Hello everybody,

One of the unstated benefits of practicing mettā is cessation of identification with the body. The bodily ego is slowly being dissolved with the gradual practice of loving kindness. You slowly stop seing yourself as body. What's left is awareness. This is my experience.

​​​​​​​The other day I noticed how stress immediately came up upon creating an 'I' based on the body. The chain of cause-and-effect was immediate. Now I think I know why meditation reduces stress -- it weakens our identification with the body and mind.

love,
Marino

Hello!

I believe it is good you are SEEing this in your experience. One thing I do recommend is being careful with absolute statements. The self-identity is a cause of stress in a way but i do not believe it is THE cause of stress. If you are open to it, i recommend looking at these two suttas that are relative to this topic:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.013.than.html

Amazng suttas! Especially, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. Now I understand what happened. The cause of experiencing stress was my craving for becoming. I wanted to have a self-identity of a body-ego.

Spot on!