She lived at the Portland Priory and now enjoys her retirement out on the Oregon Coast. Her name? Metta. Ms. Metta. Her breed? German Shepherd. Her pedigree? Impressive.
Metta is most commonly translated as loving kindness. The Metta Sutra instructs on the various practices of loving kindness. And the link goes to a very good translation and explanation of the Metta Sutra by the way. We were not instructed in formal Metta practice. And it is not one that I have picked up either. The closest we come to metta is benevolence. That being one of the four signs of Enlightenment. The other qualities are tenderness, sympathy and charity.
What a great photograph. What a great dog. She was rescued, I believe. What an apt name. Our animal friends don’t practice metta, they ARE metta! And I guess we can be the same. Can we not?
“Our animal friends don’t practice metta, they ARE metta!”
Of late I have had to dog-sit/walk my daughter’s dog from time to time as she works long shifts. Once the dog had learned to trust me, (it has a history of abuse by its previous owner), it became much more relaxed and most times it just glories in its dogginess. Such naive innocence, Tai (the dog) has so much to share. The epitome of your quote.
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Norman
glad that this thought of animals being metta is recognized by others.
Hi, I thought readers would be amused to see this post about Metta re-published (with permission) here: http://bit.ly/hY7nko
What amazes me is that these folk found the post, and so quickly.