As we continue to work our way finally through the national election drama, I find the practice of metta is gaining new significance for me. Metta, loving kindness, or just plain kindness, is an immediate balm to anxiety and tension. The phrases, “May I be free from fear and anxiety,” May I have physical well-being,” “May I have mental clarity and openness,” and “May I be at ease,” help to encourage those very qualities in the mind and body, influencing how we carry ourselves in the world. By being aware of the field of metta, we literally change our minds. Inviting metta to be first in our minds and hearts.
What if we could take up a practice for an entire day, a week, a month, a year, an entire lifetime and embrace all activity and stillness in a field of metta? Feeling in the body the sensations that we experience when we are kind. Where in the body do you feel kindness? What’s it like when you are in the presence of kindness? What’s it like when you are kind or someone is kind to you? Perhaps this is the most important thing we can do — to take kindness and love into all activities. When there is such a preponderance of collective conflict as we are experiencing it in our nation, bringing forth a strong forcefield of metta is a precious contribution. May the merit of our metta practice be balm to all beings throughout space and time.