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SUTTA STUDIES - Mettā Sutta analysis

Verse 4 = Sn 146

Analysis - VERSE 4

ye keci pānabhūt’ atthi

With this verse commences a two-stanza invocation for well-being, extending widely and specifically to cover much ground and culminating at the end of verse five with the same injunction as concluded verse three. It begins here with “Whichever of (keci) those (ye) living beings (pānabhūta) that exist (atthi)…” and ends in verse five with “…may they be happy in themselves!” In between these opening and closing phrases, we find a number of ways to classify beings that attempts to be all-inclusive and comprehensive. The word here for “being” (bhūta)  which is based on the root (bhu) rather than (sat), carries the same meaning as the word sattā used above. The modifying word pāna (which is equivalent to the well-known Sanskrit word prāna) means breath or even life-breath, and further designates that the beings wished happiness are living creatures rather than rocks and trees. One might argue that all life “breaths” in some sense, and might thus extend the sentiment toward plants and even eco-systems, but this probably goes somewhat beyond the ancient intent.

tasā vā thāvarā vā

This pair of words literally means something like “moving” and “stable,” but their sense is extended beyond the literal. It is implied that some creatures are moving because they are agitated, unsatisfied, or driven by craving, and this in the Buddhist context invokes the sense of frailty or weakness. Similarly when one is firmly grounded, tranquil and at rest, this expresses a condition of greater strength and stability. Loving kindness towards the former would lean toward compassion for the welfare of the weak, while toward the latter it would tend more in the direction of appreciative joy for the capability of the strong. The short word vā, by the way, which shows up many times in this poem, is simply the disjunctive particle “or.”

anavasesā

The term used when something is “left over” or “remains” is vasesā, and adding a negative prefix (ana) reverses its meaning to “without remainder” or “without exception.” It should probably be taken as applying to the first phrase of this stanza (“Whatever living beings that exist, without exception…”) but some translators have followed the original placement of the word in the verse and have attached it to the more limited pair of “weak or strong, without exception.” It could equally well be extended to any or all of the following sets of words. As already mentioned, the intent of universality this word adds to the poem is quite important to the practice of developing and extending loving kindness.

dīghā vā ye mahantā vā majjhimā rassakā anukathūlā

There are six words here in a row, all delineating size or extent in one way or another. How we group them probably has more to do with what sounds most familiar in English rather than any inherent order of the Pali. Literally the string means: “long, big, middle [-sized], short, small, thick.” In English we might want to say something like: “long and short, small, medium and large.” I’m not sure what to do with “thick.” But of course there are layers of nuance in the Pali words not picked up in contemporary idiom. “Long” and “short,” for example, can refer to the size of an organism’s body or to the duration of their lifespan. Many practitioners will recognize the same words used for the breathing meditation instructions in the foundations of  mindfulness (“He is aware: I breath in long; he is aware: I breath in short.”) or notice that  “long” and  “middle-length” are also used for collections of literature in the Pali Canon. The word anuka suggests reaching the scale of an atom (anu), and thus not only small but also possibly invisible or too subtle to manifest materially. And thūlā can be used for anything round, such as an oyster or a tortoise shell.

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