..续本文上一页ive Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of ”friendliness” is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness matures, it naturally overflows into compassion because it empathises with people”s difficulties. On the other hand, one needs to be wary of it”s near enemy, pity, merely mimicking the quality of concern without real empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people”s good qualities or good fortune rather than feelings of jealousy towards them, which is the enemy of appreciative joy.

　　This series of meditations comes to maturity through on-looking equanimity. This equanimity has to be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations or else it tends to manifest as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. It remains caring and on-looking with an equal spread of feeling and acceptance toward all people, relationships and situations, without discrimination.

　　The structure of the practice is fairly simple. The meditator must start with generating loving-feelings and acceptance towards him or herself. This is important, as one needs to have loving feeling towards oneself before it can be projected towards others. Then one induces positive emotional feelings of loving-kindness towards four types of people, after which, one directionally pervades the loving-feeling to all points of the compass. The final stage is non-specific pervasion, which more or less arises spontaneously as the concentration intensifies, and there is little or no self-referencing.

　　As loving-kindness is a concentration-based meditation, one must not allow the mind to wander, and when it does, one gently brings it back. The time you need to spend doing this practice would depend on the time it takes to arouse the loving feelings. At least a half-hour session would be needed for the practice to develop sufficiently.

　　The practice must always start with developing loving acceptance of oneself. However, if any resistance is experienced, then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. Don”t worry, as this indicates there is work to be done. Essentially you are working with a quality of mind, and as the practice is auto-suggestive, any quality of mind, positive or negative, can be changed. In good time, and with persistent practice, feelings of self-doubt and negativity can be overcome. Then you can move on to develop loving-kindness to others.

　　Four types of people are chosen to develop loving-kindness towards:

　　First: a respected, beloved person, such as a teacher or mentor (kalyanamitta);

　　Second: a dearly beloved person, that is a close family member or dear friend;

　　Third: a neutral person, somebody you know but have no emotional involvement with;

　　Fourth: a difficult person, that is, a person you are currently having difficulty with.

　　Starting with yourself, then moving systematically from person to person in the above order, the objective is to break down the barriers between the four types of people and yourself. In this way, it can be said to break down the pisions within one”s own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience in our relationships.

　　The key to the practice is being able to go beyond the barriers we create in the mind, for the Buddha describes the loving person as having ”a mind with the barriers broken down”. When a person has seen, and seen through, the conceptually created barriers of gender, race, class, and ”mine” and ”not mine”, they are able to love others unconditionally.

　　The effect of practising systematic loving-kindness meditation is that one is transforming the particular love one naturally has for one”s close family members and dear friends - which is actually an attached kind of love - to a more general, universal lo…

《The Vipassana Retreat: 13· The Support of Loving-kindness Meditation》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…