Metta Magic

thumbnail
Westthings, modified 8 Years ago at 12/7/15 2:11 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/7/15 2:11 PM

Metta Magic

Posts: 50 Join Date: 8/21/15 Recent Posts
I have wondered for a while now if its possible to project metta to another person and if so is there a practice for this. This came to me after I had my first and only metta experience.

I was sitting on my bed and love was in the air so to speak but it was not unlike any description of love I would use but somehow those are the words I was using to describe it. It was as if the entire room was metta and if anyone were to walk in that room they would also be apart of metta vs lust love where it is directed at someone as a object. My brother at the time was in the room playing video games. I starred at him wondering if he was experiencing what I was and if not if there was a way to cultivate this experience and project it to him so he experiences metta also.

Love to hear what you guys have to say about this.
thumbnail
Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 12/7/15 11:43 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/7/15 11:42 PM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
I worked briefly with a teacher named Stuart Perrin, who is a master of energy transference (shaktipat).  He would say "if you're praying for someone, they're gonna feel it," as if there was no doubt in the world about it.  I figure it might be true if he thought so, or maybe thats naive.  
thumbnail
Daniel M Ingram, modified 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 2:03 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 2:03 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
It is definitely possible to project various feelings in ways that people feel them.
thumbnail
Daniel M Ingram, modified 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 2:04 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 2:04 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Be most careful with the ethics of things like that.
thumbnail
Westthings, modified 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 3:07 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/8/15 1:27 PM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 50 Join Date: 8/21/15 Recent Posts
Daniel M. Ingram:
Be most careful with the ethics of things like that.


I thought of unethical reasons for projecting a lustful love or manipulating people to like you. But I couldin't think of one involving sending someone metta.
thumbnail
Daniel M Ingram, modified 8 Years ago at 12/9/15 4:00 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/9/15 4:00 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
I agree: metta is clean and generally safe, particularly when balanced with the other 3: see here.
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 12/9/15 7:01 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/9/15 7:01 PM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 831 Join Date: 3/23/14 Recent Posts
I have found that if I cultivate a kind of intense kindness and caring for someone, they will often respond to it quickly.  It's most obvious if there is someone you have a bit of tension or uncomfortableness with or if it's someone you just of had a bristly experience with, that way a change in response is more obvious.  How I do it is I kind of think about how it's really my issues that make me crabby instead of them, how they are probably doing the best they can, how conflicts can be learning experiences, stuff like that.  Basically I just have to clear out any kind of negative attitude I may have and let the metta like thoughts really flow.  This has double benefits, for one it feels really good on my end to let that negative stuff go.  There's a kind of freeing feeling when I accomplish it. And it gets easier the more you practice. 

The other benefit is it is common for the other person to immediately sense my new attitude and respond in kind.  There have been times when I had my back turned just doing the dishing and working on this kind of metta exercise and the person will come in and suddenly just say hi in the nicest tone or some other unusual more friendly thing than usual.  The more I can really feel the good vibes on my end, the more it influences them.  But the thing is I am not trying to make them do anything, it's my own attitude that I am working on and whenever I change my attitude, then everyone in my sphere of influence seems to automatically change their attitude when it comes to me, it can be amazingly immediate and like magic.  I think the main limit is how fast and how much I can change myself. 

There are other benefits to attitude change too.  If I am able to no longer respond to attempts at fights, then those that like to fight will stop bothering with me, for instance.  They'll go fight with someone else because they are not getting what they want from me.  And if I concentrate more on someone's good traits, I will tend to see more of those good traits from them and it really seems they actually do more of the good stuff, not just that I only see those better thins. 

I suspect we dont' ahve the power to change a person into a whole diff kind of person or totally fix them or anything, but I do think we very much have the power to attract more of the best side of the people around us when they are around us.  I guess that a lot of that is just classic 'law of attraction' stuff but it very much works.  I try to look at everything around me as symbolic of a part of me and the more I do that, the more interesting things happen.
-Eva 
thumbnail
Westthings, modified 8 Years ago at 12/28/15 2:39 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 12/28/15 2:39 PM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 50 Join Date: 8/21/15 Recent Posts
Thanks Eva, that was really helpful.
John Connor, modified 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 11:06 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 11:06 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Post: 1 Join Date: 2/3/16 Recent Posts
Daniel M. Ingram:
It is definitely possible to project various feelings in ways that people feel them.
Excuse me, Mr. Ingram
sorry for my noob question
What kind of training (meditation) that suits for developing/strengthening this type of power??
Concentration or Insight??
thumbnail
CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 2/22/16 6:13 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/22/16 5:59 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 856 Join Date: 8/17/14 Recent Posts
re: John Connor (2/3/16 9:06 AM as a reply to Daniel M. Ingram)

Daniel M. Ingram:
It is definitely possible to project various feelings in ways that people feel them.

