Is radiating loving kindness increase attachment?
Upvote:3
Generally you should not do Metta to:
- Lingavisabhāga (opposite sex - generally directed at a specific person)
- Kālakatapuggala (a dead person)
See page 81 of Knowing and Seeing revised edition by Pa Auk Sayadaw (Pa Auk Lineage):
To develop the sublime abiding of loving-kindness (mettà), you need first of all be aware that it should not be developed towards a person of the opposite sex , or a dead person.
A person of the opposite sex should not be used as object, because lust towards him or her will probably arise. After you have attained jhàna, however, it is possible to develop loving-kindness towards the opposite sex as a group with, for example, `May all women be happy.'
Also page 66 Loving Kindness Meditation Ven. Sujiva (Mahaisi Lineage), and page 16 Matta: The Practice of Loving-Kindness As the Foundation for Insight Meditation Practice by Sayadaw U Indaka (Mahasi Sayadaw) make the same observation:
Let’s now talk about another category of persons who should not be the object of metta meditation. When we start practising metta meditation, we should not develop metta for a person we feel attracted to. The commentary to the Visuddhimagga says that this arouses lust or tanha. This passage, in fact, refers to metta practice which has not yet become well established. However, Chanmyay Sayadaw has said that it is possible to practise metta for a person we have an attraction to without any difficulties when our practice is well developed. Then it is possible to develop pure and genuine metta.
What is the proper way to do this?
If you are generally spreading Metta as say "May all women be well and happy" then it is fine.
In the early stage, it's said that radiating loving kindness to opposite sex can potentially arouse lust. While I'm not sure if the person who we radiate loving kindness to can have their lust aroused, is radiating loving kindness in any stage of practice by any means can increase the attachment to that person?
This is the reason you should not do it directed at a specific person of the opposite sex. This can lead to lust and attachment.
Also see this answer.
Upvote:7
- Lovingkindness, good-will (metta): Near enemy – attachment/lust; far enemy – hatred
- Compassion (karuna): Near enemy – pity; far enemy – cruelty
- Sympathetic joy, Appreciation (mudita), joy at the good fortune of others: Near enemy – comparison,hypocrisy, insincerity, joy for others but tinged with identification (my team, my child); far enemy – envy
- Equanimity (upekkha): Near enemy – indifference; far enemy – anxiety, greed
Practicing loving kindness towards the opposite sex does not increase attachment or arouse lust. But if you are a lustful person, you can easily mistake the counterfeit near enemy as the loving kindness and as a result arouse lust and increase attachment in you.
So if you have an urge to make physical contact with someone or chat up and winover, you should avoid practicing loving kindness towards them until you are skilled enough to identify the counterfeit from authentic Metta.
More post
- 📝 Life before life on earth
- 📝 Concentration's Meaning
- 📝 What is the meaning behind this chant?
- 📝 Should/Would the Noble Sangha let go of the Dhamma?
- 📝 How does cause depend on its effect?
- 📝 Attachment is a poison. Why is attachment to the Buddha and to Buddhist philosophy not a problem?
- 📝 Question about Buddhism
- 📝 Removing sankharas
- 📝 Is it harmful to the Buddha when we request he or she to continue teaching instead of entering parinirvana?
- 📝 In a Buddhist perspective how do we recall memories of this life and beyond?
- 📝 Are there any sila / vinaya for mind?
- 📝 Killing a terrorist by official government army consider as bad karma?
- 📝 Comparison of Nirvana, Tao and Brahman/Atma
- 📝 What religious texts would help me understand the fundamentals Buddhism better?
- 📝 Where do hiri and ottappa (shame, and fear of wrongdoing) fit in?
- 📝 Does Theravada posit the selflessness of phenomena?
- 📝 Do we indulge or take pleasure in jealousy or the feeling and sensations associated with jealousy?
- 📝 Why is it called "Nama" as in namarupam?'
- 📝 Should we bath after funeral?
- 📝 Are there different experiences of equanimity?
- 📝 Do thoughts create karma?
- 📝 Five tricks to avoid unwholesome kamma
- 📝 Is belief in the end of experience wrong view according to the Buddha?
- 📝 When it comes to commercial products, is there harm to choosing a more beautiful and well-designed option?
- 📝 What are the texts which say or imply what the Buddha looked like?
- 📝 Need help with finding a specific Sutta
- 📝 How much worthy to pay for one who keeps precepts, metta?
- 📝 What do Buddhists believe in?
- 📝 Does anyone read the part 2 of Nagarjuna's karika as an argument about infinite divisibility?
- 📝 Compassion vs the invisible hand and capitalism
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is radiating loving kindness increase attachment?
- 📝 Does loving kindness meditation help beings other than the practitioner?
- 📝 How does metta sutra develop loving kindness
- 📝 Does meditation increase productivity for software developers and related professions?
- 📝 Attachment is a poison. Why is attachment to the Buddha and to Buddhist philosophy not a problem?
- 📝 How To Keep Loving Without Reward?
- 📝 Attachment to other people and beings?
- 📝 Attachment vs legitimate need
- 📝 How to keep balance in the thin line between non attachment to reputation and "not caring about anything"
- 📝 How to increase the speed of learning about oneself?
- 📝 Did the Buddha say anything about attachment to meditation?
- 📝 Difference between Attachment and Goals
- 📝 What is attachment as per Buddhism?
- 📝 How to increase will power?
- 📝 Is attachment to the word "Meditation" a problem?
- 📝 How far is attachment allowed?
- 📝 Attachment and Aversion Continuum
- 📝 What Buddhist materials describe how to increase the number of people with good Karma in a geographic area?
- 📝 Can loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy be developed through Vipassana meditation?
- 📝 How do I recognize the attachment to certain things?
- 📝 Doing daily or complex activities without attachment
- 📝 Loving Communication
- 📝 Does meditation increase sensitivity to sense perceptions and why?
- 📝 What could a lay follower do to increase his zeal to become a monk?
- 📝 Prostration and attachment to rites and rituals
- 📝 Respect, attachment to position and aversion to disrespect. (In Buddhism)
- 📝 Is all attachment equal in nature?
- 📝 Attachment to practice itself
- 📝 Attachment and the three poisons
- 📝 How can I end my attachment to holidays?