Download this month's offering, "The Moon Among Stars"

(Bold links below jump to sections for previous offerings; below each of these is a link to the relevant pdf for download.)

SUTTA STUDIES - "Even Once"

SUTTA STUDIES - "Removal of Grudges"

SUTTA STUDIES - "Do It!"

SUTTA STUDIES - "One who actively develops loving kindness"

Download this month's offering, "Even Once!"

Download "The Removal of Grudges"

Download "One who actively develops loving kindness"

SUTTA STUDIES - "No Ill Will"

Download "No Ill Will, Mettā in the Anguttara Nikāya" translation and reflections

SUTTA STUDIES - "The Trumpeter"

Download "The Trumpeter, Mettā in the Tevijja Sutta" translation and reflections

SUTTA STUDIES - Mettā Sutta

Downloadable pdf of Metta Sutta

Three-Part Outline

Occasion for Recitation

Other translations, by verse

Verse 1
Verse 2
Verse 3
Verse 4
Verse 5
Verse 6
Verse 7
Verse 8

Verse 9

Verse 10

Commentaries by A. Olendzki

Thematic analysis

Verse 1 analysis
Verse 2 analysis
Verse 3 analysis
Verse 4 analysis
Verse 5 analysis
Verse 6 analysis
Verse 7 analysis
Verse 8 analysis

Verse 9 analysis

Verse 10 analysis

Reflections for daily practice

Verse 1 reflections for practice

Verse 2 reflections for practice

Verse 3 reflections for practice

Verse 4 reflections for practice
Verse 5 reflections for practice
Verse 6 reflections for practice
Verse 7 reflections for practice
Verse 8 reflections for practice
Verse 9 reflections for practice
Verse 10 reflections for practice

Downloadable pdf of word list/grammar

Pali with accents for chanting

Sources

Related suttas

Downloadable (pdf) of Mettā Sutta materials (except "Reflections"; above.)

NOTE: Large (575 KB) file. (Smaller pdfs are found on most pages in the Reading Room section.)

SUTTA STUDIES - 2011

The Moon Among Stars

ye sattasaņdam pathavim vijitvā
rājīsayo yajamānānupariyagā...
mettassa cittassa subhāvitassa
kalam-pi te nānubhavanti soļasim
candappabhā tāragaņā va sabbe.

Those who conquer the earth, teeming with beings,
—Kings and priests who scurry around sacrificing—
They surely do not partake in even a sixteenth part
Of the heart well developed in loving kindness
—Shining like the moon among all the crowd of stars.

—Itivuttaka 3:7c

The full moon shining brightly against a background of stars is a common image in early Buddhist poetry. We do well to remember that observing such a scene 2,500 years ago in a sparsely populated rural area well after all lamps have been extinguished would have been a far different experience than the modern urban dweller casually glancing up and happening to notice the moon. Even today, if we have the opportunity to camp out in the desert or sail well out to sea on a small boat, we are staggered to see just how many stars inhabit the night sky and how bright is their cumulative light.

Somehow in ancient India they came up with the equation that the full moon was sixteen times as bright as the entire background of stars put together, and this is the image used in this verse to point to the value of loving kindness. Yes, there are many people scurrying around in the world engaging in this and that enterprise or affair, and in the Buddha’s time kings and priests were considered to be at the pinnacle of society and thus absorbed in matters of great importance. But as the Buddha so often hints elsewhere, what you are doing is far less important than the quality of heart with which you are doing it.

So even if you are engaged in very important work—people are depending upon you, you are counteracting the many injustices in this world, you are helping people in need—the value of that work diminishes sixteen-fold if you are not engaging in it with a heart of loving kindness. Conversely, even if you are not doing something very important in the working world, sitting quietly and developing the benevolent intention that all beings be happy, safe, and free from harm, you may well be doing something sixteen times more important than that wealthy, famous, powerful person who seems to have it all.