John Connor:

Excuse me, Mr. Ingram …What kind of training (meditation) that suits for developing/strengthening this type of power?? Concentration or Insight??


Not pretending to speak for Mr. Ingram, but some possible perspective:

1) In some reputable interpretations within Theravada Buddhism, metta is considered primarily a concentration practice, the absorption of the mind in an extended, unbounded sense of good-will towards all beings, pervading the cosmos (the mind). Also working with, mastering concentration with any kind of object will make it easier to turn to theb rahmavihara objects (e.g. metta) as objects.

2) On the other hand, that kind of absorption is difficult, if not impossible, with a mind overcome with hindrances like anger / resentment, or impatience. Hence, insight / vipassana work at decoding (deeply knowing, understanding, unwinding) those states, and thence purifying the mind of them is pre-requisite training.

As one finds more and more with practice, concentration and insight are closely interdependent, and sometimes come to interact in unexpected ways.

btw: A very interesting passage I found is a teaching from Ajahn Lee, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu in the book Keeping the Breath in Mind ( http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html ), containing Lee's rather famous methods of training anapanasati meditation. I find it interesting in that it represents a more informal Thai-Wilderness traditional view of matters that appear much more systematically in the Burmese Abhidhamma/Visudhimagga tradition (and MCTB ). The section "Jhana" goes in detail through working with the 4 classical jhanas, concluding with (emphasis added to relate to this discussion):

"When you have mastered the fourth level of jhana, it can act as the basis for eight skills:

1. Vipassana-nyana: clear intuitive insight into mental and physical phenomena as they arise, remain, and disband. This is a special sort of insight, coming solely from training the mind. It can occur in two ways: (a) knowing without ever having though of the matter; and (b) knowing from having thought of the matter – but not after a great deal of thought, as in the case of ordinary kwowledge. Think for an instant and it immediately becomes clear – just as a piece of cotton wool soaked in gasoline, when you hold a match to it, bursts immediately into flame. The intuition and insight here are that fast, and so differ from ordinary discernment.
2. Manokayiddhia: psychic powers– the ability to use thoughts to influence events.
3. Iddhividhi: the ability todisplay supra-normal powers, e.g., creating images in certain instances that certain groups of people will be able to see.
4. Dibbasota: the ability to hear distant sounds.
5. Cetopariya-nyana: the ability to know the level – good or evil, high or low – of other people's minds.
6. Pubbenivasanussati-nyana: the ability to remember previous lifetimes. (If you attain this skill, you'll no longer have to wonder as to whether death is followed by annihilation or rebirth.)
7. Dibbacakkhu: the ability to see gross and subtle images, both near and far.
8. Asavakkhaya-nyana: the ability to reduce and eliminate the fermentations of defilement in the heart.

These eight skills come exclusively from centering the mind…"
Oliver, modified 8 Years ago at 2/25/16 11:04 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/25/16 11:04 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Post: 1 Join Date: 2/25/16 Recent Posts
When my baby is crying and not going to sleep; I pray and radiate metta to her. If I am in a good state, I can feel my heart and body channelling a peaceful, loving energy to her. Often, the atmosphere of her bedroom feels tranquil, and she calms down and sleeps.

Just a couple of days ago, for example, she was crying and had been awake in bed for an hour. I went to her bedroom, ssshed her then sent metta. It's like I could feel our energy bodies connected, and my heart sending pure love to hers. She immediately went to sleep.

If I'm not in a loving state (the things that prevent it most for me are violent movies and arguments with anyone) then it doesn't have an effect. You need the metta first - to really be in metta with not much negativity the whole day. But if you get that, powerful intense love can in my experience definitely be felt by someone and bless them.
thumbnail
Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 2/26/16 2:27 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/26/16 2:27 AM

RE: Metta Magic

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
Oliver:

Just a couple of days ago, for example, she was crying and had been awake in bed for an hour. I went to her bedroom, ssshed her then sent metta. It's like I could feel our energy bodies connected, and my heart sending pure love to hers. She immediately went to sleep.


Now thats pragmatic dharma!  Awesome.