Here we have Padmavajra talking about the importance of bhavana in our metta practice – the growing of friendly feelings, friendly responses, slowly, gently, like a garden. What you attend to, you become. It is vital that we engage with the practice honestly, starting where we actually are and gradually moving towards non-dual loving kindness, maha maitri, the Great Love that has dissolved the distinction between self and other.

From the talk entitled Introducing the Great Love given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2004, the first in a five part series by Padmavajra on all aspects of the Metta Bhavana practice and 'The Great Love' in Buddhist discourse and practice - from metta (loving kindness) itself to Bodhichitta. His starting point here is to source notions of love in traditional teaching from the Pali Canon and in the great Mahayana sutras. A refreshing take on metta and how to cultivate it in your life.

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