Why Metta Man?

Why is my business and channel called Metta Man? Metta frames an orientation to life that is constructive, expansive, vibration-raising, and may ultimately received as positive? Metta is a pali word representing the first of four Buddhist immeasurable virtues -love (metta). Embodying metta means universally loving and caring for all beings (including yourself) with unconditional acceptance and without judgement. In other words, it is extending love, acceptance, and good wishes to others as they currently exist, without judgment, and without any expectations for reciprocation or benefit in return.

In our frequently polarized world one may engage with the energy of universal love (metta) or the energy of fear. Love is expansive and constructive, and aligns with what we may understand as universal energy or God. Truly embracing metta requires a deep trust and faith that things are unfolding in exactly the way that they are supposed to, for our highest good, and for the highest good of all. Even when we are faced with difficulties, hardships, crises, temporary defeats, and loss, we can embrace these experiences as opportunities for learning and personal growth. Alternately, the energy of fear is lower-vibration, constrictive, dark, negative, stagnant, and paralyzing, and may be metaphorically understood as that which many refer to as the energy of evil or the devil.

Trust me - engaging with yourself and the world with a spirit of metta instead of fear is a game changer.

The foundation of self-love and personal growth is developing awareness of all aspects of ourselves, both light and shadow, understanding why each of those aspects exist, and learning how to befriend, accept, and love our shadow aspects that we are not proud of with equanimity. These shadow aspects represent defense mechanisms and coping strategies that we have developed in response to our past challenges, pain, sadness, and traumas. While it is certainly easier to love the light, or so-called positive aspects of ourselves, because we interpret these aspects as acceptable, as things to be proud of about ourselves. Our shadow aspects often require us to summon metta to hold them with loving kindness, compassion, and gentleness so that we may interact with them in a beneficial way. A key thing to recognize is that our shadows are living in the past and operating on old information; therefore, their perspective is not particularly helpful to living in the present moment. However, we can gently acknowledge these shadows when they emerge in our thoughts, reassure them that their fears are not necessarily relevant to the current situation, and hold them with loving kindness as we discern the best path forward based on current information in the present moment. However, left unacknowledged and unchecked, these shadow aspects may create problems in the present moment by causing us to react in a knee-jerk manner to a triggering situation or by creating paralyzing anxiety or fear that is not grounded in present reality.

Ultimately embracing and developing a loving relationship with our "true self" requires us to acknowledge and integrate all aspects of ourselves in the spirit of metta – with no aspect left behind. Think of this as a process rather than an endpoint because it takes time and effort to do this personal work. It is like peeling back the layers of the proverbial onion, and sometimes we will not uncover a shadow aspect from our subconscious until we have dealt with a previous layer that is concealing it. Unfortunately, if we try to bury or ignore an aspect we do not wish to acknowledge, it will eventually emerge and cause us trouble – probably when we least expect it or want it to come forward.

Why is it important to integrate and accept all aspects of ourselves? First, unless we do, it is impossible to live authentically and with love, peace, and acceptance for ourselves. Second, it is a key step in overcoming our egoic understanding of ourselves and extending a metta mindset to others and the universe as a whole.