One way you might think of working with this idea in practice is to put aside at least one sixteenth of your time and attention and devote it to cultivating kindness. Perhaps you practice mettā meditation one hour of each 16-hour waking day, or make a point of being especially kind to every sixteenth person you serve or come across at work, or spend a day in silent practice for every sixteen days spent on other pursuits. Or perhaps you can just use the full moon as a reminder each month of what is of most value in this world: we are engaged in a countless sky-full of little events throughout out lives, but let’s see if we can have them all illuminated by the bright full moon of our loving kindness for one another.

Even Once!

ekam-pi ce pāņam-aduţţhacitto
mettāyati kusalo tena-hoti
sabbe ca pāņe manasānukampam.
pahūtam-ariyo pakaroti puññam.

If one shows kindness with a clear mind—
Even once!—for living creatures,
By that one becomes wholesome.
Having mercy in his or her heart for all creatures,
A noble person brings forth abundant goodness.

If one shows kindness with a clear mind

Here we see a rare case of the word mettā  being used as a verb (mettāyati). This emphasizes the fact that loving kindness is something you DO. Perhaps the English idiom “show kindness” does not work as well as a more literal phrase, such as “enact kindness” or “manifest kindness” or even “be kindness.” This latter gets closer to the frequently occuring “developing kindness” found in the expression mettā bhāvanā (literally, “causing kindness to be”). In this phrase the term loving kindness is taken to be transitive, insofar as the kindness needs to be directed toward somebody or something—namely, toward living beings (pāna: literally “breathing ones”; compare the Sanskrit word for breath well known to yoga practitioners, prāna).

Notice also that the state of loving kindness can only occur when the mind is free of impediments (aduţţha-citto). As we have seen before, any selfish attachment to living beings, annoyance, enmity, or any of the other unwholesome emotional states, will immediately render true loving kindness impossible. Kindness is not just an idea, it is a living emotion. It cannot be faked or approximated or intimated. Either you really do feel loving kindness toward another being, in which case you are actually doing it—making it happen—or else you don’t and are not.

Practice: See if you can discern in your own experience the difference between thinking thoughts of loving kindness and actually manifesting the emotion of loving kindness. The thoughts and phrases can act as a basis and support for the emotion, but cannot stand in its stead. Gazing out the window at a bird on a branch, for example, can you first think kindly thoughts about it and then deeply feel a genuine intention of caring for its happiness and well being? Shift back and forth between these two modes from time to time in order to get a sense of the difference. This experiential knowledge can serve you well in other situations where you are practicing the enactment of loving kindness.

—Even once!—for living creatures
By that one becomes wholesome

The Buddha has said there is nothing that changes as rapidly as the mind (Anguttara Nikāya 1:5). Not only is it constantly shifting attention from one object to another, but the perceptual interpretations, the co-arising feeling tones, and the emotional responses with which each object is regarded are also changing incessantly. Yet every single one of these moments, we are told, has karmic repercussions. Every single action of the mind involves intention or volition, and it is volition (cetanā)  that is the driving force of karma. This is why Buddhists in general put so much emphasis upon the quality of the mind at every moment, and this is why our text here is saying that even a fleeting moment of loving kindness has wholesome consequences.

Even if you are in a foul mood, everything is going against you, and you cannot think of one good reason why anyone deserves your loving kindness…make it happen anyway! Using the power of mindful awareness, realize that you are just being temporarily hijacked by some strong by ultimately fleeting emotional states, and that you do not have to participate in their perpetuation. By thinking a good thought about someone, which may even lead to feeling an emotion of loving kindness toward them—even if just for a brief moment—that will have a transformative effect upon your stream of consciousness and will help significantly change the dynamic of your mind and body. Loving kindness can thus act as a pivot point, a fulcrum, that can be used to leverage your mind from an unwholesome to a wholesome state. Since the two qualities cannot co-exist in a single moment of consciousness, even one wholesome thought intruding upon a stream on unwholesome thoughts can make a huge difference to all that follows.

