Podcast: Spirituality in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 4

This is the final episode in Rabbi Rami’s special four-part series on how to stay healthy from social, psychological, and spiritual perspectives during the COVID-19 crisis. This week, Rabbi Rami focuses on the Buddhist practice of metta, or lovingkindness, which fosters compassion. This practice encourages us to wish others well, and allows us to be free from fear.

Rabbi Rami bases some of the conversation on the work of Sharon Salzberg, and her seminal book, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness.

As Salzberg explains metta, “We open continuously to the truth of our actual experience ... metta is the sense of love that is not bound to desire, that does not have to pretend things are other than the way they are overcomes the illusion of separateness, of not being a part of the whole. Metta overcomes all the states that accompany this fundamental error of separateness: Fear, alienation, loneliness, and despair.”

Metta softens your heart and allows you to act compassionately. It will change how you engage with others, Rabbi Rami promises us, which may actually change how others interact with us in turn. In this podcast, he will teach you how to try the metta practice. Listen to the podcast to give it a go. 

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