Mettā Totally Explained

Everything about Metta totally explained

Mettā (Pāli) or maitrī (Sanskrit) has been translated as "loving-kindness," "friendliness," "benevolence," "love," then their loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all sentient beings.
Buddhists believe that those who cultivate mettā will be at ease because they see no need to harbour ill will or hostility. Buddhist teachers may even recommend meditation on mettā as an antidote to insomnia and nightmares. It is generally felt that those around a mettā-ful person will feel more comfortable and happy too. Radiating mettā is thought to contribute to a world of love, peace and happiness.
Mettā meditation is considered a good way to calm down a distraught mind by people who consider it to be an antidote to anger. According to them, someone who has cultivated mettā won't be easily angered and can quickly subdue anger that arises, being more caring, more loving, and more likely to love unconditionally.

Mettā meditation: the practice of loving-kindness

Mettā signifies friendship and non-violence as well as "a strong wish for the happiness of others", but also less obvious or direct qualities such as showing patience, receptivity, and appreciation. Though it refers to many seemingly disparate ideas, Mettā is in fact a very specific form of love – a caring for another independent of all self-interest – and thus is likened to one's love for one's child or parent. Understandably, this energy is often difficult to describe in words; however, in the practice of Mettā meditation, one recites specific words and phrases in order to evoke this "boundless warm-hearted feeling." The strength of this feeling isn't limited to or by family, religion, or social class. Indeed, Mettā is a tool that permits one's generosity and kindness to be applied to all beings and, as a consequence, one finds true happiness in another person's happiness, no matter who the individual is.

Visuddhimagga method: Six stages

Contemporary metta practice is often based on a method traditionally associated with the 5^th c. CE Pali exegetical text, the Visuddhimagga. The full instructions for the theory and practice of mettā bhāvanā is available in the Visuddhimagga ("The path to purity"), Chapter IX, of the Buddhist scriptures.
The six stages of mettā bhāvanā meditation which are most commonly found involve cultivating loving-kindness towards:

Yourself
A good friend
A 'neutral' person
A difficult person
All four
and then gradually the entire universe

For #2 avoid choosing someone to whom you feel sexually attracted, or that's much younger or much older than yourself, or who is dead. For #3 choose someone that you might come in contact with every day, but who doesn't give rise to strong positive nor strong negative emotions. For #4 traditionally choose "an enemy", but avoid choosing a person who has just wrecked your life, unless you're very well grounded in awareness. For #5 treat them as equals, equally deserving of loving-kindness.

Pali Canon texts

In the Pali Canon, statements regarding the use of metta traditionally employ one or more of the following devices, often using a stock formula:

mental purification

a verse for wishing others well

pervading all directions and all beings with loving-kindness. The well-known Kakacupama Sutta and Karaniya Metta Sutta use striking metaphors to give these traditional devices vitality. Other canonical material, such as in the Paṭisambhidāmagga, elaborate on these basic devices in a manner that's perpetuated by the later traditional commentaries. Other canonical sources, such as the Abhidhamma, underline the key role of metta in the development of wholesome karma.

Basic intention and verse

This basic statement of intention and verse can also be found in several other canonical discourses.

Basic radiating formula

In over a dozen discourses, the following description (in English and Pali) is provided for radiating metta in six directions:

"He abides, having suffused with a mind of loving-kindness
one direction of the world,
likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth,
and so above, below, around and
everywhere, and to all as to himself;
he abides suffusing the entire universe with loving-kindness,
with a mind grown great, lofty, boundless and
free from enmity and ill will."

In the Canon, this basic formula is expanded upon in a variety of ways. For instance, a couple of discourses provide the following description of "the path to the company of Brahmā" ( sahavyatāya maggo) along with a memorable metaphor: ť "What ... is the path to the company of Brahmā? Here a bhikkhu abides pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the forth; so above, below, around, and everywhere, and to all as to himself, he abides pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill well. When the deliverence of mind by loving-kindness is developed in this way, no limiting action remains there, none persists there.

"Just as a vigorous trumpeter could make himself heard without difficulty in the four quarters, so too, when the deliverence of mind by loving-kindness is developed in this way, no limiting action remains there, none persists there. This is the path to the company of Brahmā."

Kakacupama Sutta (MN 21)

Incorporating facets of the above textual methods in a series of increasingly vivid similes, the Kakacupama Sutta ("Parable of the Saw Discourse," MN 21) provides the following culminating scenario: ť "Monks, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even then, whoever of you harbors ill will at heart wouldn't be upholding my Teaching. Monks, even in such a situation you should train yourselves thus: 'Neither shall our minds be affected by this, nor for this matter shall we give vent to evil words, but we'll remain full of concern and pity, with a mind of love, and we shan't give in to hatred. On the contrary, we'll live projecting thoughts of universal love to those very persons, making them as well as the whole world the object of our thoughts of universal love — thoughts that have grown great, exalted and measureless. We shall dwell radiating these thoughts which are void of hostility and ill will.' It is in this way, monks, that you should train yourselves."

Karaniya Metta Sutta (Sn 1.8)

....

According to the Pali commentaries, the Buddha originally gave this instruction (of Loving-Kindness meditation) to Monks who were being harassed by the Tree Spirits of a forest in which the Monks were trying to meditate. After doing this meditation in the forest it's said that the Spirits were so affected by the power of Loving-Kindness that they allowed the Monks to stay in the forest for the duration of the rainy season.

Patisambhidamagga Mettakatha (Ps. 2.4)

pariharantu.

In addition, this instruction categorizes twenty-two ways in which "the mind-deliverence of lovingkindness" (mettācetovimutti) can be radiated as follows:

five ways of "unspecified pervasion" : ť # all beings (sabbe sattā )

# all breathing things ť # all creatures (sabbe bhūtā bhāvapariyāpannā)

# all persons (sabbe puggalā bhāvapariyāpannā) ť # all with a personality (sabbe attabhāvapariyāpannā)

seven ways of "specified pervasion" : ť # all women (sabbā itthiyo)

   # all men (sabbe purisā) ť # all Noble Ones (sabbe ariyā)

   # all non-Noble Ones (sabbe anariyā) ť # all deities (sabbe devā)

   # all humans (sabbe manussā) ť # all born in lower realms (sabbe vinipātikā)

ten ways of "directional pervasion" : ť # of the eastern direction (puratthimāya disāya)

   # of the western direction (pacchimāya disāya) ť # of the northern direction (uttarā disāya)

   # of the southern direction ( disāya) ť # of the eastern intermediate direction (puratthimāya anudisāya)

   # of the western intermediate direction (pacchimāya anudisāya) ť # of the northern intermediate direction (uttarā anudisāya)

   # of the southern intermediate direction ( anudisāya) ť # of the downward direction

   # of the upward direction (uparimāya disāya). Moreover, the directional pervasions can then be applied to each of the unspecific and specific pervasions. For instance, after radiating metta to all beings in the east (Sabbe puratthimāya disāya sattā ...), one radiates metta to all beings in the west and then north and then south, etc.; then, one radiates metta to all breathing things in this fashion (Sabbe puratthimāya disāya ...), then all creatures, persons, and so forth until such is extended for all those born in the lower realms.

Abhidhammic descriptor (Dhs. 189)

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