25 Loving kindness, part 2

Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat

Alan discusses on developing loving-kindness for even disagreeable people by starting with oneself (as for myself, also for you). Beware to avoid its near enemy: self-centered attachment. The trigger of loving-kindness is this primal yearning for happiness within the continual flow of awareness.

Traditional meditation by Buddhagosa starting with oneself, a close person, a neutral person, and an enemy. With the in-breath, may each find happiness and its causes, and with the out-breath, may it be so.
NB: It is important to attend beyond sheer appearances, but we shouldn’t probe too deeply as to wind up at emptiness.
Meditation starts at 42:00

Questions (67:10):
Q1) In Chap. 3 of the Attention Revolution, it is said that in order to attain stage 3, one needs to take on practice as a serious advocation.

Q2) If there is no cultivation of bodhicitta in the dzogchen path, what aspiration is necessary to avoid becoming an arhat?

Q3) What are similarities and differences between the Theravada and Mahayana in their treatment of shamatha and vipassana/vipashyana?