My First Study Meeting
I’ve just finished my first study group meeting with the Reading Suttas WhatsApp group. It was fantastic. We read 114 Sutta from the book Majjhima Nikaya in preparation for our meeting, and through it, we discussed topics inspired by the place where the reading and our experience met.
Someone brought up an event when a friend crushed a spider during a picnic, and that immediately generated the thought – ‘I don’t want to see him again. He killed a spider.’ During the conversation, we learned it was a sign to start cultivating forgiveness toward those who act in ignorance and find where we fall short of wholeness. For example, the same person who reacted to seeing someone killing a spider had a few dead mice in his basement; the work of exterminators he invited to clear the house from pests. Amazing, right?
No wonder, they say, when you point the finger at somebody else, four of them are pointing back at you.
So, what would be the wholesome thing to do when we see someone crushing a spider? Maybe send Metta to the spider for sacrificing its life for our coming awareness, forgiving the one who killed since he was acting in ignorance, and send Metta to ourselves for all the creatures we kill or assist in killing in ignorance.
Awareness is a process that needs a lot of patience and equanimity.
Pointing an unwholesome action to somebody else is unwholesome if we don’t experience stability while doing it. If we can’t say something kindly, we better not say anything.
I have much to work on, but I shouldn’t judge myself. Instead, I’d better keep meditating and cultivate stability as much as possible while forgiving myself and others for our mistakes without awareness.
Metta (loving-kindness in Pali, the language Buddha spoke)