Mettā

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Key Term	Mettā
Hover Popup Choices	loving-kindness; love; universal love; benevolence; friendliness; affection; kindness
In Tibetan Script	བྱམས་པ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	byams pa
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	मैत्री
Romanized Sanskrit	maitrī
Romanized Pali	mettā
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	jampa
Chinese Script	慈
Chinese Pinyin	cí
Japanese Transliteration	ji
Korean Script	ja
English Standard	loving-kindness
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	loving-kindness
Alternate Spellings	Maitrī; byams pa
Term Type	Noun
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).
NEW: Context Descriptions (Glossary-DefinitionTsadra)	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.
NEW: Glossary-PopUpBeginnerDefinition	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).
NEW: Glossary-PopUpScholarDefinition	A fundamental wholesome mental factor (P. mettā; Skt. maitrī; T. byams pa) defined as the state of mind that wishes happiness for all sentient beings and is the direct antidote to ill-will (vyāpāda). As one of the four immeasurables (brahmavihāra), it is a crucial component of spiritual development. In Mahāyāna, its universal application serves as a foundation for great compassion (mahākaruṇā) and the generation of bodhicitta, making it an essential practice within the method (upāya) aspect of the path.
NEW: Glossary-DefinitionBodhicittaWiki	Maitrī (T. byams pa), or loving-kindness, is the first and foundational quality for generating bodhicitta. The practice of developing the unconditional wish for all sentient beings to have happiness and the causes of happiness is the necessary precursor to karuṇā (compassion), the wish for them to be free from suffering. In the Mahāyāna path, the progression of cultivating these four immeasurables—maitrī, karuṇā, muditā, and upekṣā—is the indispensable method (upāya) that guides the bodhisattva through the stages to full enlightenment. Without maitrī as the foundation of wishing them happiness, the aspiration of bodhicitta would lack its essential altruistic motive.
NEW: Glossary-DefinitionLotsawas	loving-kindness; universal love; benevolence; friendliness; affection; kindness
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།