Spring Washam applies wise metta to our daily lives—offering us the potential of recognizing our innate inner radiance.
In this Dharma Talk from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Yucca Valley Spring Retreat on May 6th, 2009—Spring Washam explores the potential of loving ourselves and others through the practice of lovingkindness.
This talk from Spring Washam was originally published on DharmaSeed.org
Modern Metta
Spring opens the Dharma session outlining the Tibetan Prophecy of Maitreya Buddha – a future Buddha who is said to incarnate out of compassion, healing the world through spreading universal love and teaching metta. Offering contemplations around how we navigate love, kindness, romance, cynicism, recognition, and attachment in the modern world, Spring explains how our main problem is that in our quest for love we are searching for it outside of ourselves.
“Metta is more than sentimental love, more than ordinary affection or warm feelings. The Pali word literally means friendliness, but this kind of love is without desire to possess. It’s not attachment. It’s open-hearted, it’s generosity. It doesn’t seek anything in return. Metta doesn’t exclude anyone. It’s like the sun that shines on everyone.” – Spring Washam
Spring Washam illuminates Buddha’s Way to Freedom, on Ep. 92 of the Guest Podcast
The Potential of Loving Ourself (12:12)
Emphatically sharing that it is a lie and confusing to hate oneself, Spring reads moving poems from Derek Walcott and Thich Nhat Hanh about the potential of truly loving yourself. Uprooting judgment and the destructive voice of the inner critic, she helps rekindle a powerful recognition of our innate inner radiance. Relaying personal stories, she reflects on the transformational and healing aspects of metta (lovingkindness).
“The self-judgement, this cruelty, the inner-critic that we wake up with that’s our drumbeat all day long commenting on everything, the constant monologue—in some way I think that our path and our healing comes from transforming this. We have to. It’s a lie to hate the self, it’s a form of insanity. It’s like hating the Buddha.” – Spring Washam
For more Spring Washam on Buddhism & loving yourself, tune to Ep. 87 of the Guest Podcast
The Wise Love of Kindness (33:33)
After discussing the ‘chain reaction of kindness,’ Spring elucidates the well-rounded benefits of metta practice. Illuminating the rainbow-esque beauty of impermanence, she sheds light on how we can apply the wise love of kindness to our daily lives.
“We’re here now, ‘Hello,’ and then we’ll be gone, ‘Goodbye.’ We’re rainbows – we make this appearance, we don’t know when we’ll be gone. Love includes that understanding. I can love you even more because I know we’re all temporary.” – Spring Washam