..续本文上一页ons to his unpleasantness. That”s what we mean by metta.
Sometimes there are things one doesn”t like about oneself, but metta means not being caught up in the thoughts we have, the attitudes, the problems, the thoughts and feelings of the mind. So it becomes an immediate practice of being very mindful. To be mindful means to have metta towards the fear in your mind, or the anger, or the jealousy. Metta means not creating problems around existing conditions, allowing them to fade away, to cease. For example, when fear comes up in your mind, you can have metta for the fear -- meaning that you don”t build up aversion to it, you can just accept its presence and allow it to cease. You can also minimise the fear by recognising that it is the same kind of fear that everyone has, that animals have. It”s not my fear, it”s not a person”s, it”s an impersonal fear. We begin to have compassion for other beings when we understand the suffering involved in reacting to fear in our own lives -- the pain, the physical pain of being kicked, when somebody kicks you. That kind of pain is exactly the same kind of pain that a dog feels when he”s being kicked, so you can have metta for the pain, meaning a kindness and a patience of not dwelling in aversion. We can work with metta internally, with all our emotional problems: you think, ”I want to get rid of it, it”s terrible.” That”s a lack of metta for yourself, isn”t it
Recognise the desire-to-get-rid-of! Don”t dwell in aversion on existing emotional conditions. You don”t have to pretend to feel approval towards your faults. You don”t think, ”I like my faults.” Some people are foolish enough to say, ”My faults make me interesting. I”m a fascinating personality because of my weaknesses.” Metta is not conditioning yourself to believe that you like something that you don”t like at all, it is just not dwelling in aversion. It”s easy to feel metta towards something you like -- pretty little children, good looking people, pleasant mannered people, little puppies, beautiful flowers -- we can feel metta for ourselves when we”re feeling good: ”I am feeling happy with myself now.” When things are going well it”s easy to feel kind towards that which is good and pretty and beautiful. At this point we can get lost. Metta isn”t just good wishes, lovely sentiments, high-minded thoughts, it”s always very practical.
If you”re being very idealistic, and you hate someone, then you feel, ”I shouldn”t hate anyone. Buddhists should have metta for all living beings. I should love everybody. If I”m a good Buddhist then I should like everybody.” All that comes from impractical idealism. Have metta for the aversion you feel, for the pettiness of the mind, the jealousy, envy -- meaning peacefully co-existing, not creating problems, not making it difficult nor creating problems out of the difficulties that arise in life, within our minds and bodies.
In London, I used to get very upset when travelling on the underground. I used to hate it, those horrible underground stations with ghastly advertising posters and great crowds of people on those dingy, grotty trains which roar along the tunnels. I used to feel a total lack of metta (patient-kindness). I used to dwell in aversion on it, then I decided to make my practice a patient-kindness meditation while travelling on the London Underground. Then I began to really enjoy it, rather than dwelling in resentment. I began to feel kindly towards the people there. The aversion and the complaining all disappeared -- totally.
When you feel aversion towards somebody, you can notice the tendency to start adding to it, ”He did this and he did that, and he”s this way and he shouldn”t be that way.” Then when you really like somebody, ”He can do this and he can do that. He”s good and kind.…
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