Metta

During Metta (“Loving-Kindness”) Meditation, one strives to cultivate an attitude of Loving-Kindness toward all sentient life – typically by visualizing individuals from a variety of groups and actively wishing their well-being.  A common Metta progression involves beginning by visualizing oneself, and then progressing toward visualizations of friends, “neutral people,” and “hostile ones” or enemies.  During each visualization, one actively expresses a wish for the well-being of each individual by repeating a phrase such as “May I/he/she/they be happy and free from suffering,” or “May I/he/she/they be free from anxiety and live happily.”  Metta Meditation also often ends with a wish for the well-being of all sentient life.  

In the influential Karaniya Metta Sutta, the Buddha expresses the wish for the well-being of all life as follows: 

“May all be happy and feel secure.  May all beings become happy in their heart of hearts!  … think of every living thing without exception: the weak and the strong, from the smallest to the largest, whether you can see them or not, living nearby or far away, beings living now or yet to arise – may all beings become happy in their heart of hearts!”

In the Sutta, the Buddha also compares the quality of Metta to a mother’s feeling for her own children, but extended to all beings.

Metta Meditation can take a variety of forms – the goal always being the development of an honest wish for the well-being of all life.  Metta Meditation is sometimes associated with Right Intention – the second element of the Noble Eightfold Path.  Other qualities such as Compassion/Karuna are also sometimes developed in similar ways.