Loving-Kindness in Plain English
The Practice of Metta
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling author of Mindfulness in Plain English invites us to explore the joyful benefits of living with loving-kindness.
With his signature clarity and warmth, Bhante Gunaratana shares with us how we can cultivate loving-kindness to live a life of joyful harmony with others. Through personal anecdotes, step-by-step meditations, conversational renderings of the Buddha’s words in the suttas, and transformative insights into how we live in and relate to the world, we learn that peace here and now is possible—within ourselves and in all our relationships. Bhante G speaks directly to how we can cultivate loving-kindness to find emotional clarity, overcome anger, and become more peaceful—both on and off the meditation cushion.
Loving-Kindness in Plain English was chosen for the Spirituality & Practice Book Award as one of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2017 by the website Spirituality & Practice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In lucid, accessible prose, Gunaratana (Mindfulness in Plain English) introduces readers to the practice of metta, or loving-kindness meditation. He characterizes loving-kindness as an unconditional love towards the self, others, and the world that possesses no ulterior motive, helping practitioners and the objects of their meditations swallow the bitterness of life. For Gunaratana, to do metta practice is to express one s true nature and to acknowledge the impermanence and interconnectedness of all phenomena. He stresses that metta practice is an individual (rather than collective) practice that is not about saving the world but rather about creating peace and well-being for the self. Far from presenting loving-kindness meditation as a practice of selfish concern, he shows that by practicing loving-kindness toward the self and achieving a state of clarity and rest, one can properly attend to friends, strangers, and enemies. Mindfulness practice is not enough by itself, he says; it requires the self-love and other-concern of loving-kindness meditation to fully expand one s range of compassion. Gunaratana s newest is a clear and excellent introduction and should be considered a standard manual for metta practice.
