6 ms·

Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-Kindness

128 points by rajlego 3y ago

wirrbel 3y ago
https://suttacentral.net/snp1.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin https://suttacentral.net/snp1.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=pla... Sutta central offers various translations (multiple translators, multiple languages). Thich nhat hanh had a good introductory article I believe it’s this one https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/ https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/
korginator 3y ago
As with many Pāli words (e.g., dhamma, samkhāra, etc.), it's hard to provide a simplistic one-dimensional translation of the phrase "mettā", often crudely translated as loving-kindness. When you read through the Sutta Nipata and the early texts, it comes across more as unconditional or unconstrained friendliness which is far easier to practice in real life, even when you can't make yourself feel loving-kindness. There are several other passages from the oldest strata of Pāli texts, e.g., the SNP (Sutta Nipata) and some of the connected discourses (Samyutta Nikāya) that talk more about metta, a rich and complex tapestry that paints a picture of the actual and original intent behind the word or phrase. This talk by Prof. John Peacock has some good insights into the phrase mettā, and provides a good overall context. https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/2600 https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/2600 Mettā is part of the four brahmavihārās or practises to cultivate wholesome states of mind, the others being karuṇā (compassion & kindness for oneself and for others), muditā (simplistically translated as "empathetic joy") and upekkhā (equanimity).
denton-scratch 3y ago
Like nearly all Buddhist teachings, there are practices you can do to develop these faculties. For example, you can reflect that all beings have at one time or another been your mother, or your child; realizing this, how can you feel hatred towards any other being? It doesn't work for me, of course; I don't believe in rebirth.
- cracoucax 3y ago
  Imo the belief in rebirth is not needed to practice metta, you just need to realize that every being wants to be happy, just like you. Yet all of them are mired in delusion and most of the time do things which go the opposite way of generating real happiness, we all do. Everyone is mired in delusion and most of the time react to feelings of anger and craving (vedana), which are generated based on their history, social norms and whatnot. They are just being manipulated by those all the time, unless they're very mindful of what's happening in their mind temporarily. Realizing this you can't really hate anybody, and in fact you realize they are 100% like you.
  - denton-scratch 3y ago
    > the belief in rebirth is not needed to practice metta That's not what I was saying; I was commenting on that suggested technique for developing metta, in particular, which is dependent on belief in rebirth.
    - cracoucax 3y ago
      Ah yes I understand
- Glench 3y ago
  > It doesn't work for me, of course; I don't believe in rebirth. Are you still able to generate loving-kindness in yourself? If so, then those teachings that don't work for you don't matter.
  - denton-scratch 3y ago
    Well, honestly I don't know. If I had feelings of loving kindness, I'd know that; but that would be just feelings. I don't have a loving-kindness detector, and I wouldn't know how to calibrate it if I did. I suppose one could work from hatred; people generally know if they hate something. So if one has reduced the incidence of hatred, then perhaps you could say the technique worked. I used the technique (along with others) over a period of a couple of decades, during which I "suspended belief" concerning rebirth. But over a couple of decades, it's quite possible that my personality changed for other reasons - such as other techniques, or watching my children grow up, or simply maturing.
adyashakti 3y ago
mettā is a powerful practice. if you want to feel happy, do a bit of mettā. if you want mind-melting ecstasy, do a lot.
krzat 3y ago
Interesting to see this here, without any context attached. I've been practicing loving kindness meditation for a few months now and the results have been incredible. I'm atheist, pretty sure reincarnation is bullshit, but the method described in this sutta works. In mundane terms, you can train your brain to be happier and more joyful by those simple visualizations. I'm not quite sure what is the role of spreading kindness in all directions, perhaps it somehow ties our perception of space and time, which is always present, with good feelings - what fires together, wires together - making them more likely to appear in future.
- garyfirestorm 3y ago
  > I've been practicing loving kindness meditation how do you get started with this? any particular resource? what do you exactly do when practicing this meditation?
  - krzat 3y ago
