What The Buddha Taught About Metta

In the Metta Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya, 11:16) The Buddha said that we should seek the following characteristics in how we live our lives:

1. Wholesome goodness;
2. Gentle speech;
3. Human Humility;
4. Personal contentment;
5. Personal calmness; and,
6. Pure-heartedness in all we think, say, and do.

By living this way we would be most likely to find the true path to peace – inner and outer peace. On our life path, living these attributes day-to-day, we make conscious wishes (and actions) to support the following:

1. We wish for ourselves and others to be safe;
2. We wish to have positive thoughts;
3. We wish for gladness in our safety and the safety of others;
4. We wish all being to be at ease;
5. We will cherish all living beings;
6. We wish for us all to be freed from sense-desires;
7. We will practice universal love; and,
8. Living a life with all of the above will lead us to a liberated mind.

For more details refer to The Metta Sutta, Angutarra Nikaya, 11:16.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC  

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness  

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!