Lama Surya Das – Ep. 53 – Compassion into Action

Lama Surya Das - Ep. 53 - Compassion into Action

This week on the Awakening Now Podcast, Lama Surya Das looks at how we can turn compassion into action with Metta meditation practice.

In this talk from Insight Meditation South Bay, Surya Das teaches ways that practicing loving-kindness allows us to love ourselves and the world in a transformative way.

Show Notes

Meditating on Love and Compassion (Opening) – Surya Das discusses the quality of love and compassion found in Buddhist practice. We explore the deeper levels of Metta meditation and how we can put compassion into action.

“How can we talk about Buddha-like compassion if it is not equal to all? We cannot only be compassionate to those who are kind to us. What about our enemies?”  

The Crux of Compassion (8:00) – We can’t truly practice Metta if we cannot bring ourselves fully into the moment. Surya Das looks at the role of mindfulness in Metta meditation and why it is crucial to the practice.

“Attention is the essence of Buddha Dharma, not ritual, philosophy or lineage.”  

Surya Das further explores how we can put mindfulness into action on Ep. 40 of the Awakening Now Podcast

Befriending Ourselves, Befriending the World (14:55) – Surya Das encourages us to do the kind of self-experimentation the Buddha practiced. When we better understand and have compassion for ourselves, showing the same level of compassion to others becomes instinctive.

“Buddha’s teaching of the path of enlightenment, which is the teaching of The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path, is kind of scientific. Buddha said that if you reproduce this experiment then you can replicate the results in yourself, and millions have. It is very scientific in that way and I find that helpful because we can confirm it for ourselves. If we replicate the Buddha’s experiment, we too can get the same results.”

Amazon Recommendations

      

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash