Posts Tagged ‘Visuddhimagga’
On Mettā
Where do the instructions for mettā practice come from? The suttas give relatively little instruction on what actually to do, beyond generating universal good will that we find in the Mettā Sutta (Sn. 143-152), and the practice of focusing on each direction, in an oft-cited pericope: [W]ith his heart filled with lovingkindness, he dwells suffusing…
Read MoreLoving Kindness Meditation: History and Practice
What is Loving Kindness (mettā) meditation and how did it develop? Many people today practice a form that probably originated centuries after the Buddha’s day.
Read MoreLovingkindness Now and in the Past
In contrast to the dominant role that mettā (lovingkindness) and the other Brahmavihāras (compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) play in contemporary Buddhist practice, they seem to have played a relatively minor role in the earliest tradition. One looks in vain for much elaboration on mettā’s dhammic role; largely it seems to have been seen as…
Read MoreA World of Impermanence: the Three Marks
The three marks of existence (anicca, dukkha, anatta, or impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self) have always played a central role in Buddhist dhamma. They outline its basic metaphysics, the ground which characterizes lived reality. The Buddha viewed these characteristics as everlastingly true of the world: “Bhikkhus, whether Tathāgatas arise or not, there persists that law, that…
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