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I open my heart to the universe. As
I took the name Maitri legally, so too I will practice it all the days of my life. Here is what Pema Chodron says of the Buddhist
teaching maitri…
“When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline,
they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are.
It's a bit like saying, “If I jog, I'll be a much better person.” “If I could only get a nicer house,
I'd be a better person.” If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person.”… But loving-kindness–maitri–toward
ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can
still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not
to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice
is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what
we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.”
The teaching of maitri teaches us that we must
have compassion and loving kindness for ourselves so that we have it to give to a wider world. We cannot give from an empty
heart. It is not selfish to put one's self first, as in when a well has no water the pump will burn out if we keep trying
to use it, first we must fill ourselves to overflowing so that our love and kindness will flow out into the world around us.
And so I have taken Maitri as my name and my spiritual guide, that I might remember to practice it all the days of my life.
This, truly, is who I am.
Blessings and Love to one and all. Learn to love yourself first, then spread
it unto the world...
Maitri
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