Prayer · Buddhist practice
Metta
May all beings be happy. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings be at peace.
Three English phrases for loving-kindness practice, offered outward to all beings. They are not a translation of a canonical passage — they are modern wording in the shape of a very old practice, and this app offers them as that rather than as scripture.
This text was written for Japa. It is not a traditional formula, and no tradition teaches it as one.
The count shown here is Japa's suggestion, not a rule of the tradition. Follow the form and number you were taught.
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May all beings be happy. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings be at peace.
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What the words say
Each line wishes one thing and withholds nothing: happiness, freedom from suffering, peace. 'All beings' is meant without exception, which is the difficulty of the practice and its point. Many teachers have people begin with themselves, then someone loved, then someone neutral, then someone difficult, and only then everyone.
Where it comes from
Mettā — goodwill, loving-kindness — is taught in the Pāli canon, most famously in the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, and developed as one of the four brahmavihāras. The English phrasings in circulation today, this one included, come out of twentieth-century Insight and Vipassanā teaching in the West rather than from a traditional liturgy, and they vary from teacher to teacher.
How it is practised
Usually done seated, phrase by phrase, holding one person or group in mind at a time. Counting is not traditional here; the count in this app is a way of giving the sitting a length.
References
- Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, Sutta Nipāta 1.8 — the canonical source of the practice, not of this wording
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