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:
- Wholesome goodness;
- Gentle speech;
- Human Humility;
- Personal contentment;
- Personal calmness; and,
- 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:
- We wish for ourselves and others to be safe;
- We wish to have positive thoughts;
- We wish for gladness in our safety and the safety of others;
- We wish all being to be at ease;
- We will cherish all living beings;
- We wish for us all to be freed from sense-desires;
- We will practice universal love; and,
- 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