Minister’s Column

This is a version of the Buddhist loving kindness meditation:
May I be happy, peaceful, and well. May I be free of danger and fear and suffering.
May you be happy, peaceful, and well. May you be free of danger and fear and suffering.
May we be happy, peaceful, and well. May we be free of danger and fear and suffering.

Moments ago, I searched for loving kindness meditation on the internet and found a six-minute audio version in which Lama Tsomo guides the listener through loving ourselves, then our loved ones, then our neighbors and eventually the whole world. This was definitely worth six minutes of my time, and I invite you to find it on this website: https://www.namchak.org/

This prayer or meditation for loving kindness has two connections for me today. In addition to occasional Buddhist practice, I sometimes find truth and meaning in the literature of 12-step recovery programs. In the so-called “big book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, it says,

If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free.

While couched in the terms of resentment, there is a deep truth here that resonates with the Buddhist prayer for loving kindness. I pray for myself to be well–and I pray the very same thing for everyone else. This is easy for my loved ones, and harder for people that I’m in conflict with or for whom I hold resentment.

This brings me to the last connection. In last Sunday’s worship service I gave a message about the great political divide in this country, and about the difficulty that humans often have in communicating with each other. Part of my message focussed on conversations that we have with one another: how can we talk and listen better? As I reflect more about it, I realize that is only one part of the problem. How we talk and listen to one another is with our brains and our words. How we feel about each other, especially those we are in conflict with, is with our hearts and spirits.

May we take time to meditate and pray for ourselves, then for our loved ones, then for strangers, and finally for the people that we are in conflict with. I don’t have to agree with someone to wish them to be well. When I stop harboring hatred and resentment, then I am healthier and I can engage with people – even those who seem to be enemies – in more healthy and productive ways.

May I be happy, peaceful, and well. May I be free of danger and fear and suffering.
May you be happy, peaceful, and well. May you be free of danger and fear and suffering.
May we be happy, peaceful, and well. May we be free of danger and fear and suffering.
May it be so.
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Rev. Andrew Frantz