Metta Means Goodwill metta _ means _ goodwill . pdfAjaan Fuang , my teacher , once discovered that a snake had moved into hisroom . Every time he entered the room , he saw it slip into a narrow space behinda storage cabinet . And even though he tried leaving the door to the room openduring the daytime , the snake wasn ’ t willing to leave . So for three days theylived together . He was very careful not to startle the snake or make it feelthreatened by his presence . But finally on the evening of the third day , as he wassitting in meditation , he addressed the snake quietly in his mind . He said , “ Look , it ’ s not that I don ’ t like you . I don ’ t have any bad feelings for you . But our mindswork in different ways . It ’ d be very easy for there to be a misunderstandingbetween us . Now , there are lots of places out in the woods where you can livewithout the uneasiness of living with me . ” And as he sat there spreadingthoughts of metta to the snake , the snake left . When Ajaan Fuang first told me this story , it made me stop and reconsidermy understanding of what metta is . Metta is a wish for happiness — truehappiness — and the Buddha says to develop this wish for ourselves andeveryone else : “ With metta for the entire cosmos , cultivate a limitless heart . ” ( Sn 1 : 8 ) But what ’ s the emotional quality that goes along with that wish ? Many peopledefine it as “ lovingkindness , ” implying a desire to be there for other people : tocherish them , to provide them with intimacy , nurture , and protection . The ideaof feeling love for everyone sounds very noble and emotionally satisfying . Butwhen you really stop to think about all the beings in the cosmos , there are a lot ofthem who — like the snake — would react to your lovingkindness with suspicionand fear . Rather than wanting your love , they would rather be left alone . Othersmight try to take unfair advantage of your lovingkindness , reading it as a signeither of your weakness or of your endorsement of whatever they want to do . Innone of these cases would your lovingkindness lead to anyone ’ s true happiness . You ’ re left to wonder if the Buddha ’ s instructions on universal metta are reallyrealistic or wise . But as I learned from Ajaan Fuang ’ s encounter with the snake , metta is notnecessarily an attitude of lovingkindness . It ’ s more an attitude of goodwill — wishing the other person well , but realizing that true happiness is something thateach of us ultimately will have to find for him or herself , and sometimes mosteasily when we go our separate ways . This understanding of metta is borne out in the Pali Canon , first of all in theword itself . The Pali language has another word for love — pema — whereas mettais related to the word mitta , or friend . Universal metta is friendliness for all . Thefact that this friendliness equates with goodwill is shown in the four passages inthe Canon where the Buddha recommends phrases to hold in mind whendeveloping thoughts of metta . These phrases provide his clearest guide not onlyto the emotional quality that underlies metta , but also to the understanding ofhappiness that explains why it ’ s wise and realistic to develop metta for all . The first set of phrases comes in a passage where the Buddha recommendsthoughts to counter ill will . These phrases are chanted daily in Theravadacommunities the world over : “ May these beings — free from animosity , free fromoppression , and free from trouble — look after themselves with ease . ” — AN 10 : 176 Notice that last statement : “ May they look after themselves with ease . ” You ’ re not saying that you ’ re going to be there for all beings all the time . Andmost beings would be happier knowing that they could depend on themselvesrather than having to depend on you . I once heard a Dharma teacher say that hewouldn ’ t want to live in a world where there was no suffering because then hewouldn ’ t be able to express his compassion — which when you think about it , isan extremely selfish wish . He needs other people to suffer so he can feel goodabout expressing his compassion ? A better attitude would be , “ May all beings behappy . May they be able to look after themselves with ease . ” That way they canhave the happiness of independence and selfreliance . Another set of metta phrases is in the Karaniya Metta Sutta . They start outwith a simple wish for happiness : Happy , at rest , may all beings be happy at heart . Whatever beings there may be , weak or strong , without exception , long , large , middling , short , subtle , blatant , seen & unseen , near & far , born & seeking birth : May all beings