Loving-Kindness
—Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera
What is lacking in the world today is loving-kindness or goodwill.
In the world today, there is sufficient material wealth. There are very advanced intellectuals, brilliant writers, talented speaker, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, religious advisors, wonderful poets and powerful world leaders. In spite of these intellectuals, there is no real peace and security in the world today. Something must be lacking. What is lacking is loving-kindness or goodwill amongst mankind.
Material gain in itself can never bring lasting happiness and peace. Peace must first be established in man's own heart before he can bring peace to others and to the world at large. The real way to achieve peace is to follow the advice given by religious teachers.
In order to practise loving-kindness, one must first practise the Noble Principle of non-violence and must always be ready to overcome selfishness and to show the correct path to others. The fighting is not to be done with the physical body, because the wickedness of man is not in his body but in his mind. Non-violence is a more effective weapon to fight against evil than retaliation. The very nature of retaliation is to increase wickedness.
In order to practise loving-kindness, one must also be free from selfishness. Much of the love in this world of self-centered, only a love of one is own self:
'Not out of love for the husband loved; but the husband is loved for love of self. Children are loved by the parents, not out of love for the children, but for love of self. The gods are loved, not out of love for the gods, but for love for self. Not out of love is anybody loved, but for love of self are loved.'
Man should learn how to practise selfless love to maintain real peace and his own salvation. Just as suicide kills physically, selfishness kills spiritual progress. Loving-kindness in Buddhism is neither emotional or selfish. It is loving-kindness that radiates through the purified mind after eradicating hatred, jealousy, cruelty, enmity and grudges. According to the Buddha, Metta _ Loving-kindness is the most effective method to maintain purity of mind and to purify the mentally polluted atmosphere.
The word 'love' is used to cover a very wide range of emotions human beings experience. Emphasis on the base animal lust of one sex for another has much debased the concept of a feeling of amity towards another being. According to Buddhism, there are many types of emotions, all of which come under the general term 'love' First of all, there is selfish love and there is selfless love. One has selfish love when one is concerned only with the satisfaction to be derived for oneself without any consideration for the partner's needs or feelings. Jealousy is usually a symptom of selfish love. Selfless love, on the other hand, is felt when one person surrenders his whole being for the good of another _parents feel such love for their children. Usually human beings feel a mixture of both selfless and selfish love in their relationships with each other. For example, while parents make enormous sacrifices for their children, they usually expect something in return.
Another kind of love, but closely related to the above, is brotherly love or the love between friends. In a sense, this kind of love can also be considered selfish because the love is limited to particular people and does not encompass others. In another category we have sexual love, where partners are drawn towards each other through physical attraction. It is the kind that is most exploited by modern entertainment and it can cover anything from uncomplicated teenage infatuations to the most complex of relationships between adults.
On a scale far higher than these, is Universal Love or Metta. This all-embracing love is the great virtue expressed by the Buddha. Lord Buddha, for example, renounce His kingdom, family and pleasures so that He could strive to find a way to release mankind from an existence of suffering. In order to gain His Enlightenment, he had to struggle for many countless lives. A lesser being would have been disheartened, but not the Buddha-elect. It is for this He is called 'The Compassionate One'. The Buddha's boundless love extended not only to human beings but all living creatures. It was not emotional or selfish, but a love without frontiers, without discrimination. Unlike the other kinds of love, Universal love can never end in disappointment or frustration because it expects no reward. It creates more happiness and satisfaction. One who cultivates universal love will also cultivate sympathetic joy and equanimity and he will then have attained to the sublime state.
In this book, The Buddha's Ancient Path Ven. Piyadassi says:
'Love is an active force. Every act of the loving one is done with the stainless mind to help, to succor, to cheer, to make the paths of others easier, smoother and more adapted to the conquest of sorrow, the winning of the highest bliss.
'The way to develop love is through thinking out the evils of hate, and the advantages of non-hate; through thinking out according to actuality, according to karma, that really there is none to hate, that hate is a foolish way of feeling which breeds more and more darkness, that obstructs right understanding. Hate restricts; love release. Hatred strangles; love enfranchises. Hatred brings remorse; love brings peace. Hatred agitates; love quietens, stills, calms. Hatred divides; love unites. Hatred hardens; love softens. Hatred hinders; love helps. And thus through a correct study and appreciation of the effects of hatred and the benefits of love, should one develop love.'
In Metta Sutta, the Buddha has expounded the nature of love in Buddhism. 'Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let his thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, above, below and across without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.'
Credit: Buddhism For World Peace And Humanity
______________________
Other articles: Karaniya Metta Sutta Chanting , Mangala Sutta Chanting - The greatest blessing , Are Buddhists Idol Worshippers? , Attainment of Buddhahood , Faith, Confidence and Devotion , Loving-Kindness , Can We Justify War? , Dreams and Their Significance , Buddhism and Women , Modern Religion , Is Buddhism a Theory or a Philosophy? , Hi Beloved Community! , Are Buddhists really idol worshippers? , Which is the Proper Religion? , Religion in a Scientific Age , How to Save Yourself , Why is there no Peace? , You Protect Yourself , Moral and Spiritual Development , Do It Yourself , Everything is Changeable , The Meaning of Prayer , What is the purpose of life? , The Buddha's Silence , Kathina Robe Dana festival , What is Kamma? , The teachings of Buddha , What is Kamma? , Pavāranā day , The Law Of Karma , The First Buddhist Council , Practical Vipassana Meditational Exercises By Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw , There are six supreme qualities of Dhamma , Buddhist Paintings: The Life of the Buddha , The life of the Buddha , What is Buddhism? , A Basic Buddhism Guide , The Eight-Fold Path is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths - the first of the Buddha's teachings , A Gift of Dhamma , WHAT DID THE BUDDHA TEACH? , THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS , A Dhammatalk by Ajahn Chah: The Four Noble Truths , The Middle Way of Buddhism , The Path to Peace , The Middle Way Within , The Training of the Heart , Right Practice - Steady Practice , Question and Answer about Dhamma (QA1 - QA10) , Question and Answer about Dhamma (QA11-QA18) , Questions and Answers with Ajahn Chah , A Dhammatalk by Ajahn Chah: Questions and Answers , Even One Word Is Enough , Right Restraint , Listening Beyond Words , Where did the Buddha enter Nibbāna? , Knowing the World , Wholehearted Training , Understanding Dukkha , Monastery of Confusion , It Can Be Done , About Being Careful , Unshakeable Peace , Suffering on the Road , Clarity of Insight , Evening Sitting , Transcendence , "Not Sure!" - The Standard of the Noble Ones , Sense Contact - the Fount of Wisdom , In the Dead of Night... , The Flood of Sensuality , Sammā Samādhi - Detachment Within Activity , Maintaining the Standard , Understanding Vinaya , Dhamma Fighting , Toward the Unconditioned , Still, Flowing Water , ''Tuccho Pothila'' - Venerable Empty-Scripture , Living in the World with Dhamma , Meditation , Our Real Home , Why Are We Here? , Making the Heart Good , Epilogue , Right View - the Place of Coolness , No Abiding , Convention and Liberation , The Peace Beyond , The Path in Harmony , On Meditation , Training this Mind , Just Do It! , Reading the Natural Mind , Living With the Cobra , The Two Faces of Reality , Dhamma Nature , The Last Message of the Buddha , The towering Phra Buddha Maha Nawamin of Wat Muang is one of the tallest statues in the world , "Happy Honey Full Moon Day" , Phra Phuttha Rattana Mongkhon Mahamuni at Wat Bhurapha Piram , The Big Buddha Phuket , Wat Muang, largest sitting Buddha statue in Thailand , The Big Buddha (Hong Kong) , Wat Tham Pha Daen a beautiful hill top temple , WatYaiChaiMongkol (Mongkhon), Ayutthaya, Thailand. , The sacred Buddha head in the roots of the Bodhi Tree. , Wat Phai Lom
0 comments: