Loving-Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta

Loving-kindness, or metta in Pali, is the friendly, caring attitude toward all beings, including ourselves. You could see this as the baseline feeling. When loving-kindness encounters suffering it turns into compassion. Self-compassion

Metta is not a prayer for help from something or someone outside of ourselves. It is not an ego-driven kindness based on possessions, attachment, or grasping, nor is it overly sentimental. Rather, metta is a genuine desire for all beings, without exception, to be safe from inner and outer harm, to be healthy and content, and to live with ease.

Metta, which can be translated from Pali as “love” or “lovingkindness,” is the first of the brahma-viharas, the “heavenly abodes.” The others—compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—grow out of metta, which supports and extends these states.