Loving kindness: I knew I loved you before I met you

The four immeasurables are: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. These are qualities we aspire to in buddhist practice and people appreciate them generally. I think this is because they are part of being human. They emerge naturally with a long standing and committed meditation practice since they are the inherent qualities of awakening.

Some people use the cultivation of them to direct themselves toward awakening. This ‘fake it till you make it’ has never been my style personally because all I could focus on is what is actually true and genuine and trusting that practice could reveal that. I didn’t want to add anything that might be false or artificial or untrue. After practicing for many years now I can finally feel into them and explore them without feeling phoney.

[updated 30 march 2024]

Sangha: We Walk the Same Line

If you lose your faith, babe, you can have mine. And if you’re lost I’m right behind. ‘Cause we walk the same line.

Image by Annie Spratt from Pixabay

I’ll take lonely tonight: The precept of not causing harm with sexuality

Tim Minchin being honest about the temptation to cheat and realising it isn’t worth it.

"I’ll take lonely tonight
Your offer is kind
And I must confess that I find
Your casual caresses and that pretty dress
Pretty hard to resist
And Christ what a night
I think you’re pretty high
I know I’m pretty pissed

But I’ll take lonely tonight
Though I’m not denying
I hate being alone
Even so I know regret in the making
You’re one of those others I swore I’d forsake
And although this extraction is taking
A great act of will
I got a girl has my heart in a house on a hill
So though I am hungry and tempted
I’m sorry I’m not going to bite
I’m gonna take lonely

I’ll take lonely tonight
Though I know I might well
Have future regrets
That I didn’t more often take up these chances
For what is life for but to shag, drink and dance
And teenager me would be screaming his pants off
Begging me to stay
But my girl has my heart in a house half a planet away
And I’d rather murder than hurt her
So sorry though it feels so right
I’m gonna take lonely tonight

Odysseus wasn’t strong enough
To endure the Siren song and so
He made his sailors tie him to a mast
And Jesus spent forty days and forty nights
And he stood his ground and fought his fight
And the devil tried but couldn't break his fast
If this is true
The devil should’ve offered him you
Goddammit

I’ll take lonely tonight In my three-point-five star
Boutique hotel
Where I will spend Twenty-five bucks
On minibar snacks
And pass out on my phone

And wake in four hours or so
Soaked in relief to find
I am alone

With only the wrappers
Of Pringles and Snickers
For which to atone

Blissfully lonely"