, upon reflection after acting, that you have done harm, you have caused affliction for yourself, for someone else, or for both, then the ask is that you "lay it open." You confess it, you tell a good Dharma friend, you let them know. Which I think, in our more modern language, undermines shame. It undermines the closing off and the hiding of something that we've done. If that's available to us and healthy right now, we lay it open.

And the second part is we resolve to restrain ourselves in the future, to do something different, to try something else. We continue with this experiment of making Right View real through our conduct. And after an action, partial as our information might be, if we find that we've actually done something wholesome, something beneficial for ourselves and for each other, then I love this—it says you can abide happy and glad, training day and night in wholesome qualities. We can celebrate our goodness. Celebrate when it's gone well. And in this way, in a very basic way, training ourselves, learning over time: "Ah, this action leads to harm in these circumstances. This leads to goodness; let's go toward goodness."

So you can hear already how our personal training in Right View and conduct, and this form of repeated reflection, is done through our restraint. It's done through cultivation. It benefits us, and it benefits others.

Just a couple of quick examples. First is, I'm going to be going on a family vacation sometime soon. I'm going to go see my family and stay with my sister for a little while. It might occur to me while I'm there to cook my sister a meal. It may occur to me: "Oh, this arises in my mind. I reflect upon it. Is this an action that will cause benefit, cause harm, affliction, or help? Or can it be done in such a way that it leads into the wholesome?" It's pretty easy to see that internally, I'm doing something beneficial. I'm practicing generosity, relinquishing attachment and stinginess, and it also comes along with this inner wholesome feeling.

And then after I give the gift, I might reflect in the future that I see the happiness that it causes her. I can see her being nourished, say she had a hard week and thought, "Oh, I really didn't want to cook today." But this wonderful thing, her brother has cooked her a meal. And then the joy multiplies.

On the other hand, we can take an example of something that maybe we see is unhelpful. To borrow an example from Gil: say I slander a friend. Say it was just absent-minded, but immediately when I do it, I feel an inner "ouch." But also, that friend might find out and end the friendship. I think upon reflection, if I had had the presence of mind to look ahead, I would have known this will cause affliction, this will cause hurt, this will cause harm—don't do this. Because it only occurred to me after the fact, I reflect back and I see: this is an action that caused harm. I'm going to confess this to a good friend, and I'm going to resolve, for the sake of my practice, my inner life, my social life, my friendships, and the care that I have for these people, to not do this in the future. So these are two simple examples that maybe show something about how this practice of repeated reflection makes real our Right View.

As I said, the process of this mental training, this inner training, does bring about a sort of inner wisdom, but it simultaneously conduces to social harmony. To close, maybe we can just think about the social ripple effect. If you can imagine yourself, twenty-four hours of action, this one person reflecting in this way before, during, and after actions—how many interactions, large and small, ripple out in beneficial ways to create beneficial action, beneficial impact for the people in our lives and beyond? How much goodness is that? And then we can maybe extend that and say half of us do that today, or all of us do that today. How much goodness does that bring into the world?

Our effort training in Right View, making our Right View real. Tomorrow we'll turn to another aspect of the teachings on social and communal harmony dealing with anger. I hope to talk to you then. Please take care. May all beings benefit from our practice together.