Practice: Try this for yourself. The next time you are in an unwholesome state of mind—let’s say you are annoyed at someone for doing something annoying—see what happens when you take a short break from thinking terrible thoughts about this person to choose a moment of loving kindness. If it is too difficult to have this person be the target of that kindness (and it almost surely will be too difficult), direct the good intentions to a neutral party, such as the bird outside the window. So-and-so might still be a jerk, but you will choose to think instead for a moment of the bird, and you will think of it kindly, with an attitude of wishing it happiness and well-being. After a few moments of this (of actually DOING it, and not just thinking about it), you may return to your fuming about so-and-so. Notice anything? 

Having mercy in his or her heart for all creatures,
A noble person brings forth abundant goodness.

Loving kindness is a noble quality of heart and mind. Feeling tenderness or compassion or mercy (anukampā) is something that only well-developed humans can accomplish. It is easy to be selfish, easy to be cruel, easy to push care for others aside to get what one wants in life. After all we have deep-seated instincts, inherited from our reptilian ancestors, that drive us in this direction. The Buddha seems to take the view that nobility is something we evolve toward, and that noble ones who walk a noble path to understand the noble truths are aspiring to become truly worthy (arahant). Such a person acts in the world, and effortlessly contributes to it becoming a better place for all. By means of their clarity of mind and benevolence of heart, a noble person actively brings forth goodness (puñña) and transforms all with whom he or she comes in contact.

The Removal of Grudges

yasmim puggale āghāto jāyetha,
mettā tasmim puggale bhāvetabbā.
evam tasmim puggale āghāto pativinetabbo

If you give birth to a grudge towards any person,
cultivate loving kindness towards that person…
Thus the grudge towards that person can be removed.

—Anguttara Nikaya 5:161  

This passage demonstrates one of the practical applications of loving kindness (mettā). We may be used to thinking of it in a rather abstract way, as a generalized care for the well-being of all sentient beings, or as a type of formal meditation in which one is absorbed wholly in an immeasurable field of loving kindness. But here we see a more modest and particular approach to its practice.

In a manner entirely characteristic of Buddhist psychology, the presence of a grudge is seen to be a problem for its subject rather than of its object. Western thought more naturally faces outward, and would tend to resolve the situation by exploring ways the person toward whom the grudge is held might be reformed, made to apologize, or somehow held accountable for their transgression. “If the other person changes in some way, I can let go of the grudge I hold (because, of course, I am justified in holding this grudge).”

In this case, though, the reason for the grudge is entirely irrelevant. Whether “right” or “wrong,” the holding of the grudge is doing damage to oneself; it is a toxic and unhealthy emotion to be nurturing, since it is kept alive by repetitive thoughts of ill will toward other person. The Buddha thus treats it as an affliction that needs to be healed for the sake of one’s own well being. And the antidote to this malady is loving kindness—preferably in massive doses.

Manifesting loving kindness actively in one’s own experience, moment after moment, has the effect both of counteracting any ill-will that might otherwise arise, and of strengthening the healthy roots of one’s own beneficial unconscious dispositions. Indulging the grudge will only make one become more unhealthy and unhappy, while removing the grudge will contribute greatly to healing.

Notice that adjusting one’s own attitude does not necessarily mean giving in or acquiescing to what the other person has done. The person to whom I direct the grudge might still be entirely “guilty” of some transgression, but in this view two different components of the situation, the content and the process, are to be disentangled. Even if the reason for the grudge is legitimate in some way, the impact of the experience of holding the grudge is harmful to oneself. One can still follow through on whatever actions are appropriate to deal with the implications of the behavior, but should take care to do so with an attitude that is imbued with loving kindness.

Which brings us to the practice, which is simple but not easy. Can you manage, even in the face of the full-on grudge you may hold toward someone, to also at the same time generate an intention of loving kindness toward them? Without necessarily forgiving the matter that induced it, can you nevertheless find something about that person that can act as the anchor point of an internally generated emotion or attitude of friendliness toward them? Yes you can. Try it.

(If you are looking for previous offerings, please see the links at the left.)

SUTTA STUDIES - Do It! ( first offered January 2011)

Do It!

