I also think it’s worth to revisit since metta is such an attractive part of the suttas… When I was going through the many references in the suttas, it occurred to me that we actually have no idea how metta was practiced. We’re trying to squeeze several aspects with little certainty
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the four directions/quarters: I tried to interpret it in several ways (e.g. four lokas) but had to conclude that it really just means the geographical directions/quarters. It prepares the measureless aspect of the full metta, but - if taken seriously - shows such a highly advanced malleability of the mind that it surely is beyond the imagination of most of us.
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like a mother to her only child: as grateful as I am for the straight images of the Snp, but the application of this one is limited. Personally (being male) I don’t even know how a mother feels regarding her only child, let alone how to extend this ‘same’ attitute to far away unseen beings. If I take my cultural background, mothers’ love seems to be concerned with their children eating a lot, they worry all the time, and want them to marry and have kids. Is that metta? should I extend this to bacteria?
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animate or inanimate: Snp 1.8 speaks of pāṇabhūta = beings with breath/life energy. And sabbaloka, which is not the world of objects but rather strictly a realm of beings. Not saying that there’s a loophole to hate your neighbor’s SUV, but the sutta at least is about living beings.
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a mind without ill-will: this looks like being related to metta, but is actually non-specific, being applied to mudita, karuna and upekkha as well.
My personal conclusion is that there is not much we know about practical metta meditation in the ebt. The little we do doesn’t really give us a manual. Also it leaves unclear the connection between the mundane root of ‘friend-lyness’ and the exalted measureless metta (we might as well speculate how it is to be in the fourth jhana).
My desire would be to turn from a scholarly approach to our gifted masters like LP Liem for example and ask them how to describe the fully developed metta. What they say in public speeches is often all-too relateable. I don’t listen to tapes much, but maybe our nice community can share what they heard from our highly developed teachers?