..续本文上一页 forgive ourselves for making mistakes, for giving in to weaknesses. It doesn”t mean that you rationalise things away, but rather that you do not go on creating problems or dwelling in aversion on the faults you have and the mistakes you have made.
So by applying the practice of metta inwardly, we can become a lot more peaceful within ourselves, with the conditions of our minds and bodies. We become more mindful and aware, more awake to the way things are. Wisdom begins to arise, and we can see how we create unnecessary problems all the time by just following the momentum of habit.
Metta means a little more than just kindness. It is a penetrating kindness, an awareness – kind awareness. Metta means we can co-exist peacefully in a kindly way with the sentient beings within us and with beings outside. It does not mean liking, does it
Some people go to that extreme. They say, ”I love my weaknesses because that”s really me. I wouldn”t be me if I didn”t have my wonderful weaknesses.” That”s silly. Metta is being patient, being able to co-exist with, rather than trying to annihilate the pests of our minds.
Our society is very much one that annihilates pests both inwardly and outwardly, wanting to create an environment where there are no pests. I hear monks say, ”I can”t meditate because there are too many mosquitoes; if only we could get rid of them.” Even though you can never really like mosquitoes, you can have metta for them, respecting their right to exist and not getting caught up in resentment at their presence. Similarly, if I have metta for the depressed mood at the moment and allow it to be there, recognising it and not demanding that it not be there, it will go. Feelings like these arise naturally and go away. We make them stay longer because we want them to go all the time. The struggle of trying to get rid of something we do not like seems to make it stay longer than it would otherwise.
The more we try to control nature, manipulate it according to our greed and desire, the more we end up polluting the whole earth. People are getting really worried now because we can see so much pollution from all the chemicals and pesticides that we use to try to get rid of the things in nature that we don”t want. When we try to annihilate the pests in our minds, we end up with pollution too – we have nervous breakdowns and then the pests come back stronger than ever.
Our modern society does not encourage much metta towards the old, the sick and the dying. Our society is very much oriented towards youth and vigour, being fast and staying young for as long as possible. When you get old, you”re kind of useless, you can”t do anything very well, you”re slow, you”re no longer attractive, so people don”t really want to know you. Many old people feel they have no place in society. They get old and are cast aside as useless people. Our society treats the intellectually handicapped and the mentally ill in the same way. We try to keep them away so that we don”t have to look at them and know they”re around. Trying to ignore the facts of life such as death, infirmity and old age results in an increasing amount of mental illness, mental breakdowns and alcoholism.
In schools in the United States, we tried to get all the intelligent students with high IQs together in one class and the slow and dumb ones in another. We did not want the intelligent students to be slowed down by the halting progress of the dumb ones. I think the most important thing the intelligent can learn is to be kind and patient towards those who are not as intelligent or quick as they are.
When we are forced to compete with our own kind, life becomes hectic and frustrating. Kindness, patience and compassion are much more helpful qualities for knowing how to live in the world tha…
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