"Call and Response" podcast series is made possible by the Kirtan Wallah Foundation: Your support via direct donations are tax deductible under 501c3 guidelines and go toward new offerings such as this series as well as the the compilation of all of KD’s work on the Path, for the purpose of sharing it with everyone in a variety of media. It is also the intention of Kirtan Wallah Foundation to eventually be able to offer assistance to organizations around the world, whose efforts are in alignment with the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.
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"Call and Response" podcast series is made possible by the Kirtan Wallah Foundation: Your support via direct donations are tax deductible under 501c3 guidelines and go toward new offerings such as this series as well as the the compilation of all of KD’s work on the Path, for the purpose of sharing it with everyone in a variety of media. It is also the intention of Kirtan Wallah Foundation to eventually be able to offer assistance to organizations around the world, whose efforts are in alignment with the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.
Call and Response Ep. 73 | Ease of Heart
Q: Two years ago, you used the phrase, “ease of heart” and I was like, “Whoa,” that’s it. That’s what I got. That’s what I need. That’s what I always needed. And so, I carry it, in my head, you know, all day, kind of. It goes in and out of my mind. Then today when I was coming, I thought, “I don’t know if I really know what you think it is.”
“You can’t cure anger with more anger. You can’t cure hate with more hate. The only transforming power in the universe is Love and real Love means… Listen to me, as if I know… Real love means accepting things as they are and including them.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi. So, I heard you speak like two…
KD: Where you?
Q: I’m here. Two years ago, you used the phrase, “ease of heart” and I was like, “Whoa,” that’s it.
KD: I used the part… what?
Q: Ease of heart.
KD: Ease of heart, yeah yeah.
Q: And I was, “Whoa, that’s it.” That’s what I got. That’s what I need. That’s what I always needed. And so, I carry it, in my head, you know, all day, kind of. It goes in and out of my mind. Then today when I was coming, I thought, “I don’t know if I really know what you think it is.”
KD: What?
Q: I don’t know if I really understand what it really means to you, but I think it’s what you were just talking about, right?
KD: Yeah.
Q: Ok. That’s all I needed to know.
KD: It comes from the Metta, the Metta Loving Kindness Meditation practice, which was originally given by the Buddha to some monks. He had sent some monks to meditate in a forest and they went to the forest and they tried to meditate but the tree spirits were causing trouble for them and harassing them. So, they came to the Buddha and they said, you know, “Give us a weapon to defeat these angry spirits that are giving us a hard time.” And the weapon the Buddha gave them was the Loving Kindness Meditation and it transformed the whole forest, of course. That’s the only way. You can’t cure anger with more anger. You can’t cure hate with more hate. The only transforming power in the universe is Love and real Love means… listen to me, as if I know… real love means accepting things as they are, and including them. Like, once again, a heart as wide as the world. And so, this practice is really great and right near here in Barry, Massachusetts is IMS, the Instant Meditation Society. Insight Meditation Society. And they teach, they teach that practice there quite a lot along with Vipasana also. But Metta is its own practice and it comes in that phrase. So, it starts off, they teach you four phrases, four phrases, and one is, “May I be safe, may I be happy, may I have good health and may I live at ease of heart.” “At ease of heart in this world and with whatever comes to me.” And you’re asked to offer these phrases to yourself. And the first couple of days of the practice, they describe the whole thing to you and they give you these phrases and they’re doing now and the meditation practice is to sit there and not to struggle with your mind and your thoughts, but to sit there and offer these phrases to yourself, to repeat them, not automatically or mechanically, but to try to connect with them. You know, “may I be safe.” “May I be happy.” “May I have good health and may I live at ease,” and on and on. So, after two days I was ready to commit suicide. I couldn’t feel a damn thing. I was just like getting harder and harder and more destroyed. I was like flipping out. And then they say, now take the phrases and offer them to what they call the benefactor, which is somebody who’s always been on your side. Maybe your grandmother, maybe somebody or a teacher who’s just always been there. Certainly, usually not your partner. Somebody who’s really always been there for you. And then offer the phrases to that person, and you know, in like, in a half an hour you’re flying because you bring that person to mind and of course, “May you be safe,
Call and Response with Krishna Das
"Call and Response" podcast series is made possible by the Kirtan Wallah Foundation: Your support via direct donations are tax deductible under 501c3 guidelines and go toward new offerings such as this series as well as the the compilation of all of KD’s work on the Path, for the purpose of sharing it with everyone in a variety of media. It is also the intention of Kirtan Wallah Foundation to eventually be able to offer assistance to organizations around the world, whose efforts are in alignment with the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.
