The monks moved in and the spirits were not happy. They started by making some intense animal sounds around them, in a place where animals were a real risk. The monks stayed put. Then the spirits made some really foul smells, yet the monks stuck it out. The spirits then decided to throw some dead bodies around to get rid of them.
By Anne Heerdt
I first started hearing people use metta phrases and it seemed like just some positive affirmations for people who were already positive.
For context, the metta phrases follow a pattern of saying phrases to yourself, to a mentor, to loved ones, to a neutral person and even to challenging people. The phrases are may I be happy, may I be healthy, may you be at ease and so on.
I struggled with that; I couldn’t quite connect to them in a way that was meaningful for my life. Well then I read the story of why the metta practices and sutta were developed and I found I could trust them more. I will tell the story as it is impactful to me, and maybe it will give you goosebumps as well.
In Asia there is a time of the rainy season when the monastics stay in one place and practice deeply.
It is difficult to travel and the impact on the environment is more pronounced. It is typical for them to stay in one place for a while with community support. A community near a forest offered to host the monastics, provide them with meals and create shelters in the area. This was a wonderful tradition of mutual support.
The monastics were good, the villagers were good, however they had not included the spirits of the forest in the agreement. It was common to include the spirits by honoring them with shrines or other forms of respect. It is also common with my ancestors in Scandinavia and across Europe. I don’t know what my ancestral spirits would do with disrespect but this situation went pretty badly.
I want us to take a minute and imagine what it might have been like.
First of all this was real forest. If you are someone who would try to pet a buffalo at Yellowstone you would not have survived for long. There were wild animals, insects, snakes and even unsafe people in the area. A monastic would have a shelter that I assume was pretty minimal.
It was also common to not have individual burial sites, so charnel grounds were used—an area where the bodies were put to decompose and be eaten by animals. In fact, meditating in a charnel ground was a practice for some monastics. This meditating is not at all for the weak here.
The monks moved in and the spirits were not happy.
They started by making some intense animal sounds around them, in a place where animals were a real risk. The monks stayed put. Then the spirits made some really foul smells, yet the monks stuck it out. The spirits then decided to throw some dead bodies around to get rid of them.
I am impressed that the monks made it this far before asking the Buddha for relocation. It certainly gives me more faith in the practice of meditation to handle tough stuff. They went to the Buddha and said it wasn’t working out and asked to move.
Guess what? He said no. Then he gave them the Metta Sutta.
We can take a minute to read that over, and see what protection or support it offered. He sent them back, armed with the Metta Sutta, and the practice of offering metta phrases. If you are not familiar with the Metta Sutta please take a minute and read it over.
It worked. The monastics went back and practiced reciting the metta sutta, managed the sounds and smells and bodies until the spirits decided that they could accept them, and eventually the spirits decided these guys were okay and protected them. After that I trusted the metta practices much more.
I have done retreats that include 24 – 48 hour solo camping in Colorado. We have some pretty intense and unpredictable weatherand I had a very simple tent with no rain fly on one solo, and spent a lot of hours in metta practice while trying not to touch the edges of the tent (which causes leaking).
I heard how some teachers used the practice to really manage fearful situations. One teacher was on retreat in a tent, and could hear wild animals at night in Colorado.
He practiced all night with metta.
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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