Introduction to Metta (lovingkindness) - Week Four Homework: Daily meditation: Offer kindness/goodwill to an easy being (or benefactor) & self, then someone or some part of you that you find difficult. Please practice 20 minutes or more a day. Remember, it is always okay to return to a being that is easy. It can also be very skillful to switch to mindfulness. Integrating mindfulness into metta practice can increase wisdom. This can be done by noticing what is and isn’t metta, without judging –or buying into–other emotions or experiences. In daily life, notice when Metta is present and when it isn’t. What are conditions that help it arise? Decrease? Appreciating the wish for metta, being interested in it, attending to it, helps to strengthen it.

Week Three Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 15-30 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. At least 2/3 to easy being or benefactor and self, then someone neutral. Experiment with single words/short phrases or gestures to build stability/concentration Always okay to return to where it’s easy, or switch to mindfulness. 2. Micro-practice: offer pulses of kindness, privately, to strangers or neutral persons in the course of each day

Homework for this class is: Daily meditation: 15-20 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. --At least 2/3 metta for easy being/benefactor & self. (start with easy being if it’s helpful). --Up to 1/3 mindfulness (or end with a bit of mindfulness). --If it gets challenging, return to where it’s easy. 2. Micro-practice: Stop, notice, appreciate, kindness/positive regard for self or others: Appreciation, gratitude, or inspiration as a form of mindfulness. If you don’t notice in daily life, recall/write down a few in the evening. Due to a recording error, the second mini lecture was not recorded. The topic was the Buddhist and Scientific rationales for cultivating lovingkindness for oneself. The scientific study referenced is entitled "Open Hearts Build Lives," by Barbara Fredrickson, et al. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=-0XLchUAAAAJ&citation_for_view=-0XLchUAAAAJ:geHnlv5EZngC