Loving-Kindness Practice: Cutting Through Everyday Anxiety - Sean Feit Oakes

How can we cultivate a heart that remains open and loving regardless of the external circumstances we face? 

In this talk, Sean Feit Oakes explores the Brahma Viharas, also known as the "divine abodes" or states of the heart, as a comprehensive framework for answering this question. He explains that while the Buddha is often associated with wisdom, these practices of love are foundational for both laypeople and monastics to access extraordinary states of consciousness. 

He describes these four qualities not as separate entities, but as the "song" love sings depending on the context it encounters:

• Loving-kindness (Metta): The quintessential quality of friendliness and unbounded, impersonal love.
• Compassion (Karuna): What happens when loving-kindness encounters suffering and pain.
• Empathic Joy (Mudita): Also referred to as "celebration," this is love encountering well-being or beauty.
• Equanimity (Upekkha): A balanced, resting state of love that exists beyond specific objects or conditions, helping to prevent love from turning into grasping.

Sean weaves together diverse influences, from the devotional lineage of Neem Karoli Baba to modern poetry, to illustrate how a dedicated practice of love can cut through everyday neuroses and anxiety. He emphasizes that love inevitably brings us into contact with both beauty and the "heartbreak" of the world's suffering, yet it remains the primary vehicle for healing and waking up. 

Drawing on the Kalama Sutta, he encourages listeners to test these practices for themselves through direct experience rather than blind faith. He invites us to "turn on" the quality of love within the heart and allow it to lead one's movements and perceptions in daily life, suggesting that communities moving from a place of love have the power to ripple out and change the world.

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Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/him, queer, Puerto Rican & English ancestry, living on unceded Pomo land in NorCal), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and locally. See SeanFeitOakes.com

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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter