metta

[altar]

is metta an active meditation for you? or is it more letting the vibes of loving kindness go?

[daverupa]

I try to sustain the attitude so it's like a lamp: the light shines, but only shines on when something comes into range, and that is a function of the light already permeating the area and not a change in the way the light permeates.

So with the brahmaviharas, it's almost as if each sense sphere is already primed, such that - increasingly as the practice continues - any beings which appear to this or that sense are already appearing with the brahamviharas as background... as though the sense spheres have brahmavihara wallpaper, say, or a brahmavihara fireplace, or brahmavihara incense, or brahmavihara muzak... it just pervades, and equanimously gloms onto whatever beings there are with respect to that sense.