PātācārāTherī - Therīgāthā 118

Engage with the Buddha’s teaching

The opening word of this stanza is the second person imperative form of the verb “to make” or “to do”—its most direct meaning is therefore: Do it! This is so important. The teaching of the Buddha is not something merely to read, listen to, or think about; it has always been something to do, to enact, to embody, to undertake in experience and exemplify in behavior. In short, the instructions, the curriculum, the tradition, the spiritual path (all possible words for sāsana), left behind by the Buddha as his legacy, is something that must be engaged with if it is to be understood at all.

In this sense all Buddhism has always been engaged Buddhism. Some might emphasize engagement with external social and political constructs, while others might engage with the shadow side of one’s own psyche, but all Buddhists are ideally practicing the teacher’s instructions in one way or another. Theory (dhamma) and practice (vinaya) are two halves of the same word, and have always been yoked together in Buddhist tradition.

One who does so has no regrets

Engaging with the Buddha’s teachings yields tangible results. They may be spectacularly dramatic results, such as the total emancipation of the mind from its underlying toxins of greed, hatred and delusion, or they may be more modest results, such as becoming a better person and contributing to making the world a better place for all. These are both stages on the same continuum. The Buddha was not a philosopher, or an intellectual, nor was he a theologian. He regarded himself as a physician whose sole motivation was to heal people who are suffering and guide them to an experience of profound well-being. Any effort invested in behaving with greater integrity, becoming more mindful, or understanding more clearly the way things really are will make you better off, in very tangible and appreciable ways.

Quickly wipe the dust from your feet

There are many ways to construe the symbolic expression of wiping dust from one’s feet. Most literally, people walked around ancient India barefoot much of the time and the early texts often describe the polite protocol of providing water for washing the feet and providing a seat (probably a folded blanket or cloth) for discussion—and for meditation. More figuratively, we can imagine that one has to wash away ordinary daily concerns in order to clear the mind for meditation, or that one has to abandon attachment to various views in order to clear the way for developing new insights. Either way, the fact we are encouraged to do this “quickly” suggests both the urgency and the value of undertaking such a practice.

And sit yourself down to one side

As we know, the Buddhist teachings do not put much emphasis on the “self” we mean in the English “yourself.” All the Pali is actually saying here is “sit down to one side.” The extra word is just being added to bring the translation in line with the original meter, which is eight syllables per line, so don’t get distracted by it. The phrase refers both to taking a seat beside the Buddha in order to hear his instruction, and to sitting down deliberately in a quiet place to engage in the practice of meditation. As you can imagine from what has been said so far, this double sense of the expression is intentional. For in its original context, to hear the teaching was to practice the teaching, so to sit down for instruction was also to sit down to fulfill that instruction in direct experience.

Practicing mental tranquility

Here we get to the core of the matter, the way, specifically, we engage with the Buddha’s teaching. The word for tranquility is samatha, a word well known to Buddhist practitioners. As a technical term it refers to concentration practices that calm the mind by focusing its attention upon a single object, including focusing on loving kindness in mettā practice. But it can also be used more generally (as I think is the case here) to refer to mental training and mental development as a whole. The final word of the compound is worth examining, for it is difficult to render exactly in this context. The word is –yutta,or –anuyutta, which is related to the English “yoke” and the Pali “yoga”, which can have a positive or a negative connotation. Negatively, it can refer to being attached to something, to be bound or yoked as a bull is lashed to a cart. Positively, it means rather the discipline or commitment that allows for something to have a deeply transformative effect. In this instance I think it refers to a fundamental engagement with the practices of tranquilizing the mind, and a core commitment to bringing its practice into one’s life at all levels. Another way it might be rendered is “Engage with mental tranquility!”

SUTTA STUDIES - 2010

SUTTA STUDIES - "One who actively develops loving kindness"

From the Itivuttaka  3:7:

One who actively develops loving kindness

As gentle and natural as loving kindness can feel experientially, it is generally not something that “just happens” on its own except under particular circumstances (as when a mother gazes upon her slumbering child, for example). The Buddhist texts talk often about the need to develop loving kindness, to practice it often, and to “make it become” through an active process of cultivation. This sense is conveyed here in the stanza from the Itivuttaka, one of the texts in the Miscellaneous Collection (Khuddaka Nikāya)  by use of the causative form of the verb “to be” (bhāvayati rather than bhavati), which can be taken literally as “causing to be.” Indeed the general term for loving kindness meditation uses the same construction: the development of loving kindness (mettā bhāvanā).

