Metta Sutta

We end our week in Tibet with the Metta Sutta, the Theravāda Buddhist “discourse on loving-kindness.”

The ten verse Metta Sutta inspires us to consider what we may do to achieve a mental state of “goodness,” in which we want others to be happy. With all the mayhem in this world, don’t you think we can at least start there?

This translation into English from the original Pali  suggests the path for one who wish peace on others begins with peace within oneself. “This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness And who knows the path of peace: Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech…. Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
not proud and demanding in nature…” It continues, “Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings,
Radiating kindness over the entire world,
Spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths,
Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will.”

Yup.

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