The concepts of Metta and Karuna are important aspects within Buddhism. Most people understand Metta and Karuna in simple English terms, however the fact is that these concepts run much deeper within the religion and form a strong basis for practitioners of Buddhism. This paper will present an in-depth understanding of these two concepts, while also presenting a snapshot of my attempts to practice the same as well as a reflection on the same.
Research
The paper will now proceed to examine the dual concepts of Metta and Karuna. These concepts are part of the four sublime states of mind called the Brahmaviharas. The term ‘Brahmavihara’ means “excellent, lofty or sublime states of mind; or alternatively, by: Brahma-like, god-like or divine abodes.” (Thera, 1994) The four Brahmaviharas are Metta (Love), Karuna (Compassion), Mudita (Sympathetic Joy) and Upekkha (Equanimity). All these principles basically arose from Hinduism, specifically from the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. (Boccoio, 2010) One can see that these concepts of Buddhism have extremely close links with the counterpart systems in Hinduism that advocate the very same principles.
The word ‘Metta’ comes from the Sanskrit term ‘Maitri,’ and basically means unconditional love or the type of love that one exercises without any self interest or greed. Metta is subtly associated with the terms “gentle” (soft and kind) and “a friend.” The term signifies the good-natured as well as kind-hearted feeling that one often tends to have for a close friend. However, one should understand that Metta is not like the usual love that one sees - it is definitely not sentimental, nor is it possessive or clingy. On the contrary, it’s a gentle, loyal acceptance with a deep sense of gratitude and consideration. The direct enemy of Metta is Anger. (Buddhanet, 2012) The reason for this is that anger tends to mislead the mind and destroys all positive associations of gentleness, friendship and gratitude. Therefore, when anger tends to arise in the mind, one can consider that Metta automatically gets reduced and, in fact, destroyed. The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma preaches that Metta can be developed by an individual either through meditation or contemplation or the attainment of jnana Samadhi (utilizing the path of the knowledge and through analytical means). (Swe, 1985, p. 33) In this regard, the Mahasi also advises helping of the physically underprivileged ones as Metta since it is kindness and friendship that leads one to render assistance to these people.
Karuna, in this case, simply indicates Compassion. The term is directly related to the Hindu concept of Karma. (Boccio 2010) The lack of Compassion in individual results in that individual acting in a manner that contravenes Dharma, which, in turn, leads to bad karma. Similarly, in case of the opposite event, one generates good karma. Both the religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) advocate the concept of Karuna, although their definitions have very slight variations. The Buddha described karuna as the “quivering of the heart” we experience when we are open and able to truly see suffering and are moved to do something about it. (Boccio 2010) The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma says that the development of karuna is far more difficult than the development of metta. The reason for this statement is that metta is easier for one to develop towards most others, however, it is difficult to develop a sense of compassion towards most other people or even creatures. (Swe, 1985, p. 285) For instance, one finds it difficult to feel compassion for specific individuals such as criminals or even extremely rich persons. The Venerable Sayadaw remedies this dilemma by advocating the phrase, “Sabbe Satta Dukkha Muccantu.” (p. 286) This terms means May all beings free from misery and suffering. The end result of Karuna is the liberation of misery for all sentient beings (including animals and other living creatures. One can understand, therefore, that enemy of Karuna is cruelty. When one displays cruelty, one is automatically inflicted by bad karma that one suffers now and even in the upcoming lives. This paper will proceed to examine my reflections on the practice of these concepts.
Adoption and Reflection
As mentioned previously, I started the practice of adopting these concepts of Metta and Karuna. One of the first steps I took to implement this in my life was the meditation and contemplation of all that these terms stood for. I also read the work of Mahisi Sayadaw to understand the manner in which one develops Karuna and Metta as well as towards the exact type of people that one should display these feelings to.
While adopting Metta was much easier than Karuna, I understood that the concept of Karuna was extremely broad since it was applicable for a whole lot of people, including animals. However, it was not very easy to develop Metta either since that meant controlling my anger. As an individual, anger came quite normally to me and that was something that was manifested to external agencies too. I realized that the development of Metta meant that I had to work towards controlling my anger. That would be the first step in developing those feelings internally so that I could then manifest these sublime feelings to others.