This does not mean that we need to strain or force ourselves to love when really we feel the opposite, but it does suggest the extent to which mettā  practice, as a formal meditation, requires diligent application and sustained effort. Just like one, during meditation on the breath for example, must notice when attention has drifted from bodily sensations associated with breathing to stray mental associations and gently escort awareness back to the breath, in the same way maintaining consistency in the manifestation of loving kindness takes both patience and persistence. And as with all forms of mental training, what at first seems difficult and even odious can gradually become easier and even enjoyable.

Mindfully and without limit

Mindfulness (sati) and loving kindness (mettā)  are not the same thing, but neither are they entirely different from one another. The phenomenological texts of the Abhidhamma have the two mental factors always arising together in the same moment of experience—when one is regarding an object with mindfulness, one at the same time has an attitude of benevolence toward it, and vice versa. This emphasizes the extent to which loving kindness is entirely different from love rooted in greed or desire or attachment, and shares the quality of equanimity that comes along with mindfulness. No matter how strongly loving kindness is felt, it never spills over into grasping or clinging to the object regarded. If that does happen in experience, then one is no longer practicing mettā  and has slipped into a near enemy of loving kindness such as passion (rāga).

Exercise: See if you can find this edge in your own experience, where loving kindness morphs into a more attached form of desire. Can you feel a difference between loving someone (your partner, your family, your pet?) on the one hand with a sense of equanimity, really wishing for their well being for their own sake, and on the other hand feeling love or affection for someone else that is tinged somehow with a sense of your own needs or aspirations? Sometimes we feel fondly toward someone because, in some subtle way, what they do for us, or give us, somehow feeds into our own sense of self, while at other times our feelings are more selfless or less self-oriented. Both are natural and authentic experiences; see if you can notice how experientially they feel a bit different.

The phrase “without limit” is by now quite familiar to readers well acquainted with the Mettā Sutta, as it is explored and elaborated upon in that text in a comprehensive way.

Sees their attachments wane;
Their bonds become worn thin

One effect of loving kindness practice is the loosening of the bonds that hold us attached in unhealthy ways to various sensory pleasures, habits, or points of view. There are official lists of five, seven or ten “fetters” (samyojanā), and here it is said of these that they “become thin” (tanu), or perhaps, become weak. Kindness has a softening effect. Notice how staying angry at someone requires that you rehearse to yourself the various things they have said or done that justify the anger, and how when you start feeling some sympathy or affection for them it is much more difficult to stay angry. The same happens with many other emotions besides anger. Loving kindness is a practice for loosening the hold many things have upon our hearts and minds.

This verse is also saying something important about rebirth and the liberating effect of loving kindness in the larger, cosmological picture. The word rendered “attachments” here is actually upadhi, a term used to indicate the karmic substratum or residue of unresolved unwholesome dispositions. As long as these “substrates” are present at the time of death, they will propel consciousness to re-arise on one of the planes of existence—i.e., to get reborn. The arahant is someone whose substrates are destroyed entirely, and is therefore no longer reborn; but each of us also have substrates that can become “dried up” (the literal sense of –khaya  in upadhikkhayam  above) or attenuated by the practice of loving kindness.

SUTTA STUDIES - "No Ill Will"

From the Anguttara Nikāya 1:2.7:

(Nyanaponika & Bodhi, Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, p. 34)

No other thing do I know, on account of which unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned, so much as on account of this: the liberation of the heart by loving-kindness. For one who attends properly to the liberation of the heart by loving-kindness, unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned.

This passage points directly to why the development of loving kindness (mettā -bhāvanā) is so transformative.

