This darling video on metta or lovingkindness is as profound as it is sweet (and yes, I have reached an age where I can call something darling without apology, especially when done by darling, brilliant, loving young people.)

Manidha and Alice in Seattle prepared this 7-minute video for a 2013 retreat sponsored by the Buddhist Centre Online. They talk about the five circles of lovingkindness — for self, a loved one, a neutral person, a difficult person, and for all beings — and share a poem for each one. You can watch it here.

The poems are drawn from the book Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, compiled and interpreted by Daniel Ladinsky. Here is one of them, by the German theologian, philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart:

LOVE DOES THAT
by Meister Eckhart

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh, because love does
that.

Love frees.

— Meister Eckhart, born c. 1260 AD