Upon commencing the practice of Metta, I experienced foremost difficulty in exercising a control on my anger. Whenever I was in between friends or in social groups, I realized that whatever people said to me I was fighting internally to keep my calm. A little into the day, I realized that it was extremely difficult to control my anger and display the feeling of Metta towards people who I didn’t know and who managed to display feelings of hostility or anger towards me. For instance, when waiting in the cafeteria line for the morning breakfast and coffee, a certain person entered the line midway in a seemingly rude gesture. In most normal circumstances, I would have reacted angrily towards that person, but I had decided that I would behave in accordance with the feelings of Metta that day. Accordingly, I went to that person and explained to him that his behavior was both offensive and incorrect to others since it would inconvenience others who were standing in line before him. When explaining all this, I took great care to ensure that I handled the situation with a high level of gentleness, as if I would have explained the same to my brother. To my surprise, I saw that the offending person quietly went back to the end of the line without further argument and I did not react any further since I had borne in mind that I should not display any attachment to the response of the person. In addition, I had undertaken this initiative to speak to that person without expecting either a good or bad response from him. I am sure that had I reacted to this situation with anger it would have led to a verbal argument, however, I realized the power of Metta – handling situations without anger, in a gentle way, while maintaining a certain level of love towards the person. In that same day, a second incident took place that further tested my determination to exhibit the feeling of Metta. When I was reaching home that day my neighbor, as a usual practice, had parked his car across my driveway. At most other times, I would have gone and argued with this person, but today I went to his house, knocked on the door and requested him to remove the car. While doing so, I displayed gentleness and friendship towards this person without expecting him to respond accordingly. Although this person did not respond to my friendly overture, he did take the car out from that spot. I parked my car and quietly went to my place. As defined by the concept of Metta, since my neighbor was older to me, I displayed a behavior that I would towards my own father, but did not expect him to respond in a similar manner. The most important thing was that the whole situation was resolved amicably and without the usual arguments. However, I did feel that this person should have at least responded to my change in behavior towards him, but later abandoned this feeling since I reminded myself that I should keep a neutral demeanor. The lesson this exercise taught me is that a sentiment such as anger is very easy to inculcate but very difficult to kill since during most of these incidents I was actively control my anger.
In case of Karuna, I decided to start with my food habits. My usual day starts with a breakfast of eggs, bacon and bread with a similarly designed lunch and dinner. The act of compassion extends to other creatures as well and, therefore, I decided to go a full day without eating any meat or animal based products and try surviving on a vegetable based diet. I observed two effects of this change, the first was that I felt the food to be much lighter than usual and I found that my stomach could much easily digest the same. However, toward the end of the day I found myself craving for meat based products. I tried the same thing the next day too and realized the difficulties I was facing in the implementation of the same. As a second part of this practice, I decided to also give consideration to the environment I lived in. For two full days, I decided to travel by train or walk when possible rather than drive. Even when I walked or wherever I sat I ensured that little creatures such as ants are not crushed by my hand or by my body weight. The preaching of Mahasi Sayadaw also support this particular stand. I learnt from these exercises that it was very easy to live a life that was destructive towards others but extremely hard to live a life of Karuna towards other beings.
At the start of the day, I would be a little apprehensive since I perceived that such a lifestyle would be a difficult one for me, but towards the end of the day, I did feel a certain level of contentment and self satisfaction. The practice of both Metta and Karuna opened my eyes to a new way of living – a manner which has the maximum positive impact on others, including myself. Before trying this exercise, I was actually very skeptical about both my ability to perform the same as well as the success of the same. However, after the conclusion of the same, I feel a sense of peace and calm (having combined these techniques with meditation and contemplation at the end of each day wherein I analyzed the mistakes in my practice.
In conclusion, I can say that the concepts of Metta and Karuna are indeed difficult feelings to imbibe and practice. However, once I started practicing these techniques, I learnt that people react to you the same way you react to them. In essence, I began to see the concept of karma unfolding before my eyes since I saw that outcomes of the very same incidents were different when I handled them with Metta and Karuna. Similarly, the changing of my food habits and other mannerisms taught me to adapt to this new and sustainable lifestyle since I realized that a diet without meat also can be sustaining and self satisfying. In sum, I found that these exercises helped me to become a better person since I now try to handle provocative situations with a little bit of Metta and Karuna.
Reference
Boccio. F (2010). Love in Full Bloom. The Yoga Journal. Retrieved from http://www.yogajournal.com/article/philosophy/love-in-full-bloom/
Buddhanet. (2012). Metta and other Brahmaviharas. Retrieved from http://www.buddhanet.net/mettab5.htm
Swe, M. (1985). Brahmavihara Dhamma. Rangoon, Burma: Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Organization.
Thera, N. (2013). The Four Sublime States. Access to Insight. Retrieved from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel006.html
