… Sometimes you
hear just nothing but metta, metta, or in some cases, compassion,
compassion, but you need all four: goodwill, compassion, empathetic
joy, and equanimity. That’s one of the reasons why we have that chant
at the beginning of every meditation to remind ourselves that all four
of these form our motivation. And these are the implications of that
motivation: that we want …
Every evening before we meditate, we have a chant on the sublime
attitudes: universal goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and
equanimity. Because we do it every day, it’s all too easy for us to
simply mouth the words without really thinking about what we’re
saying, even though it’s translated in English. So it’s good to stop
and think: One, why do …
Goodwill
Mettā Sutta (SN 46:54)
On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Koliyans. Now there is a Koliyan town named Haliddavasana. Then, early in the morning, a large number of monks adjusted their lower robes and, taking their bowls & outer robes, went into Haliddavasana for alms. Then the thought occurred to them, “It’s still too early to go for …
Metta Math
January 12, 2022
Every evening before we meditate, we have a chant on the sublime attitudes: universal goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Because we do it every day, it’s all too easy for us to simply mouth the words without really thinking about what we’re saying, even though it’s translated into English. So it’s good to stop …
3. Mettā in Words & Deeds
§3.1 “Monks, a friend endowed with seven qualities is worth associating with. Which seven? He gives what is hard to give. He does what is hard to do. He endures what is hard to endure. He reveals his secrets to you. He keeps your secrets. When misfortunes strike, he doesn’t abandon you. When you’re down & out …
… You can’t just have a mantra of “let
go, let go” or “metta, metta”—or whatever, and hope that the mantra
will take care of everything. You’ve got to understand why is it that
you let yourself get disturbed and what the assumptions behind that
are.
If your peace of mind is disturbed by the world at large—by the heat,
by …
… Your metta is there for them
regardless of what they’re doing, but the metta means that you hope
they learn to behave in a skillful way themselves, and that you’ll be
happy to help them in that direction.
After all, how does the Buddha say you harm
other people? You harm them not so much by killing them, stealing
their things, or …
… Goodwill is metta. Metta is a wish for happiness. The reason we’re practicing is because we want a genuine happiness, a happiness that also doesn’t harm anybody. We want the happiness to spread around.
So you want to get that attitude firmly in place—that you really do want to be happy—because you’re going to be dealing with lots of …
… She was going through a bad time, so I sent some metta in her direction. The next day, she came to the monastery and said, “Did you send metta to me last night?” She had felt it, and she knew where it came from. So these aspects of consciousness: At the very least, leave your mind open to their being possible. One of those …
… Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Metta Forest Monastery
October, 1999
This edition of Fistful of Sand also includes the talk, “The Strategy of a Peaceful Mind,” and the collection of Ajaan Suwat’s talks, The Light of Discernment, that was printed in his honor after his death on April 5, 2002.
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
May, 2011
… This is why, in the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, the expression of goodwill is not just:
Happy, at rest,
may all beings be happy at heart.
Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, gross,
seen & unseen,
living near & far away,
born or seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.
It also goes on to say …
We just had a chant on metta: goodwill for yourself, goodwill for
the people around you. And it was expressed as a wish. Now we actually
put that wish into practice.
Concentration is a practice of being comfortable with yourself. If
there’s no sense of comfort in the present moment, you can’t really
settle down.
So you can use the breath as …
… In other words, metta is not just a process of repeating a phrase over and over in your head. You contemplate the quality of goodwill and what it really means to have goodwill in the context of kamma, in the context of that principle of heedfulness.
The same applies when you extend thoughts of goodwill to yourself. You say to yourself: “May I be …
… Without him, we wouldn’t
have Wat Metta. We wouldn’t have this place to practice.
So. Dedicate your practice today to him. What does it mean to dedicate
your practice? You make up your mind that you’re going to do this for
the right motive. As he said, the purpose of the practice—whatever
you’re doing, whether it’s generosity, virtue …
… Densho Quintero, escritor y traductor, quien leyó el manuscrito e hizo sabias sugerencias, a Isabella Trauttmansdorff y Xiaoxi Wang, residentes en Wat Metta por las tantas veces que me llevaron a la biblioteca de Valley Center para poder trabajar en la traducción con acceso a diccionarios vía internet, a mi hermana Nancy, traductora oficial, quien me ayudó con expresiones idiomáticas inglesas ininteligibles para mí …
There’s that phrase in the chant when you’re
spreading thoughts of goodwill to yourself: “May I look after myself
with ease.” As with all the thoughts of metta for yourself, it’s not
selfish. Think of times in the past, or sometimes in the present, when
you’re with someone you love, and they’re suffering. And there’s
nothing you can …
Foreword | The Craft of the Heart
… Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) Metta Forest Monastery PO Box 1409 Valley Center, CA 92082 U.S.A.
Metta Math
Every evening before we meditate, we have a chant on the sublime attitudes: universal goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Because we do it every day, it’s all too easy for us to simply mouth the words without really thinking about what we’re saying, even though it’s translated in English. So it’s good to stop and think: One, why do …
SN 46:54 Mettā Sutta | Goodwill
Goodwill Mettā Sutta (SN 46:54) On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Koliyans. Now there is a Koliyan town named Haliddavasana. Then, early in the morning, a large number of monks adjusted their lower robes and, taking their bowls & outer robes, went into Haliddavasana for alms. Then the thought occurred to them, “It’s still too early to go for …
