Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Practicing metta vipassana

With Dave Smith recorded on May 14, 2017.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

In this talk Dave discusses the process of integrating heart practices within the four foundations of mindfulness. Mindfulness practice unites the steadiness of concentration with the immediacy of moment to moment experience. As we learn to collect the body and mind, intuitive wisdom arises. This allows us to open to the truth of each moment’s experience within and around us. Metta (kind-friendliness) meditation practice calls forth the beautiful spiritual emotions within our heart: kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity. Mindfulness of these qualities strengthens and brings them into fruition. This process guides our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors into the direction of awakening to our full potential.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Jaya Rudgard – Week of July 24, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Meditations on the Five Great Elements of Nature”. The five elements or energetic properties of nature (earth, water, fire, wind and space) feature frequently in the Buddha’s teaching and are a wonderful support for meditation and insight. This week we will practice with these elements as skilful means for contemplating body and world, and for cultivating the mind.

    Read More

  • Frank Ostaseski

    Tonight the Subject is Love

    Love is the essential quality needed for the journey through life. The heart’s desire for deep connection fuels the journey, inspires and deepens our practice. This is why at some point we stop practicing to get anywhere, or to achieve anything… we just practice because we love it. Link to the YouTube video that we were…

    Read More

  • Whole body breathing to regulate your mind and body

    In this session Vidyamala introduces key areas of body awareness where mindful breathing can help to bring about regulation and calm in the body/heart/mind. She calls these the 5 B’s of the breath: Buttocks, Belly, Back, Back of the throat and Brain. She introduces the physiology of these areas and then leads a guided meditation….

    Read More

  • Tuere Sala

    The Supramundane Nature of Emptiness

    Emptiness can be a loaded word for lay practitioners. It can bring up a sense of isolation and annihilation. The dharma of emptiness, however, is a fundamental part of practice. Even in the most mundane tasks of our ordinary lives, we can access emptiness and feel the freedom that comes with it. It’s not about…

    Read More

  • Lisa Ernst

    Skillful Ways to Work with Difficult Thoughts in Meditation

    There’s a misconception that thoughts are a hindrance to deep meditation and tranquility. Especially during this ongoing challenging time, certain thoughts may be persistent and difficult to release. Yet, thoughts themselves are not the problem; it’s our relationship to them that determines whether or not they impede our meditation. In this session, we will explore a number of skillful ways to work with difficult or persistent thoughts in meditation to support inner well-being and clarity.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of September 5, 2022

    This week’s topic is “Awakening into Experience Here and Now”. “You shouldn’t chase after the past
    or place expectations on the future.
    What is past
    is left behind.
    The future
    is as yet unreached.
    Whatever quality is present
    you clearly see right there,
    right there.
    Not taken in,
    unshaken,
    that’s how you develop the heart.” (MN 131)

    The essence of the Buddha’s teachings lies in these words. Unshakability and freedom are at the heart of awakening, they are what we cultivate in our practice. This week we will practice turning to our experience in ways that wake us up, right here and now.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ayala Gill – Week of 04 November, 2024

    This week’s theme is: Love’s Fullness

    Mindfulness is a practice of remaining present, open and loving to the deepest truth of this moment as it arises and dissolves. It invites us into an intimate, warm and embodied relationship with life, where each moment is sensed, felt and known with love. The four foundations of mindfulness return us to love’s fullness.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of July 11, 2022

    This week’s topic is Mindfulness in Daily Life. Trying to practice mindfulness in the busyness of our daily lives can leave us confused or frustrated. We know the potential benefits of such a practice, but the different pace, sensory input and constant activity make it challenging to remember to practice, let alone develop a continuous sense of presence. In this week, we explore hands-on sustainable practices with fresh perspectives, free from idealistic expectations or guilt.

    Read More