Mettabhavana = loving kindness (meditation)
1 of 4 Abodes (Sublime State of Mind)
- loving kindness
- compassion
- sympathetic joy
- equanimity
Hatred Character root of all psychological issues
- provocativeness behavior
- imbalance
- covetousness
- comparing himself to others
- intolerance of others' successes
- hiding his wealth from others
Analogy of Serpents
Strategies to apply Metta to overcome Hatred:
1) Myself
- dearest person to oneself is oneself
- adopt happiness internally first
2) Myself to Others
- Metta for all
- uninhibited respect/compassion/loving kindness/etc for all
3) Most Respected to Most Hostile
- start with someone close as focus - slowly expand outwards
- helps to desensitize against anger
4) Self-Admonishment
- focus on controlling oneself
- stay calm, cultivate metta
5) Focus on Good not Bad of Hostile Person
- look for and focus upon good qualities of angry person
6) Kamma Reflection
- consider entire kammic cycle
- understand anger not necessarily person's own fault/control
7) Bodhisatta Strategy
- remember to keep mind pure, even when facing all manners of hatred and aggression
- hatred is not overcome by hatred, but by metta
8) Father, Mother, Daughter, Son Strategy
- all beings at one point in endless time was mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son.
- treat all with respect of same
9) Reinforcement
- recall and focus on meaning and benefits of metta
- dana can help to overcome hatred
10) Emptiness
- remember paticcasummapadda - all is temporary and changing
Finally, psycho-therapeutic value of loving kindness meditation:
- Loving Kindness overcomes hatred, allows cultivation of compassion
- Compassion overcomes cruelty, results in ability to help all of society
- Results in sympathetic joy which overcomes envy and jealousy
- Final stage is cultivation of equanimity to counteract attachment and partiality