Loving-Kindness

There is a warmth in you that has never gone out. Loving-kindness is the art of fanning that warmth until it fills the room, then the street, then the world. It begins with a simple sentence spoken to yourself, and it does not end until no being is left outside the circle.

OriginsThe Root of the Practice

The Buddha taught metta in the Karaniya Metta Sutta, where a mother’s love for her only child becomes the pattern for love toward all beings. The Tibetan masters carried the practice into the mind-training lineages, joining it to compassion, joy, and equanimity as the four boundless states. In the Gospel it is the same fire: love your neighbor, and love even those who stand against you. The words differ. The Light is one.

The WayWhat the Practice Teaches

Metta works in stages because the heart opens in stages. You begin with yourself, since a heart that cannot receive kindness cannot give it freely. Then you widen to a benefactor, a dear friend, a neutral person, a difficult person, and finally every living being without exception. The phrases are simple on purpose. They are seeds, and the feeling is the flower. Some days the feeling comes. Some days only the words come. Both days plant the garden.

BeginHow to Practice

1. Sit quietly and place a hand over your heart if that helps.
2. Offer to yourself: “May I be happy. May I be safe. May I be at peace.”
3. Bring to mind someone who loves you easily and offer the same phrases to them.
4. Move to a neutral person, someone you see but do not know.
5. Offer the phrases to someone difficult, at whatever pace the heart allows.
6. Close by opening to all beings in every direction. Rest in the warmth.

HarvestThe Fruit

The contracted, guarded heart softens. Resentment loses its grip. People who practice metta find that strangers look more like family, and that they themselves are easier to live with.