The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions.
Practicing Loving Kindness (Metta) is a revolutionary way to live and to love. The Buddha taught it to himself as well as to all his monastics and lay followers as an antidote to fear.
Metta is a practice that involves giving the gift of attention to others and ourselves. It develops a bone-deep understanding of what it means to wish someone well and to give generously of spirit, without confusing it with not standing up against injustice. Additionally, it helps us avoid getting lost in savior mentalities and other ways we can get confused. Metta offers a profound and natural sense of connection, inclusion, and belonging with all beings.
In this workshop, we will explore each of the Four Abidings of Metta—Loving Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity—through intimate conversations, guided meditations, reading aloud, and listening deeply to ourselves and each other. We will concentrate on and strengthen the awareness of our hearts. Maybe we will even taste fearlessness or a new truth, find ourselves becoming more caring, experience a natural sense of community, and witness a shift in our worldview—a revolution of Loving Kindness.
Sharon Salzberg reminds us in her seminal text, Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness:
“People often come to the loving-kindness practice because of real-life concerns like being unable to let go of a grudge or finding that they feel unable to offer loving-kindness to themselves. As we practice loving-kindness we experience these barriers, one by one, crumbling. By increasing love and kindness in our lives, we are no longer stuck in the reflexive reactions to the events of the day. The connection to ourselves and to the world becomes stronger and more vibrant. We feel a palpable sense of radiant freedom. With this freedom at the heart of our actions, we experience a reduction in stress and conflict and a heightened sense of the contribution we can make to the world.”
- General: $75
- SFZC Member: $67.50
- Sliding scale 1: $45
San Francisco Zen Center is committed to making Zen practice and the Dharma accessible to all who seek it by offering both a General support fund and a dedicated BIPOC support fund. Please email supportfunds@sfzc.org for more information BEFORE signing up.
Or call 415-354-0360.