    This should answer your question: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course First impression may not be great. It's kind of cringey at first. It helps to think about this on biological level - there are parts of brain that give meaning to our lives, and this is how we train them.
- grahamplace 3y ago
  Any recommendations for where to start learning?
  - m_a_g 3y ago
    If you’re new to meditation, then I can highly recommend “Waking Up”.
  - krzat 3y ago
    Here is a good starting point: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course
5cott0 3y ago
The Mahayana (Tiantai school) version: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34460022 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34460022
robobro 3y ago
People here interested in Buddhist theory / psychology may be interested in this book: https://americanmonk.org/abhidhamma-lessons/ https://americanmonk.org/abhidhamma-lessons/ Abhidhamma Lessons: A Top-Down Approach Using Computer Science Author is a former programmer who uses computer science methods to discuss Buddhism's approach to understanding the mind and reality. I found it interesting!
paolomaffei 3y ago
This very translation has been put to music by an artist called Indiajiva [1], I find it very peaceful [1] https://open.spotify.com/track/1bBMoUSm7Oc07l3JdQoP4g?si=671550449f0d4eb4 https://open.spotify.com/track/1bBMoUSm7Oc07l3JdQoP4g?si=671...
- Glench 3y ago
  Wow thanks for sharing this!
nickpsecurity 3y ago
Although the prose is beautiful, the word lovingkindness has a different meaning. It was an English word invented to translate hesed in Hebrew into English. The Word of God, esp in King James Bible, uses this word to explain how God loves His chosen people. https://www.compellingtruth.org/lovingkindness.html https://www.compellingtruth.org/lovingkindness.html We are undeserving, evil people who deserve justice for our sins. Instead, God offers us a chance to repent and follow Him out of pure grace. He makes a covenant backed by His own name. Within that covenant, He preserves us in eternal life forever while using us to His glory in this life. If we fall, He’ll discipline us but never let us go. That’s out of His love and character. This undeserved grace for those following Jesus Christ is what the Bible calls hesed, or lovingkindness.
- robobro 3y ago
  > We are undeserving, evil people who deserve justice for our sins. I'm not an evil person.
  - nickpsecurity 3y ago
    We all tell ourselves that. God is holy, loving, and just. He’s that all of the time. Heaven will be life without a single act of evil. God’s definition of good is that you obey Him and love others without failure. In your case, you can test yourself using Romans 1: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A18-32&version=ESV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A18-3... Have you ever lied, stolen, cheated, shown apathy, lusted, or wished evil on someone? Have you rejected the true God or tried to live your own way instead of His? These are evil per the God that defines what morality is. “The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God us eternal life in Jesus Christ.” Fortunately for you and I, the only good person to ever live… tempted in all ways we are but having committed no sin… earned God’s favor for you, died for your sins, was raised again, and offered you eternal life in His name. You just have to repent and put your trust in what He did. He’ll also transform you from the inside out when the Spirit of God dwells in you.
  - denton-scratch 3y ago
    Nor am I. And I don't appreciate the implied equating of "justice" with punishment. More broadly, I don't think "evil" is a useful word; it refers to (a) the embodiment of everything that is irremediably bad, and (b) to people or actions that are irremediably bad. I don't think such people and actions exist, and I don't think pure badness is embodied anywhere. So I think the word has no referent.
compumike 3y ago
Rob Burbea Metta Retreat: https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1084/ https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1084/ audio recordings with instructions and guided meditations
- avtar 3y ago
  Another one of his metta (and emptiness) retreats with great talks: https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1277/ https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1277/
  - compumike 3y ago
    Thank you!
Glench 3y ago
My meditation teacher described two types of meditation practices designed to train your mind to be more loving and compassionate and therefore happier. I'd like to share a little about them in the off-chance they're beneficial. One type is to envision the pain and suffering of people and respond compassionately in a way that eliminates their pain and suffering. When I was suffering terribly myself I constantly wished for others who were in similar difficulties to be freed immediately. This actually made me feel a lot better. The problem is that for some people dwelling on suffering is a real bummer. The second type is similar to the text linked above: cherishing all beings as they are, as if they were your very children that you love so so much. Lately, my meditations have started to transition toward this type and I've felt spontaneous feelings of bliss and love toward others that grows the more I do it. And this kindness is naturally starting to come out in my behavior and interactions with others. In both cases, the meditations develop "bodhicitta", which is a word that describes the attitude of wishing others well. It's said that this attitude, when trained, nourished, and grown is the very cause of all happiness and when perfected causes happiness to bloom uninterruptedly. Therefore, it is an extremely beneficial and powerful practice. It's fantastic to see this text linked on Hacker News even without much context. Wishing you all well!
