In regards to metta,
Goodwill,
The Sammasambuddha,
The perfectly self-awakened Buddha,
Taught that Dhamma practitioners,
Monks,
Novices and all the laity,
Need a mind that has metta,
Or love.
We will be able to keep the five precepts well when our mind has metta,
When it has compassion,
Sympathetic joy,
Equanimity and has mindfulness established well.
We see the drawbacks and dangers of not having sila,
Morality,
Moral conduct.
We see the benefit of having sila,
That there arises peace and happiness and it is the foundation to seeing the Dhamma.
Developing metta is developed like a mother that is pregnant who cherishes the child in her womb,
Not letting anything badly affect her womb.
In the same way,
We have to develop metta,
Then our mind can have peace.
So metta jeto vimuti,
It is a liberation of the heart through the power of the quality of metta.
It is entering the Dhamma through jeto,
Which is samadhi concentration.
Vimuti is liberation from ill will,
From all the mental defilements.
The mind that has metta through jeto vimuti is then called liberation of all the mental defilements through the samadhi from metta.
So we need to train in this.
There are many kamatthana meditation objects,
But the sublime abiding of metta is an important meditation object that supports the other meditation objects to be well established.
To train in metta till a high level of samadhi is hard to do,
And then to have liberation as well,
We must have a great refinement of the mind,
Which is related to the samadhi of the rupa jhāna or arupa jhāna levels.
But though now we may not have a high level of samadhi,
But we still need to train to have a mind of metta.
So we will train in having a mind of metta,
Of compassion,
Sympathetic joy,
Equanimity.
And sometimes we are just sitting there quietly and there is someone coming to harm us.
They say something harsh or come to physically harm us with no cause.
But we develop metta,
We have no ill will or hostility.
This experience is likely related to karma that we have done in the past.
Like Lady Samawati,
Who was tricked to go into the hall in the palace and was locked in.
They lit a fire and burnt them all to death in there.
But Lady Samawati and her retinue had no thoughts of anger or hostility to the one who had done this.
But they established their minds to develop their meditation object and they attained to a higher level of noble attainment.
And this was at the time that they were getting burnt.
They had mindfulness and could develop metta.
And after getting past the karma that they had received,
Then they could be reborn as a deva,
Divine being.
So there is one way of liberation called ceto-vimuti and another is bhanya-vimuti,
Which is liberation through wisdom.
Being able to destroy delusion and ignorance,
Attaining to becoming an arahant.
Ceto-vimuti is liberation through samadhi first,
With samadhi as the foundation.
And this samadhi is done through metta as well.
Samadhi from metta is harder to do.
May we train in metta.
We can train to think that we will spread metta.
They are like our friends and companions.
We have love and friendliness.
And we wish that all people have happiness.
But this metta is a metta that is pure.
It is a love that is pure.
With no clinging onto anything.
It is a boundless,
Sublime abiding.
It has no boundaries.
We think and spread it to all living beings.
For all living beings to have happiness.
In the front direction,
Right,
Left,
To above,
Behind and the eight compass directions.
In all the directions around.
We have the mind to be free from ill will and hostility.
All the way to not having any forms of selfish love.
So like this it is metta samadhi.
It is a supreme beauty.
It has a pure mind towards all sentient beings in all directions.
And anger and ill will is one mental hindrance that obstructs samadhi to arise.
Since we can remember,
We will have had anger and ill will.
Even when we sit meditation,
The mood of anger and ill will that has been from the past will come to bother the mind.
Or we will proliferate to have anger and ill will into the future as well.
So then the present is all turbulent and not peaceful.
If the mood of anger and ill will arises often like this,
Then we should develop metta as a sublime abiding.
When anger and ill will arises in every person,
It is normal for monks and laity to have it in their mind.
But when we spread metta like this,
Then whatever scary and creepy animals that we have been scared and loathe,
Like lizards,
Geckos or small animals or insects,
We see that all living beings,
Whether lizards or geckos,
Are all beautiful.
They aren't scary or loathsome at all.
We have metta and feel sorry for them.
The mind is steady till it becomes samadhi.
And there are many resulting benefits of developing metta meditation.
We hear that the Sama Sambuddha said that whoever develops the liberation of mind of metta,
Who does it a lot,
Develops it a lot,
And their heart is well established,
Then there are ten benefits.
One sleeps at ease.
One wakes happily.
We can see that if we develop metta meditation regularly,
We won't have bad dreams.
If our mind lacks metta in the present,
We don't have metta,
It may enter our dreams and we may have nightmares.
But if we develop metta regularly in our daily life,
We sleep happily,
Because we have no grudges or ill will to anyone.
We wake and we are at ease.
We dream of only good things that are of blessings.
We don't dream and experience bad things.
And one will be loved by human beings,
And all non-human beings like metta,
And especially the devas,
They will protect us even more,
Because our mind has metta.
If our heart has hostility and ill will,
Then it is hot.
Our hearts are hot,
And the current of hotness will burn up the body.
It burns up the heart first,
Then burns up the body.
So no one wants to come close to us.
Humans don't want to come close.
The devas don't protect us.
And the one who develops metta has the benefit that they won't die from poison or blades and weapons.
The mind is concentrated quickly.
The face is clear and bright.
On death,
They will have mindfulness.
They won't feel lost when they die.
And if wisdom is not to the level of attainment,
They will be reborn in a Brahma realm,
As a Brahma.
The Buddha taught of taking care of the mind.
If a monk is caught by a bandit,
And they will cut us up limb from limb with a two-handed saw,
Then we are to establish our mind to have metta.
To not have anger or ill will to that bandit.
If we have anger or ill will,
Then we are not a child of the Buddha.
When I read this sutta,
I thought,
Oh,
This isn't easy.
It shows that one who develops metta must be at a very high level.
So we train in developing metta.
There may be a mosquito biting us.
There is a fly or a creature that bites or stings us.
Then we develop metta,
And we forgive.
Sometimes there is a dog that scratches us.
We must forgive it.
Sometimes a person harms us.
We don't know the cause.
We are just standing there,
And they may come up and harm us.
There are cases of others coming to slap people in the face.
This can arise from karma done.
We accept it as our karma.
We spread metta and forgive them.
We have no anger,
No ill will,
No hostility.
We can establish our minds that when we open our eyes,
We won't get angry at anyone today.
We won't have ill will to anyone.
No harmful or hostile thoughts.
And even though our minds can't do it yet,
We will still have that intention.
The intention to not do it.
It makes us have mindfulness come up.
We try to be determined like this often.
And if being intent in the morning is not enough,
Then before midday,
At midday,
After midday,
In the afternoon,
In the evening,
Before sleeping,
We are also intent like this.
So that our minds will abide in metta.
And usually we don't have metta.
The normal state of the mind doesn't have metta.
But when we do have metta like this,
Then our samadhi is well concentrated and it is said that being concentrated,
It doesn't degrade.
So we need to spread metta.
May all living beings have no hostility,
No affliction,
No distress.
May they have happiness.
Maybe it's a being that has consciousness,
A being that has breath.
All the creatures,
To all people,
To all beings,
We spread metta to them.
This is spreading metta in the five ways.
If it is spreading metta in the seven ways,
Then we spread metta to all men and women.
Those who are noble ones.
To undeveloped beings.
To all devas and humans.
To those in lower realms of suffering.
May they be free from hostility.
Free from affliction.
Free from distress.
May they be free from suffering.
This is spreading metta in the seven ways.
If it is spreading metta in the ten directions,
Then it is as explained.
It is to all the compass directions of north,
South,
East,
West,
Northeast,
Southeast,
Southwest,
Northwest,
And above and below.
We spread metta to these ten directions.
We train in this every day.
If we do this every day,
In these directions,
Then our mind will have peace,
Happiness,
And coolness.
Whoever sees us feels uplifted and refreshed in the Dhamma.
In the quality of metta.
I have paid respects to one venerable elder monk,
Venerable Ajahn Kamsen of Wat Suan Tok.
I was very impressed by his metta.
He gave a blessing and spread metta.
And I was sitting about a meter away from him.
And I had this feeling of inner coolness.
His energy was very cooling.
It was his energy that he was giving from the blessing spreading out.
It came out from his purified heart.
His quality of metta was very strong.
So we need to train in it,
Till it is samadhi,
Till our mind has purity.
Here we see that when one has developed the quality of metta like this,
Then we will recollect constantly that our bodily actions,
Our speech and mind will be imbued with the quality of metta.
This is called the six sarniya dhamma.
The qualities that make one to have feelings of consideration for each other,
Building friendliness to each other and thinking of one another,
Having harmony and being of one heart.
So this is metta in actions and speech,
And even by way of the mind,
Having only good thoughts to each other.
When we have gains and requisites,
Then we share it fairly,
Assisting each other.
So this is beautiful.
And having an equal level of sila,
Respecting the rules and vinaya,
Discipline,
And having equal views.
Sometimes when the husband and wife have different views,
Then it's hard to be together.
But dhamma practitioners who have same views,
Then when they are in a group,
Then it's beautiful.
They follow the same rules,
And they are intent together.
They listen to dhamma together,
They walk and sit meditation.
And when there is the all night practice,
They do it together.
This is very uplifting to see.
It's beautiful.
So this is having the qualities of the six sarniya dhammas.
So may you train and instruct yourselves till your mind has metta like this constantly.
Then your samadhi will be concentrated and ultimately you will see and know the dhamma.
May you grow in blessings.