In Buddhist thought the mind is understood as unfolding drop  by drop in an stream of consciousness; that is, what appears as a continuous narrative is actually composed of a large number of brief moments that arise and pass away in rapid succession. Like snapshots linked together on a film strip, our mind actually only works on one project at a time, assembles one brief view of what is going on in one instant, and then immediately erases the slate and crafts another scene in the next moment.

Once consequence of this model is that the mind can actually only take one thing at a time as an object of awareness, and moreover, it can do so with only one attitude or emotional response (sankhāra) at a time. Among our repertoire of emotional responses, loving kindness and ill will are polar opposites, and cannot arise together in the same moment. When it appears we both love someone and hate them at the same time (ever been in an intimate relationship?) these are actually two entirely different constructions alternating rapidly one after another.

So, every moment when one is manifesting loving kindness in the mind, its opposite, ill will, is locked out and cannot manifest. The Buddha likens this to a pot filled to the brim with water, such that Màra (symbolic of the shadow side of our psyche) can gain no access. In formal mettà practice, when many moments of loving kindness are strung together with no break in continuity, ill will (and all other unwholesome states) cannot and do not arise. This has a purifying effect on the mental activity of the moment, and “the heart is liberated [from ill will] by loving kindness.” It also generates wholesome dispositions, habits of mind and behavior that become strengthened and reinforced in the unconscious, which is fundamentally transformed in the direction of the wholesome.

Try this out for yourself. Notice how, when you think the best of someone, an emotion of loving kindness naturally arises, and when you think of a fault or some slight, this is replaced by an attitude of annoyance or even ill will. Then try deliberately toggling between the two. See if you can detect the visceral experiential difference between the two mind states. What does it feel like (using the English vernacular) to experience love? What does ill will feel like?

The Buddha’s message here, as I understand it, is that at every moment we have a choice as to which of these two attitudes/emotional responses we manifest in our experience. Yes, the conditioning might be very strong in one direction or another (“…but they are being such a jerk!”), yet shifting gears from one to another can be far easier and more accessible than we are used to thinking. Enact loving kindness, and ill will disappears, as turning on a light will expel the darkness.

Explore this deeply in your own experience—all the time.

SUTTA STUDIES - "The Trumpeter"

From the Tevijja Sutta, Digha Nikāya 13:

so mettā-sahagatena cetasā ekam disam pharitvā viharati, tathā dutiyam, tathā tatiyam, tathā catuttham. iti uddham adho tiriyam sabbadhi sabbattatāya sabbāvantam lokam mettā-sahagatena cetasā vipulena mahaggatena appamānena averena avyāpajjhena pharitvā viharati.

seyyathā pi balavā sankha-dhamo appakasiren’ eva catuddisā viññāpeyya, evam bhāvitāya mettāya ceto-vimuttiyā yam pamāna-katam kammam na tam tatrā vasissati na tam tatrāvatitthati.

One abides suffusing the first direction with a mind accompanied by loving kindness;

then the second, then the third, then the fourth; thus above, below and all around; everywhere, in every way. One abides suffusing everyone in the world with a mind accompanied by loving kindness—abundant, expansive, unlimited, without hatred, without ill-will.   

Just as if a mighty trumpeter were with little difficulty to make a proclamation to the four directions, so by this liberation of the mind through the development of loving-kindness one sets an example, leaving nothing untouched there, nothing unaffected there.

(Tevijja Sutta, Digha Nikāya 13)

one abides…with a mind accompanied by loving kindness

Just like in the Mettā Sutta, this passage uses the spatial metaphor as a framework for practicing loving kindness. Sitting comfortably, one first of all establishes the presence of loving kindness in the mind or heart (the word cetasā can be translated both ways). It is not that one thinks about loving kindness, for this would be taking it as an object; rather one thinks of a person with the attitude or emotion of loving kindness. Loving kindness (mettā) is thus the quality of heart that has “gone along with” (saha-gatena) awareness of the person we call to mind. This wording emphasizes the fact that the loving kindness is the mental factor or emotional tone added to consciousness as the mind is directed to the various points of the compass.

suffusing the first direction

Next one suffuses one direction—all the world that lies in front of you—with this quality of loving kindness. It is an imaginative “sending forth” or broadcasting of loving kindness out and away from you, much as a trumpeter might sound a blast of her horn to reach the far corners of the world. One is not actually generating loving “vibrations” that are going to literally travel out and transform all they reach. As we saw before in the Mettā Sutta, it is much more a matter of intensifying the direct experience of loving kindness through its imaginative amplification, thus purifying one’s own mind stream, rather than trying to transform the other by one’s psychological projections.

then the second, then the third, then the fourth; thus above, below and all around; everywhere, in every way

The same is done systematically toward the other three points of the compass, and then above to the zenith and below to the nadir. This has the effect of enveloping the practitioner in a bubble of loving kindness that extends evenly in every direction. This has the effect not only of further amplification, but also of opening up the feeling of kindness to all beings indiscriminately. By wishing all creatures in all directions profound well-being, one is erasing any lingering distinctions one might be tempted to make between friend and foe, liked and disliked, insider and outsider. If the opening of the heart is to be effective, it must be indiscriminate and extended to all beings without distinction. The thoroughness of the exercise is further emphasized by adding such words as “everywhere” (sabbadhi), “in every way” (sabbattatāya), and “to everyone in the world” (sabbāvantam lokam).

—abundant, expansive, unlimited, without hatred, without ill-will

Then a string of adjectives is added to this passage that helps further describe the quality of the mind of loving kindness. It is abundant (vipulena), in the sense of being full, inexhaustible and over-flowing its vessel; it is expansive (mahaggatena), or literally “gone to greatness” or “become large;” it is unlimited (appamānena) insofar as it is without measure and has no furthest extent where it leaves off; it is without hate (averena) and without ill-will (avyāpajjhena) because these unwholesome states are antithetical to loving kindness and cannot co-exist in any particular mind moment with loving kindness.

like a mighty trumpeter…

Finally, the image of a mighty trumpeter is used to reinforce the sense of broadcasting or sending the emotion of care and love in all directions. There is nothing untouched, nothing unaffected, nothing out of earshot, so to speak, of the trumpeter. Next time you practice formal loving kindness meditation, see if you can relate to this image of a trumpeter. Try visualizing yourself as the trumpeter, roaring your lion’s roar in all directions. See how it lends power to the exercise, for if you are going to be heard in the back row of the world, you have to breathe deeply and project your sound strongly and with conviction.

SUTTA STUDIES - Mettā Sutta

From the Sutta Nipāta, 143-152:

The Mettā Sutta is one of the best-loved poems of the Buddhist tradition, a jewel sparkling softly but compellingly through the centuries. Its message and appeal are truly timeless. The Mettā Sutta speaks of universal good will toward all creatures, giving shape to one of the most beautiful and fundamentally wholesome states of mind of which the human being is capable.

It is located in the Sutta Nipāta, a verse collection that includes both some of the oldest and some of the most popular poetry. There it runs for ten stanzas, from verse 143 to verse 152. It is also included in the anthology of core popular teachings called the Khuddakapātha. Both these texts are in the fifth and miscellaneous section of the Sutta collection of the Tipitaka, the Khuddaka Nikāya.

If you have already looked at the materials on this site, the newest addition (for the September 2010 full moon) is Verse 10 reflections for practice.

You are welcome, of course, to check out any of the links on this page to get a feel for what's available. If you would like to participate in the study of this sutta over time, here's one way to do it:

1. Read the Integrated Study and Practice Group page for more on the year-long program using these materials.
   
2. Read the main translation, below.
   
3. Read the Verse 1 translations
   
4. Read the Verse 1 analysis, & finally,
   
5. Read the Verse 1 reflections for practice

You could also, if time is pressing, just read Verse 1, below, and the reflections for practice. To explore the sutta as a whole from the main translation below, you may:

• Click the green arrow next to a verse for various translations of that verse.

• Click the orange arrow to see Andew Olendzki's analysis for that verse.

• Click the dark red arrow, added each month, for reflections for practice

Discourse on Lovingkindness

(A. Olendzki translation)

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