Saturday Shinzo Talks by Will Holcomb, St. Louis, MO February 25, 2017
THE METTA SUTTA, PART 3
Good morning. Two weeks ago, we talked about the Metta Sutta, and I thought I’d continue that
discussion. We hadn’t gotten very far into it, actually. We just talked about some background. At first, we
talked about how the Metta Sutta was, as the story goes, the Buddha’s teaching to his monks, who were
being harassed by wood spirits in the forest, and how to come to a peaceful accommodation with
others. Then we talked about how it’s in a verse form, which made it easier for the monks to memorize it.
People were better at memorizing before written language and before screens and cell phones. It was
written with a cadence, with a rhythm that made it easier to remember, which is a clue about how it
should be used. The Metta Sutta is clearly something not just to be read or discussed just once.
Metta is actually proposed as a way of life: metta, meaning an attitude of friendliness, an attitude of
goodwill to everything and everyone that appears. Much easier said than done. A couple weeks ago, we
talked about the similarities between metta and non-violence, in the context of talking about Martin Luther
King who said that non-violence is a way of life for courageous people. I think the same applies to
metta – it’s a way of life for courageous people. It is in this verse form which makes it easier to
remember, easier to go back to. It’s clearly something to revisit again and again, just like we revisit our
sitting meditation again and again. It’s a device similar to this Buddha statue here which is a device to
help us remember things like posture. It models a certain kind of posture, a certain stillness and patience,
a certain acceptance or serenity. It’s a memory device. It’s a visual memory. And the metta sutta is a
verbal memory device.
There are different versions and translations of it, but they all point, generally, in the same direction. I
don’t think we have to be scholarly about these translations in order to benefit from their meaning. As I
recall, we had just gotten through the first couple lines, which are, “This is what should be accomplished”
which is what Karaniya means. “This is what should be accomplished by one who is wise, who
seeks the good and is interested in obtaining peace.” But then it goes off in a little bit of an
unexpected direction. The first part of the sutta addresses morality and virtues, as if these are really
prerequisites of practicing metta. Metta is not just a warm, fuzzy feeling, but it’s a practice, it’s something
that you do. In order to prepare to do this well, just as an athlete would do exercises in order to prepare
for his or her particular event, in order to prepare for the practice of metta, certain virtues, certain
principles of morality are prerequisite.
In this translation, it goes like this – we’ll look at some of the other translations. But it starts off: “Let one
be strenuous, upright, and sincere, without pride, easily contented, and joyous.” Or it could be stated,
“Let one be capable, upright and straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, not conceited, content and easy
to support.” Or, this is perhaps a more literal translation: “should be able, honest and upright, gentle in
speech, meek, not proud. Contented, he or she ought to be easy to support.”
In some ways, that sounds straightforward, but it is a little bit out of the mainstream. “Let’s talk about
being contented with not so much, instead of striving to obtain more and more. Let one not be
submerged by the things of the world. Let one not take upon oneself the burden of riches. That’s certainly
a countercultural notion – the “burden of riches!” The presumption is that riches are not a burden but
they’re a blessing. In fact, there are some notions that riches are a sign of being blessed. But here, the
idea is that riches can be a burden. They interfere, actually.
“Let one be capable, upright, straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, not conceited, content, easy to
support, with few duties, living lightly.” What’s proposed is a voluntary simplicity – the idea being, if
you’re involved in obtaining more things, maintaining more things, and protecting more things
that you can’t really be as open to friendliness (metta).
Further, listing some virtues here: “Few duties, living lightly with peaceful faculties, masterful but modest,
with no greed for supporters.” The implication here, I mean, masterful – just being competent, being
capable (another word that we use.) And why? Well, being competent or capable of what you do just
makes it easier on everybody, doesn’t it? When things go well, when you take your car to get it fixed and
the person there actually fixes it, it just makes it easier; it makes life easier for everyone. You can feel
more at ease. The person who fixed it can be more at ease. Striving to achieve competence,
capability with what you do, whatever that is, is a public service. The next line guards against one of
the downsides of that which can be a feeling of being puffed up or being immodest.
This little section concludes by saying, “Do not do the slightest thing that the wise would later
censure.” This recitation of virtues and a moral principle, I view it very similarly to the Buddha statue; it’s
something to keep in mind. It’s something to model one’s self upon. Clearly, we don’t always achieve this
perfection. That statue’s been sitting there all week and we’ve been out running around doing things. It’s
just been still and steady there all week, unmoved. But it reminds us of the serenity that is possible.
We can think of this topic as being pretty timely, even though I wasn’t necessarily thinking of it that way.
It’s not an easy practice because the intention is to maintain an attitude of friendliness, of openness, of
goodwill, not only to those who are friendly and clear sighted, but to those who may be completely
deluded, intoxicated by ignorance, anger, hatred, and those who engage in despicable acts – toppling
over tombstones or killing somebody in a bar because he comes from another country. Working to
separate the notion of despicable acts from a despicable person, it’s not easy.
I think these first few lines of the Metta Sutta instructing us to simplify our lives, not get too busy, not get
too involved, not get involved with worldly affairs to the point that you can’t really even notice metta,
loving kindness. You don’t even give it time to blossom. One experiment I would suggest for the coming
week is something I’ve been trying to do, is just noticing metta as you go through the day. I was at the
grocery store yesterday in the checkout line. It was pretty busy at the store. That place is always very
busy. We were waiting in the checkout line. The woman in front of me made some comment about how
they need more checkers. I thought, oh this is somebody who’s going to be complaining. I usually use the
time while waiting in a checkout lane to observe things. I actually don’t mind waiting in a checkout line.
But I don’t like to just sit there and complain and worry about how I’m waiting in the checkout lane. So, I
just nodded and didn’t say anything. But then, as she was checking out and I was putting my groceries
on the conveyor, she got into a conversation with the checkout clerk who was oh, probably in his late
50s, African American man, kind of stocky, had a friendly countenance. It became clear they had
conversations all the time. It was a regular event because she knew about his family. His daughter had
been sick at one point – some sort of cancer and had to go through treatment. She knew about all of this.
They were talking back and forth. She was getting ready to take a trip. They discussed that a little. So
they had this conversation. He actually thanked her for asking about his daughter and mentioned that the
things that she had said at the time his daughter was so sick was helpful to him. I realized that this
woman, making the comment about needing more checkout clerks was probably just trying to start a
conversation. She was a skilled conversationalist. That was her area of competence, and she had clearly
done much to help probably a lot of people.
So, just noticing. Noticing metta when it’s around you and doing your best to cultivate it.