I was in Washington DC for work back in March of 2023 and I wanted to find a Buddhist temple that I could go to when I had a free day. So I did some research and I found a place called The Washington Buddhist Vihara. This is the oldest Theravada Buddhist Temple in the United States. So, I thought it would be a good thing to go see.
So, I showed up to this temple, which was really just a big house. This is a thing many people may not be aware of. A vast majority of Buddhist temples in the United States are houses that have been re-purposed because buying and re-purposing a house is much cheaper than building something that looks like a Buddhist temple.
Which reminds me. The Rime Center is trying to build a new temple in Kansas City. Click here for more information: Rime Temple Project
So, anyway, I went there and I met the head of the temple, a Sri Lankan Monk named Bhante Dhammasiri. He’s a pretty well known and respected teacher, but I didn’t know that then. I had shown up unannounced and he just graciously received me. He showed me around the temple. It’s a wonderful space and really felt welcoming and bright. I saw a rooster statue, which I have never heard associated with Buddhism before. I asked him why there was a rooster statue and he said, “Because it’s still the dawn of Buddhism in America.” That felt true to me.
If you’re Buddhist and people think you’re weird or if your community is struggling to stay afloat, remember that it’s still the dawn of Buddhism in America.
So, next he forced food on me. I don’t associate this kind of thing with Buddhist monks, but he did that thing you sometimes see mothers do in movies when a kid goes to a friend’s house. He gave me food and would not take no for an answer. I had some Jackfruit and Green Beans, which made me think of my wife because she loves those two things.
And then he gave me a teaching. He told me a little about his tradition and about the temple. It was a good experience. And when I went to leave he gave me a blessing. He tied a white string around my wrist and did a chant that I didn’t recognize. At the end of the blessing I asked what he had chanted and he told me.
The Metta Sutta, the Buddha’s Discourse on Lovingkindness.
I was so surprised and I said, “Really? The Metta Sutta is my favorite teaching!”
So, we go to bond over that a little. I didn’t know this until later, but the Metta Sutta is an incredibly popular text in Sri Lanka. It’s chanted in every temple of Sri Lankan origin.
It felt like synchronicity to connect over this text.
The Metta Sutta is among the oldest Buddhist teachings.
There’s a story behind it that I really like. Some monks were meditating in a forest and they got scared. They came to believe the forest was haunted. So they went to the Buddha and they told him about this. He gave them this teaching to ward off the ghosts they were afraid of. This is a teaching on opening your heart, about learning how to care about all beings. They memorized and chanted the teaching in the scary forest and they were not attacked by ghosts, nothing happened and it wasn’t scary anymore.
There are two ways to interpret this story. The traditional way is that these ghosts were moved by the sudden openheartedness of the monks, so they decided to not bother them.
The interpretation I prefer is this: the forest was not haunted. The monks imagined the ghosts. So with this teaching they filled their hearts with so much love that they were too busy to make up problems that weren’t there.
That interpretation is meaningful to me because I want to fill my heart with so much love so that I’m too busy to make up problems that aren’t there.
So, by now you may be wondering, what’s in the actual teaching?
To me it’s like an outline. It’s an outline of a path. This is a path that takes the open heart as the way to Enlightenment. A person doesn’t even have to be Buddhist to appreciate this teaching, I think.
I used to be more in line with a path of cultivating mindfulness, which is central to the path for a whole lot of people. I’m much more interested in opening my heart now. I used to be ambivalent about these kinds of teachings. I used to think, “I don’t want to open my heart, I don’t even like other people that much.”
And I’ve learned that opening my heart is the whole path for me. It’s what I need the most.
You can read the text here: The Metta Sutta - translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
It starts the mission statement, this is a path for people to follow that want to find a state of peace. Then moves into a list of virtues to cultivate, then goes into some intention setting, then describes how powerful and important it is to open our hearts. There’s a practice associated with this text called Metta Meditation, which is a powerful way to reframe our intentions without ourselves and others.
And it fits on a page. That’s why I’m calling it an outline. It meant something to those monks because they really took it seriously. We can take it really seriously too if we want to.
It’s all about opening your heart.
Opening our hearts can be the whole path.
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If you’re in Kansas City, I’m leading a study of the Metta Sutta with my friend Lama Matthew. It’s November 5th at 12:30pm at the Rime Center. This is like our Buddhist version of Bible study.
Details are here:
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Click here for a talk I gave on the subject:
Click here for a guided Metta Meditation: