In
Buddhist meditation, 'Metta' is the connotation of 'loving kindness' and
'bhavana' entails 'cultivation'. Metta Bhavana is an ancient Buddhist
meditation that leads to the development of unconditional loving kindness and
friendliness.
Metta
Bhavana in Buddhism is a type of meditation that
balances the insight meditations that purifies the mind and makes insights into
a more profound reality. Buddhism says that the cultivation of benevolence must
begin with oneself. Thus the Metta bhavana begins with the thought: "May I
be free from enmity; may I be free from ill-will; may I be rid of suffering;
may I be happy." There is a profound psychological truth in this, for the
one who does not hate or despise himself, consciously or unconsciously can feel
true loving-kindness for others. Metta, indeed, can be developed only if one
gives to it boundlessly without discriminating and without expectation of something
in return. It should be free of selfishness or attachment. The object of Metta
meditation should be infinite beings. This meditation uses the techniques to
develop good qualities that already exist in human minds and it further introduces
new wholesome qualities.
There
are as many different ways of practicing Metta Bhavana as there are levels of
intensity in the practice. The development of concentration through the
systematic practice of Metta Bhavana acts as beneficial in counteracting the
Five Mental Hindrances of the meditator including sensuality, mental inertia,
restlessness and skeptical doubt. The achievement of full concentration of the
meditator brings five absorption factors that are applied thought, sustained thought,
followed by rapture, ease-of-mind and one-pointedness or unification of mind.
The benefit of achieving deep concentration with this positive mind set is that
it will tend to imprint the new positive conditioning while overriding the old
negative patterns. In this way, old negative habits are changed, thereby,
freeing one to form new, positive ways of relating. To know more read:
