Loving-Kindness in Plain English Quotes

“When you look around at your community, you may feel some disappointment, worry or apprehension at the state of affairs. You see so much suffering - neighbors arguing, countries fighting, and children being neglected. Merely wishing for everyone to experience divine life on earth will not bring it about. However, we have the capacity to make this world heaven, behinning with how we interact in the world. This is called divinely living - to carry loving-friendliness in our hearts rather than ill will. Just as we can make hell on earth, meeta practice can make heaven on earth.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“The way we use our minds matters; the way we think and talk to ourselves has a major impact on what we express, communicatee and perceive. What we think becomes a habit. If we are always complaining about others or rehearsing our grievances and difficulties, we are strengthening the anger habit. What we express is what we have in mind. If we condition our thoughts in loving ways, our words will be loving indeed, our experience of the world will be more loving.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“We all have a tendency to have a deep and unexamined belief that things should go the way we want them to and from this we end up acting as if everything must be done "my own way or the highway"!

The alternative is to act from a place of harmony and cordiality, and to look for ways to compromise. The Buddha's path is, after all, called the Middle Way!

So look honestly at the state of your own mind, look for where you may be falling into extremes, into purely self-centered behavior and use mindful metta to return to the Middle.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“How about your compassion toward somebody full of hatred? If you are so full of loving friendliness, shouldn't you help that person?" But for all of us who are not enlightended, we must honestly and mindfully assess how much we could help. Our capacity is limited. As an unenlightened person, you have your own limitations. When you hit the edge of your limitation, you yourself may get very nervous, very tense, uptight and rigid. Eventually, you may be very much like that angry person.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“Our habitual tendency is to look past all the good things others have done for us and to instead focus on and replay every real or imagined slight. Finding time in your life to actively cultivate gratefulness is an important part of the practice of loving-kindness.

Gratefulness softens your heart and helps reduce your anger and gratefulness seeds the soil to allow loving kindness to grow naturally into joy and peace.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“With metta meditation over time you become less affected by previous conditions that would create negative thoughts of ill will. When your mind is at peace in this way, then you speak in a straight forward and gentle manner, as the sutta points out. You begin to related to the world differently - with patience, consideration and understanding. People - and even animals! naturally gravitate to you. They feel comfortable with you, and their minds are gentle and soft toward you.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“We'll find that practicing metta changes our behavior at every level. Of course we can only do our own personal practice of metta, just as other people must do their own practice. And when we do so our mental patterns change over time. These thoughts are transformed into our speech and actions, which in turn affect other people.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“Just as the residents support Buddha by giving him sustenance on alms rounds, he generates boundless love for them and stretches his compassion out to the whole world. If we wish to see peace in the world we must also develop these qualities - we must let goodwill saturate our minds, because peace begins with each of us. The power of loving-kindness, like the radiance of the sun, is beyond measure”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“One who sincerely seeks inner peace and happiness sees the power of loving friendliness.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“We should practice metta in all these activities. Anger, resentment or disappointment can arise at any time over the course of the day. We risk perpetuating our confused way of relating to others if we do not also make loving-friendliness a habit in all our counters with others, even in the stories we tell ourselves about them.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“We all have experienced various conditions that combine in a unique manner to cause us to act in the ways we do - from a place of either frustration, love, anger, fear or friendship. We cannot forget that we all have the seeds of loving-kindlness too. No one's heart has been hardened by these conditions to the extent that they are incapable of loving other and being kind to themselves. This is the nature of impermancence - our behaviour is subject to change.”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

“Loving friendliness motivates you to behave kindly to all beings at all times and to speak gently in their presence and their absence”
― Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta