JoAnna Hardy gives us perspective on the origins of metta and guides us through a gentle meditation to cultivate loving kindness for ourselves and all beings.

“One of my favorite teachings around this idea of metta, or loving kindness, care, friendliness, benevolence, is that naturally from a mind and heart that are at ease, this quality comes alive. So we don't actually have to do anything to make it happen.” - JoAnna Hardy

In this offering from a 2018 Spirit Rock retreat, JoAnna gently guides us through a metta meditation, softly exploring:

• Clearing the hindrances of our being through mindfulness practice and allowing our natural state of metta to emerge
• The origins of metta
• Metta as the antidote to fear, aversion, and hatred
• The undefended heart and the undefended mind
• How we feel about wishing for the wellbeing of ourselves and of beings who: are easy to love, we feel neutral towards, we have a light agitation towards, feels like a difficult person to love

Explore JoAnna's heartwork here

About JoAnna Hardy: 

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher's council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs.

Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice. 

Graphic via Khwanchai AMstocker

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