Key Terms/Mettā
From Bodhicitta
Basic Meaning
The unconditional wish for all sentient beings to experience happiness and the causes of happiness. It is a form of universal, selfless love and is one of the four immeasurables (or sublime abodes).
Has the Sense of
- Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): Maitrī (T. byams pa), or mettā in Pāli, is a wholesome mental factor that wishes happiness for all sentient beings. It is traditionally counted as the first of the four immeasurables (brahmavihāra or tshang pa'i gnas pa bzhi). Its function is to be an antidote to ill-will, hatred, and malice.
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): In Mahāyāna, maitrī (T. byams pa) is the unconditional loving-kindness that forms the foundation for great compassion (mahākaruṇā) and is indispensable for the generation of bodhicitta, the aspiration for full enlightenment for the sake of all beings. It is cultivated through specific meditations, progressing from wishing happiness for oneself, to loved ones, neutral people, enemies, and finally all sentient beings equally. It is part of the upāya (method) aspect of the path, uniting with wisdom (prajñā).
- Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): In Vajrayāna, byams pa (loving-kindness) is maintained as part of the skillful means (upāya) and is inseparable from the ultimate view. It is the spontaneous expression of the awakened mind's nature, ensuring that the realization of emptiness is not sterile but dynamically engaged in the welfare of others.
- Dzogchen/Mahāmudrā (Indo-Tibetan): Within the ultimate perspective of Dzogchen, byams pa (loving-kindness) is understood as the spontaneous, unceasing warmth and capacity for manifestation (*thugs rje* or *rtsal*) that arises from the mind's ultimate essence (*rigpa*). It is an inherent quality of the realized nature, not just a cultivated feeling.
- Theravāda/Pāli Tradition Context: In the Pāli tradition, mettā is the first of the four sublime abodes (brahmavihāra) and is frequently taught as a specific meditation practice (mettā bhāvanā). This practice involves systematically radiating loving-kindness to increasingly wider circles of beings, with the purpose of purifying the mind of ill-will (vyāpāda) and developing equanimity. The *Mettā Sutta* is a key text on this practice.
| Term Variations | |
| Key Term | Mettā |
|---|---|
| Topic Variation | Mettā |
| Tibetan | བྱམས་པ་ ( jampa) |
| Wylie Transliteration | byams pa ( jampa) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | मैत्री |
| Romanized Sanskrit | maitrī |
| Chinese | 慈 |
| Chinese Pinyin | cí |
| Japanese Transliteration | ji |
| Korean | ja |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | loving-kindness |
| Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term | loving-kindness |
| Alternate Spellings | Maitrī, byams pa |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Pali |
| Basic Meaning | The unconditional wish for other beings to experience happiness and the causes of happiness. |
| Has the Sense of | It is a form of universal, selfless love and when the wish for happiness is extended equally to all beings it is one of the four immeasurables (or sublime abodes). |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | ཐ་མི་དད་པ གཞན་བདེ་བ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འདོད་པ། བྱམས་པའི་མ། གཉེན་ལ་བྱམས་ཤིང་དགྲ་ལ་སྡང༌། ལུག་རྫི་ལུག་ལ་བྱམས། བུ་ལ་བྱམས་དྲགས་ནས་ལང་དུ་ཤོར་བ། གོས་ལྷམ་སོགས་ལུས་ལ་བདེ་བ། ཀོ་སྒ་རྟ་ལ་བྱམས། ཕྱིང་ལྷམ་རྐང་ལ་བྱམས། དམངས་གཞས་ནང་ལ་དགའ་གྲོགས་སམ་སྙིང་གྲོགས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་གོ་བ། བུ་མོ་ཆུང་འདྲིས་བྱམས་པ། སྤྱང་ཀིའི་རིགས་རྒྱུད་མིན་ནམ། ཤ་འདྲེས་ལྤགས་འདྲེས་བྱུང་ཡང༌། རི་ལ་ཤོར་གྲབས་མཛད་གི། བྱམ་པ་དང་འདྲ། མཻཏྲི རྒྱལ་བ་མ་ཕམ་པ་དང༌། བྱང་སེམས་བྱམས་པ། ཚངས་པའི་གནས་པ་བཞིའི་ནང་གསེས། སེམས་ཅན་གང་ཞིག་ལ་དམིགས་ནས་དེ་དག་བདེ་བ་དང་ལྡན་ན་ཅི་མ་རུང་སྙམ་པ་སྟེ། གནོད་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཉེན་པོའོ། |