- jbgt 3y ago
  Nice to see you name them as a pair. Very often, people seem to focus on Metta only, maybe due to the focus on this Sutta. To my understanding, Compassion / Lovingkindness are linked and often arise together, and it's a bit odd to wish to separate them too strongly: When contemplating other's and out own Dukkha, Compassion may arise, wishing for it to cease. Lovingkindness may then arise, wishing for there to be happiness and peace instead. They both work together. By contemplating Dukkha we better understand this Characteristic of existence, and develop Compassion/Lovingkindess. To avoid getting too "down" by too much Dukkha meditation, Sympathetic Joy with one's and other's good qualities or good actions we can brighten the mind. and Equanimity helps us from falling into grief/anger on one side, and euphoria and avoiding the truth of existence on the other. So the Brahma Viharas work together and aren't too artificially / forcefully separated.
  - 3y ago
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
Is there a Sutta for being behind on a project, and crushing stress at meeting deadlines, being critical path and a few dozen people waiting on you. Seriously. There are a lot of Sutta's. Wondering if one deals with regular deadlines/stress.
- thoughtFrame 3y ago
  The Bhagavad Gita is for you. Reducing stress is related to cultivating detachment(vairagya) while still doing your duty in the project. I've seen this objection so many times that I'll say it first: detachment is not apathy, it's not "not caring about the project anymore".
  - FrustratedMonky 3y ago
    I'm not objecting. Just in the heat of the moment, hard to stay detached. Sometimes the Suttas, can be a bit 'distant' to everyday life. Hard to relate them back to the hear and now.
    - thoughtFrame 3y ago
      Yeah, practical hermeneutics involve a healthy sprinkle of our reality into those texts. And it makes sense that modern problems aren't well treated by sutras or vedic texts. Deadlines are ever shortening, everything is vying for our attention. A project that we're very attached to because the failure of delivering means you could get sacked (usually, our minds jump straight to the worst case: we WILL get sacked) is probably something unheard of in the times of the Buddha. But it's just hard-mode life compared to what they wrote. The patterns are the same, but you have less HP, and you're full of debuffs. Under that lens, those texts are mostly timeless and independent of which era you read it on. If you understand that you're working on a team, that your agency is only one part of the success. There's all sort of factors that go into the success or failure of the project, and all you can do is the work you've been assigned to. That's where you can care and do the best work that you can while still being dispassionate about the project's success or failure, and thus less affected by the pressures of the deadlines, less stressed by the pressures from the higher ups, the estimates you know are completely wrong, etc. Of course, all of this is assuming you're working on the kind of project I'm imagining, but it should apply to other things too
an_mp_speaks 3y ago
Always a pleasure to see ATI links on here, especially when it's something like this, which has to be one of the most beautiful and practical suttas in the Pali canon. Transcribing buddha-dharma has long been praised as a meritorious act. In the modern era, it'd be hard to beat John Bullitt in his practice of it.
gourabmi 3y ago
Most wholesome thread on HN in recent memory.
CrzyLngPwd 3y ago
It's a useful tool on the path to the realisation that such tools are unnecessary.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
metta2uall 3y ago
I love how this sutta makes it clear what its definition of pure love is (wishing that everyone is well, unconditionally), and that this should be cultivated towards all beings, including animals. Sadly though most Buddhist laypeople are not vegan, though some popular teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh did promote minimising the suffering of animals via such practical means as making vegan choices.. Regarding meditation, Ajahn Brahm from the Thai Forest Tradition has taught extensively not just focused Metta Meditation, but how Metta (i.e. love/acceptance) towards the present moment is a key part of other techniques like meditation of breathing. One of his books, "Kindfulness", really gets into this.