be happy at heart . But then they continue with a wish that all beings avoid the causes thatwould lead them to unhappiness : Let no one deceive anotheror despise anyone anywhere , or through anger or resistance 2 wish for another to suffer . — Sn 1 : 8 In repeating these phrases , you wish not only that beings be happy , but alsothat they avoid the actions that would lead to bad karma , to their ownunhappiness . You realize that happiness has to depend on action : For people tofind true happiness , they have to understand the causes for happiness and act onthem . They also have to understand that true happiness is harmless . If it dependson something that harms others , it ’ s not going to last . Those who are harmed aresure to do what they can to destroy that happiness . And then there ’ s the plainquality of sympathy : If you see someone suffering , it ’ s painful . If you have anysensitivity at all , it ’ s hard to feel happy when you know that your happiness iscausing suffering for others . So again , when you express goodwill , you ’ re not saying that you ’ re going tobe there for them all the time . You ’ re hoping that all beings will wise up abouthow to find happiness and be there for themselves . The Karaniya Metta Sutta goes on to say that when you ’ re developing thisattitude , you want to protect it in the same way that a mother would protect heronly child . As a mother would risk her lifeto protect her child , her only child , even so should one cultivate a limitless heartwith regard to all beings . Some people misread this passage — in fact , many translators havemistranslated it — thinking that the Buddha is telling us to cherish all livingbeings the same way a mother would cherish her only child . But that ’ s not whathe ’ s actually saying . To begin with , he doesn ’ t mention the word “ cherish ” at all . And instead of drawing a parallel between protecting your only child andprotecting other beings , he draws the parallel between protecting the child andprotecting your goodwill . This fits in with his other teachings in the Canon . Nowhere does he tell people to throw down their lives to prevent every crueltyand injustice in the world , but he does praise his followers for being willing tothrow down their lives for their precepts : “ Just as the ocean is stable and does notoverstep its tideline , in the same way my disciples do not — even for the sake of their lives — overstep the training rules I have formulated for them . ” — Ud 5 : 5 The verses here carry a similar sentiment : You should be devoted tocultivating and protecting your goodwill to make sure that your virtuousintentions don ’ t waver . This is because you don ’ t want to harm anyone . Harmcan happen most easily when there ’ s a lapse in your goodwill , so you dowhatever you can to protect this attitude at all times . This is why , as the Buddhasays toward the end of the sutta , you should stay determined to practice this 3 form of mindfulness : the mindfulness of keeping in mind your wish that allbeings be happy , to make sure that it always informs the motivation foreverything you do . This is why the Buddha explicitly recommends developing thoughts of mettain two situations where it ’ s especially important — and especially difficult — tomaintain skillful motivation : when others are hurting you , and when you realizethat you ’ ve hurt others . If others are harming you with their words or actions —“ even if bandits were tocarve you up savagely , limb by limb , with a twohandledsaw ” — the Buddharecommends training your mind in this way : Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words . We will remainsympathetic , with a mind of goodwill , and with no inner hate . We will keeppervading these people with an awareness imbued with goodwill and , beginning withthem , we will keep pervading the allencompassingworld with an awareness imbuedwith goodwill — abundant , expansive , immeasurable , free from hostility , free from illwill . — MN 21 In doing this , the Buddha says , you make your mind as expansive as theRiver Ganges or as large as the earth — in other words , larger than the harm thosepeople are doing or threatening to do to you . He himself embodied this teachingafter Devadatta ’ s attempt on his life . As he told Mara — who had come to taunthim while he was resting from a painful injury —“ I lie down with sympathy for allbeings . ” ( SN 4 : 13 ) When you can maintain this enlarged state of mind in the faceof pain , the harm that others can do to you doesn ’ t seem so overwhelming , andyou ’ re less likely to respond in unskillful ways . You provide protection — bothfor yourself and for others — against any unskillful things you otherwise might betempted to do . As for the times when you realize that you ’ ve harmed others , the Buddharecommends that you understand that remorse is not going to undo the harm , soif an apology is appropriate , you apologize . In any case , you resolve not to repeatthe harmful action again . Then you spread thoughts of goodwill in all directions . This accomplishes several things . It reminds you of your own goodness , sothat you don ’ t — in defense of your selfimage — revert to the sort of denial thatrefuses to admit that any harm was done . It strengthens your determination tostick with your resolve not to do harm . And it forces you to examine your actionsto see their actual effect : If any other of your habits are harmful , you want toabandon them before they cause further harm . In other words , you don ’ t wantyour goodwill to be just an ungrounded , floating idea . You want to apply itscrupulously to the nittygrittyof all your interactions with others . That wayyour goodwill becomes honest . And it actually does have an impact , which is 4 why we develop this attitude to begin with : to make sure that it actually doesanimate our thoughts , words , and deeds in a way that leads to a happinessharmless for all . Finally , there ’ s a passage where the Buddha taught the monks a chant forspreading goodwill to all snakes and other creeping things . The story goes that amonk meditating in a forest was bitten by a snake and died . The monks reportedthis to the Buddha and he replied that if that monk had spread goodwill to allfour great families of snakes , the snake wouldn ’ t have bitten him . Then theBuddha taught the monks a protective chant for expressing metta not only forsnakes , but also for all beings . I have goodwill for footless beings , goodwill for twofootedbeings , goodwill for fourfootedbeings , goodwill for manyfootedbeings . May footless beings do me no harm . May twofootedbeings do me no harm . May fourfootedbeings do me no harm . May manyfootedbeings do me no harm . May all creatures , all breathing things , all beings — each & every one — meet with good fortune . May none of them come to any evil . Limitless is the Buddha , limitless the Dhamma , limitless the Sangha . There is a limit to creeping things : snakes , scorpions , centipedes , spiders , lizards , & rats . I have made this safeguard , I have made this protection . May the beings depart . — AN 4 : 67 The last statement in this ｅxpression of metta takes into consideration thetruth that living together is often difficult — especially for beings of differentspecies that can harm one another — and the happiest policy for all concerned isoften to live harmlessly apart . These different ways of expressing metta show that metta is not necessarily 5 the quality of lovingkindness . Metta is better thought of as goodwill , and for tworeasons . The first is that goodwill is an attitude you can express for everyonewithout fear of being hypocritical or unrealistic . It recognizes that people willbecome truly happy not as a result of your caring for them but as a result of theirown skillful actions , and that the happiness of selfrelianceis greater than anyhappiness that comes from dependency . The second reason is that goodwill is a more skillful feeling to have towardthose who would be suspicious of your lovingkindness or try to take advantageof it . There are probably people you ’ ve harmed in the past who would rather nothave anything to do with you ever again , so the intimacy of lovingkindnesswould actually be a source of pain for them , rather than joy . There are alsopeople who , when they see that you want to express lovingkindness , would bequick to take advantage of it . And there are plenty of animals out there whowould feel threatened by any overt ｅxpressions of love from a human being . Inthese cases , a more distant sense of goodwill — that you promise yourself never toharm those people or those beings — would be better for everyone involved . This doesn ’ t mean that lovingkindness is never an appropriate ｅxpression ofgoodwill . You simply have to know when it ’ s appropriate and when it ’ s not . Ifyou truly feel metta for yourself and others , you can ’ t let your desire for warmfeelings of love and intimacy render you insensitive to what would actually bethe most skillful way to promote true happiness for all . — Thanissaro Bhikkhu 6 사업자 정보 표시 명상 의 집 자애 | 김재성 | 서울시 종로구 삼청 로 11 길 43 ( 삼청동 3 - 6 ) | 사업자 등록 번호 : 110 - 82 - 22259 | TEL : 070 - 8616 - 4837 | Mail : metta 4 u @ nate . com | 사이버 몰의 이용 약관 바로 가 기