The Metta Sutta, also known as the Karaniya Metta Sutta, is a famous Buddhist text from the Pali Canon that outlines the practice of "metta" or loving-kindness meditation

The Metta Sutta, also known as the Karaniya Metta Sutta, is a famous Buddhist text from the Pali Canon that outlines the practice of "metta" or loving-kindness meditation. Here is a brief overview:

### Key Points of the Metta Sutta:

1. **Ethical Conduct**: 

   - The text begins by describing the kind of person who can practice metta: one who is skilled in goodness, upright, and honest, who is free from deceit and arrogance.

2. **Practice of Loving-Kindness**:

   - **Unlimited Scope**: One should cultivate a boundless heart, full of love towards all beings, similar to how a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life.

   - **Directions**: This love should be extended in all directions - above, below, and around, without any obstruction, hatred, or enmity.

3. **Effects of Practice**:

   - Practicing metta leads to an unconfined mind. It brings about peace and tranquility, and it is said to help in sleeping easily, waking happily, and not being troubled by dreams.

   - It is also considered to provide protection from harm by spirits or external negative forces.

4. **Comparison to Other Qualities**:

   - The text compares this practice to the virtues of the great sages and states that by not holding to fixed views, by being virtuous and endowed with insight, one will come to be freed from birth and death.

### Practice of Metta Meditation:

- The practice involves silently repeating phrases of loving-kindness towards oneself, then progressively towards others:

  - "May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be safe, may I live with ease."

  - "May you be happy, may you be healthy..." (extending this to friends, neutral people, difficult people, and all beings).

The Metta Sutta encourages not just passive goodwill but an active cultivation of love and peace towards oneself and all creatures, emphasizing a universal application of kindness that transcends personal boundaries and biases.

Would you like to know more about how to incorporate metta meditation into daily practice or about its benefits?

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down,

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection.

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,

The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,

Being freed from all sense desires,

Is not born again into this world.

Key Elements:

Moral Conduct: One should be virtuous, humble, content, and have simplicity in living.

Universal Love: The practice involves extending loving-kindness to all beings without discrimination.

Visualization: The meditator visualizes love spreading in all directions, like a mother's love for her child.

Benefits of Practice: 

It leads to a life free from harm, free from enmity, and leads to a peaceful existence.

The practitioner experiences an unconfined mind, sleeps easily, wakes happily, is not troubled by dreams, and is protected from negative energies.

Liberation: The ultimate benefit of practicing metta leads to the cessation of rebirth by purifying the heart and mind, leading to enlightenment.

This sutta is often recited for its soothing and protective qualities and is a fundamental practice in Theravada Buddhism for cultivating compassion and loving-kindness. It's also part of the Four Immeasurables or Brahmavihāras, which include metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity).

The Karaniya Metta Sutta is one of the most beloved discourses in the Pali Canon, found in the Sutta Nipata of the Khuddaka Nikaya (Minor Collection). It is an exposition on metta (loving-kindness) meditation, which is meant to cultivate an immeasurable and unconditional love towards all beings. Here is a translation and summary of the text:

Translation of the Karaniya Metta Sutta:

Introduction:

He who is skilled in goodness, and who knows the path of peace,

Let him be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech,

Humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied,

Unburdened with duties and frugal in his ways,

Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,

Not proud and demanding in nature.

Let him not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.

May all beings be happy and secure,

May their hearts be wholesome.

Whatever living beings there may be,

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,

The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born,

May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings;

Radiating kindness over the entire world,

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths,

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.