128 points by rajlego 3y ago

https://suttacentral.net/snp1.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin https://suttacentral.net/snp1.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=pla... Sutta central offers various translations (multiple translators, multiple languages). Thich nhat hanh had a good introductory article I believe it’s this one https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/ https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/

korginator 3y ago

As with many Pāli words (e.g., dhamma, samkhāra, etc.), it's hard to provide a simplistic one-dimensional translation of the phrase "mettā", often crudely translated as loving-kindness. When you read through the Sutta Nipata and the early texts, it comes across more as unconditional or unconstrained friendliness which is far easier to practice in real life, even when you can't make yourself feel loving-kindness. There are several other passages from the oldest strata of Pāli texts, e.g., the SNP (Sutta Nipata) and some of the connected discourses (Samyutta Nikāya) that talk more about metta, a rich and complex tapestry that paints a picture of the actual and original intent behind the word or phrase. This talk by Prof. John Peacock has some good insights into the phrase mettā, and provides a good overall context. https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/2600 https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/2600 Mettā is part of the four brahmavihārās or practises to cultivate wholesome states of mind, the others being karuṇā (compassion & kindness for oneself and for others), muditā (simplistically translated as "empathetic joy") and upekkhā (equanimity).

denton-scratch 3y ago

Like nearly all Buddhist teachings, there are practices you can do to develop these faculties. For example, you can reflect that all beings have at one time or another been your mother, or your child; realizing this, how can you feel hatred towards any other being? It doesn't work for me, of course; I don't believe in rebirth.

cracoucax 3y ago
Imo the belief in rebirth is not needed to practice metta, you just need to realize that every being wants to be happy, just like you. Yet all of them are mired in delusion and most of the time do things which go the opposite way of generating real happiness, we all do. Everyone is mired in delusion and most of the time react to feelings of anger and craving (vedana), which are generated based on their history, social norms and whatnot. They are just being manipulated by those all the time, unless they're very mindful of what's happening in their mind temporarily. Realizing this you can't really hate anybody, and in fact you realize they are 100% like you.
- denton-scratch 3y ago
  > the belief in rebirth is not needed to practice metta That's not what I was saying; I was commenting on that suggested technique for developing metta, in particular, which is dependent on belief in rebirth.
  - cracoucax 3y ago
    Ah yes I understand
Glench 3y ago
> It doesn't work for me, of course; I don't believe in rebirth. Are you still able to generate loving-kindness in yourself? If so, then those teachings that don't work for you don't matter.
- denton-scratch 3y ago
  Well, honestly I don't know. If I had feelings of loving kindness, I'd know that; but that would be just feelings. I don't have a loving-kindness detector, and I wouldn't know how to calibrate it if I did. I suppose one could work from hatred; people generally know if they hate something. So if one has reduced the incidence of hatred, then perhaps you could say the technique worked. I used the technique (along with others) over a period of a couple of decades, during which I "suspended belief" concerning rebirth. But over a couple of decades, it's quite possible that my personality changed for other reasons - such as other techniques, or watching my children grow up, or simply maturing.

adyashakti 3y ago

mettā is a powerful practice. if you want to feel happy, do a bit of mettā. if you want mind-melting ecstasy, do a lot.

krzat 3y ago

Interesting to see this here, without any context attached. I've been practicing loving kindness meditation for a few months now and the results have been incredible. I'm atheist, pretty sure reincarnation is bullshit, but the method described in this sutta works. In mundane terms, you can train your brain to be happier and more joyful by those simple visualizations. I'm not quite sure what is the role of spreading kindness in all directions, perhaps it somehow ties our perception of space and time, which is always present, with good feelings - what fires together, wires together - making them more likely to appear in future.

garyfirestorm 3y ago
> I've been practicing loving kindness meditation how do you get started with this? any particular resource? what do you exactly do when practicing this meditation?
- krzat 3y ago
  This should answer your question: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course First impression may not be great. It's kind of cringey at first. It helps to think about this on biological level - there are parts of brain that give meaning to our lives, and this is how we train them.
grahamplace 3y ago
Any recommendations for where to start learning?
- m_a_g 3y ago
  If you’re new to meditation, then I can highly recommend “Waking Up”.
- krzat 3y ago
  Here is a good starting point: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course

