Last week I wrote of my introduction to metta, and I asked, “Do I really need a love practice?” I have found that the answer is a resounding yes. Within Loving-Kindness I have found a stance for social justice, creating a sustainable life and an overall experience of living a peaceful life. Over the last week I seemed to sprinkle in metta wishes wherever I could.

Benefits of Loving-Kindness. So far I have discovered:

  • A gentle friend within, as Sharon Salzberg writes
  • A gentleness on myself though times of transitions
  • A softening of my judgment toward people who annoy me – this small opening has allowed me to see their humanity clearer
  • A calm serenity in the face of unfortunate circumstances like when AAA caused $1,000 worth of damage to my car or when my husband’s car got stolen for a second time in 17 months from in front of our house
  • An easier time being with what is emotionally, physically and circumstantially
  • A willingness to be transparent about all things

Are Sufficiency and Loving-Kindness linked? As with all practices I take on, I am exploring how metta is related to sufficiency and our experiments at Seven Stones.

Love is what I call the ultimate Tool of Sufficiency. It is also one of the seven values of Seven Stones Leadership Group. So how does this new teaching, this Loving-Kindness, fit into my thinking? One day while working with a client, the answer came to me. I got it.

Inquiry, experimentation and practice are the methods by which we create and explore here at Seven Stones. I had started the inquiry of love in our work and metta is the practice to cultivate that love.

The ultimate Tool of Sufficiency now has a companion daily practice to help us cultivate the tool of love for ourselves, our organizations and the world. As I spend more and more time with this practice, I have the experience of the Weapons of Scarcity being stopped in their tracks and falling to the ground near me but not quite getting to me.

Bringing love as a practice to myself, my benefactor, my work colleagues, friends and family as well as neutral parties, enemies (see more on this topic in part three) and all beings has brought joy, happiness and ease to my own journey. I now have appreciation and discernment for our work in exquisite sufficiency, and I find I have more love and connection in my heart for all beings.

May you be safe and protected from harm

May you discover happiness and peace

May your mind and body be healthy and strong

May you find ease and grace

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering