Tag Archives: earthquake

Lovingkindness meditation

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Fredonia NY Daylily (ckg photo)

This is a GREAT time to practice METTA or Lovingkindness meditation. HAITI challenges us to step up to the compassion plate. Please try to offer some lovingkindness for not only the Haitians effected by the earthquake, but also for their families,the aid workers, and the governments involved that something may be done to ease the long-term suffering of the Haitians. Teachers, please consider beginning or ending your classes by teaching your students the metta phrases and offering them for Haitians everywhere.

This post is a looooong overdue response to Svasti’s comment on LaughingYogini’s Home or Homeless? post regarding Lovingkindness meditation. In the post I said:

MEDITATION: Georg Feuerstein, in The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, says that there is a meditation wherein the four virtues: friendliness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity are radiated from the practitioner into the universe. This sounds very similar to metta or lovingkindness meditation that I have mentioned before. Beginning with oneself, and eventually including all sentient beings, the meditator offers the following phrases (or others that resonate more deeply):

May I be free from danger.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I live with ease and abundance.

Svasti responded to that excerpt:

What annoys me about the Feuerstein quote is the ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’. Generally most prayers are phrased as:

May all beings be free from danger.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings live with ease and abundance.

To me, this is much healthier, because its recognizing all conscious beings and offering to one and all, Self included.

I am afraid that I misrepresented Feuerstein in that piece.There should be a break in the middle of that paragraph, when I begin MY thoughts (& depart from paraphrasing GF): This sounds very similar to metta or lovingkindness meditation that I have mentioned before. Beginning with oneself, and eventually including all sentient beings, the meditator offers the following phrases (or others that resonate more deeply).

The other misunderstanding comes from an insufficient explanation of metta practice in the earlier post. For that I refer the reader to LaughingYogini’s page on Lovingkindness Meditation, which can be found here.

NAMASTE

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In class recently, a new student asked me what “namaste” meant. I answered simply, “It means that the sacred in me honors the sacred in you.” I didn’t tell her that in Bengal, they usually say “namascara” as my meditation teacher did. He had lived and studied in Calcutta Bengal India, so naturally he insisted the proper phrase was “namascara.” And the year we lived in India, I heard “namascara” often as not. But I also bow to the yogic tradition in America and use “namaste” in my classes.

Linguistic technicality aside, today I post with a heart weeping for all Haitians. If I could be of any help to those suffering on the island, I’d be there in a breath. I’m sure you would as well. It is difficult to sit here and feel helpless as far as lifting one of those slabs of concrete, or even soothing a traumatized brow. This earthquake is a disaster of unbelievable magnitude. I need to practice ujjayi breath!

This post is dedicated to all Haitians who are injured, mentally or physically. I bow to the sacred in you. NAMASTE.