5cott0 3y ago

The Mahayana (Tiantai school) version: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34460022 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34460022

robobro 3y ago

People here interested in Buddhist theory / psychology may be interested in this book: https://americanmonk.org/abhidhamma-lessons/ https://americanmonk.org/abhidhamma-lessons/ Abhidhamma Lessons: A Top-Down Approach Using Computer Science Author is a former programmer who uses computer science methods to discuss Buddhism's approach to understanding the mind and reality. I found it interesting!

paolomaffei 3y ago

This very translation has been put to music by an artist called Indiajiva [1], I find it very peaceful [1] https://open.spotify.com/track/1bBMoUSm7Oc07l3JdQoP4g?si=671550449f0d4eb4 https://open.spotify.com/track/1bBMoUSm7Oc07l3JdQoP4g?si=671...

Glench 3y ago
Wow thanks for sharing this!

nickpsecurity 3y ago

Although the prose is beautiful, the word lovingkindness has a different meaning. It was an English word invented to translate hesed in Hebrew into English. The Word of God, esp in King James Bible, uses this word to explain how God loves His chosen people. https://www.compellingtruth.org/lovingkindness.html https://www.compellingtruth.org/lovingkindness.html We are undeserving, evil people who deserve justice for our sins. Instead, God offers us a chance to repent and follow Him out of pure grace. He makes a covenant backed by His own name. Within that covenant, He preserves us in eternal life forever while using us to His glory in this life. If we fall, He’ll discipline us but never let us go. That’s out of His love and character. This undeserved grace for those following Jesus Christ is what the Bible calls hesed, or lovingkindness.

robobro 3y ago
> We are undeserving, evil people who deserve justice for our sins. I'm not an evil person.
- nickpsecurity 3y ago
  We all tell ourselves that. God is holy, loving, and just. He’s that all of the time. Heaven will be life without a single act of evil. God’s definition of good is that you obey Him and love others without failure. In your case, you can test yourself using Romans 1: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A18-32&version=ESV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A18-3... Have you ever lied, stolen, cheated, shown apathy, lusted, or wished evil on someone? Have you rejected the true God or tried to live your own way instead of His? These are evil per the God that defines what morality is. “The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God us eternal life in Jesus Christ.” Fortunately for you and I, the only good person to ever live… tempted in all ways we are but having committed no sin… earned God’s favor for you, died for your sins, was raised again, and offered you eternal life in His name. You just have to repent and put your trust in what He did. He’ll also transform you from the inside out when the Spirit of God dwells in you.
- denton-scratch 3y ago
  Nor am I. And I don't appreciate the implied equating of "justice" with punishment. More broadly, I don't think "evil" is a useful word; it refers to (a) the embodiment of everything that is irremediably bad, and (b) to people or actions that are irremediably bad. I don't think such people and actions exist, and I don't think pure badness is embodied anywhere. So I think the word has no referent.

compumike 3y ago

Rob Burbea Metta Retreat: https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1084/ https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1084/ audio recordings with instructions and guided meditations

avtar 3y ago
Another one of his metta (and emptiness) retreats with great talks: https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1277/ https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/1277/
- compumike 3y ago
  Thank you!

Glench 3y ago

My meditation teacher described two types of meditation practices designed to train your mind to be more loving and compassionate and therefore happier. I'd like to share a little about them in the off-chance they're beneficial. One type is to envision the pain and suffering of people and respond compassionately in a way that eliminates their pain and suffering. When I was suffering terribly myself I constantly wished for others who were in similar difficulties to be freed immediately. This actually made me feel a lot better. The problem is that for some people dwelling on suffering is a real bummer. The second type is similar to the text linked above: cherishing all beings as they are, as if they were your very children that you love so so much. Lately, my meditations have started to transition toward this type and I've felt spontaneous feelings of bliss and love toward others that grows the more I do it. And this kindness is naturally starting to come out in my behavior and interactions with others. In both cases, the meditations develop "bodhicitta", which is a word that describes the attitude of wishing others well. It's said that this attitude, when trained, nourished, and grown is the very cause of all happiness and when perfected causes happiness to bloom uninterruptedly. Therefore, it is an extremely beneficial and powerful practice. It's fantastic to see this text linked on Hacker News even without much context. Wishing you all well!

