To Daniel,



"With regards to 'priest and dhutangas', perhaps anyone can explain the
connotations of the word 'metta'? Are there some connotations missed when
translated into English as 'love'"?



1) According to the Paa.li-English Dictionary available online at http://www.dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/index.html, "metta" has numerous connotations. I would have pasted them here if my Unicode font worked properly, so I'd suggest checking out what the PED has to say.

As for "What we in the West call 'love,' Buddhists would call 'attachment,'" (I'm afraid I'll be departing from the focus/purpose of the group, but here it goes:) I believe it's helpful to consider that there seem to be generally two types of love: sensuous love (loving desire rooted in the six sense bases) and maternal/paternal love (loving-kindness, the wishing for non-harm and happiness for a being). The former type seems to relate to the above statement (love associated with attachment) and seems directed not as much for the sake of the recipient(s) of one's metta (i.e. for the well-being of the recipient(s), but toward the desire/craving for one's own pleasurable feelings/sensations associated with that object of metta (and thus is an unwholesome desire rooted in greed, sensuous desire, delusion, etc.). This certainly is not the type of love that the Buddha taught his disciples to cultivate. Also, both of these types of love are clearly present in the West, so I would
hesitate to stay that "what we in the West call 'love,' Buddhists would call 'attachment'".

It seems that the latter is the brand of love he taught, the type of love that a mother or father would have for her/his children; in the Metta Sutta the Buddha states, "Na paro para"m nikubbetha, naatima~n~netha katthaci na ka~nci, byaarosanaa pa.tighasa~n~na, naa~n~na-ma~n~nassa dukkha-miccheyya" ("Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life, even so let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings" (translation by Ven. Sayadaw U Siilaananda)). This type of love is boundless, free from enmity and hate, and is born out of a desire not only for non-harm to come to another, but for true (permanent, lasting) happiness (i.e. realization of Truth) to be experienced by the recipient(s) of one's metta.

2) "Then, in Tibetan Buddhism 'love' is sometimes defined as "the wish for someone to have happiness and the causes of happiness"".

Not only is this the interpretation of "love" in Tibetan Buddhism; this is the most common definition of metta in the Paa.li Canon (and thus the Theravada tradition) in reference to the brahmavihaaras (Divine Abidings/Abodes): Sabbasattaa bhavantu sukhitattaa ("May all beings be happy" (Metta Sutta, translated by Ven. Sayadaw U Siilaananda)).

3) Relation to the Four Right Efforts (sammappadhaana):

Also important to keep in mind is the four-fold purpose/function of cultivating metta; not only is it simply wishing for non-harm and happiness for all beings (i.e. giving rise to wholesome states and causing them to persist), but it is also to prevent unwholesome states (hate, ill will, resentment, etc.) from arising and persisting in one's own mind. In the Visuddhimagga, (Ch. IX, Sec. 3), Buddhagosa states, "He should embark upon the development of loving-kindness for the purpose of secluding the mind from hate seen as a danger and introducing it to patience known as an advantage" (translation by Ven. ~Na.namoli). Cultivation of metta can be seen as a weapon for eliminating and preventing unwholesome states from arising and persisting, while at the same time giving rise to and maintaining wholesome states that have arisen. Therefore, metta is not limited to the outward gaze (wishing for the welfare and happiness of other beings as a means of cultivating whoesome states, as
stated/suggested in the common definition of it), but is also inwardly directed for one's own development (ridding oneself of/preventing unwholesome states).

Mike Zoll


Daniel <daniell@...> wrote:

With regards to "priest and dhutangas", perhaps anyone can explain the
connotations of the word "metta"? Are there some connotations missed when
translated into English as "love"?

Sometimes I heard people say "What we in the west call
love, buddhists would call attachment". Then, in Tibetan Buddhism "love" is
sometimes defined as "the wish for someone to have hapiness and the causes of
hapiness". Do you agree with these?

Yours

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