The Buddha's Philosophy of Love (Metta)
Acharya Buddharakkhita (BPS.lk, accesstoinsight.org), Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
The Pali word metta (Sanskrit maitri) is a multi-significant term meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness, harmlessness, and non-violence.
The commentators define metta as the strong wish for the welfare and happiness of others (parahita-parasukha-kamana). Essentially, metta is an altruistic, boundless, universal attitude of love and friendliness as distinguished from mere amiability based on self-interest.
Through metta one refuses to be offensive and lets go of and renounces bitterness, resentment, and animosity of every kind, developing instead a mind/heart of friendliness, accommodation, and benevolence that seeks the well-being and happiness of others.
 |
| O, Goddess of Mother Nature Bhumi Devi and Kwan Yin, grant me love and wisdom. |
.
Real metta is easy because it is devoid of self-interest. Self-interest makes it difficult. Metta evokes within a warm-hearted feeling of fellowship, sympathy, and love, which grows boundless with practice and overcomes all social, religious, racial, political, and economic barriers.
Metta is indeed a universal, unselfish and all-embracing love. It makes one a pure font of well-being and safety for others. Just as a mother gives her own life to protect her only son, so metta only gives and never demands anything in return.
To promote one's own interest is a primordial motivation of our habitual human nature. When this urge is transformed into the motivation or desire to promote the interest and happiness of others, not only is the basic urge of self-seeking overcome, but the mind becomes universal by identifying its own enlightened interest with the interest of all.
By making this change one also promotes one's own well-being in the best possible manner. Metta is the protective and immensely patient attitude of a mother who forbears all difficulties for the sake of her child and ever protects it despite its misbehavior. Metta is also the attitude of a friend who wants to give one the best to further one's well-being.
If these qualities of metta are sufficiently (as by attaining meditative absorption called jhana through this practice) cultivated through metta-bhavana — the meditation on boundless love — the result is the acquisition of a tremendous inner power tat preserves, protects, and heals both oneself and others....
The following aims at exploring various facets of metta in theory and practice. The examination of the doctrinal and ethical side of metta proceeds through a study of the popular Karaniya Metta Sutra, the Buddha's "Discourse on Universal Love."
In connection with this theme it also looks at several short texts dealing with metta. The explanation of meditation on boundless love gives practical directions for developing this contemplation as preserved in the main meditation texts of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, The Path of Purification, The Path of Freedom, and The Path of Discriminating Wisdom. More
No comments:
Post a Comment