jbgt 3y ago
Nice to see you name them as a pair. Very often, people seem to focus on Metta only, maybe due to the focus on this Sutta. To my understanding, Compassion / Lovingkindness are linked and often arise together, and it's a bit odd to wish to separate them too strongly: When contemplating other's and out own Dukkha, Compassion may arise, wishing for it to cease. Lovingkindness may then arise, wishing for there to be happiness and peace instead. They both work together. By contemplating Dukkha we better understand this Characteristic of existence, and develop Compassion/Lovingkindess. To avoid getting too "down" by too much Dukkha meditation, Sympathetic Joy with one's and other's good qualities or good actions we can brighten the mind. and Equanimity helps us from falling into grief/anger on one side, and euphoria and avoiding the truth of existence on the other. So the Brahma Viharas work together and aren't too artificially / forcefully separated.
- 3y ago

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

Is there a Sutta for being behind on a project, and crushing stress at meeting deadlines, being critical path and a few dozen people waiting on you. Seriously. There are a lot of Sutta's. Wondering if one deals with regular deadlines/stress.

thoughtFrame 3y ago
The Bhagavad Gita is for you. Reducing stress is related to cultivating detachment(vairagya) while still doing your duty in the project. I've seen this objection so many times that I'll say it first: detachment is not apathy, it's not "not caring about the project anymore".
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago
  I'm not objecting. Just in the heat of the moment, hard to stay detached. Sometimes the Suttas, can be a bit 'distant' to everyday life. Hard to relate them back to the hear and now.
  - thoughtFrame 3y ago
    Yeah, practical hermeneutics involve a healthy sprinkle of our reality into those texts. And it makes sense that modern problems aren't well treated by sutras or vedic texts. Deadlines are ever shortening, everything is vying for our attention. A project that we're very attached to because the failure of delivering means you could get sacked (usually, our minds jump straight to the worst case: we WILL get sacked) is probably something unheard of in the times of the Buddha. But it's just hard-mode life compared to what they wrote. The patterns are the same, but you have less HP, and you're full of debuffs. Under that lens, those texts are mostly timeless and independent of which era you read it on. If you understand that you're working on a team, that your agency is only one part of the success. There's all sort of factors that go into the success or failure of the project, and all you can do is the work you've been assigned to. That's where you can care and do the best work that you can while still being dispassionate about the project's success or failure, and thus less affected by the pressures of the deadlines, less stressed by the pressures from the higher ups, the estimates you know are completely wrong, etc. Of course, all of this is assuming you're working on the kind of project I'm imagining, but it should apply to other things too

an_mp_speaks 3y ago

Always a pleasure to see ATI links on here, especially when it's something like this, which has to be one of the most beautiful and practical suttas in the Pali canon. Transcribing buddha-dharma has long been praised as a meritorious act. In the modern era, it'd be hard to beat John Bullitt in his practice of it.

gourabmi 3y ago

Most wholesome thread on HN in recent memory.

CrzyLngPwd 3y ago

It's a useful tool on the path to the realisation that such tools are unnecessary.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

metta2uall 3y ago

I love how this sutta makes it clear what its definition of pure love is (wishing that everyone is well, unconditionally), and that this should be cultivated towards all beings, including animals. Sadly though most Buddhist laypeople are not vegan, though some popular teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh did promote minimising the suffering of animals via such practical means as making vegan choices.. Regarding meditation, Ajahn Brahm from the Thai Forest Tradition has taught extensively not just focused Metta Meditation, but how Metta (i.e. love/acceptance) towards the present moment is a key part of other techniques like meditation of breathing. One of his books, "Kindfulness", really gets into this.