SuttaCentral
Oh my, Iâm not sure I like the sound of credit, I was more entertained by my evident communicative fail.
Anyway, the most important thing is that Thanissaro Bhikkhuâs valuable and, as you suggest, very well measured reflections on this matter have now well and truly been flagged up for those interested. So, much credit to you! 
Thats relative to a few points already mentioned, i.e in actuality the dhamma is not free, dhamma centers/viharaâs can always do with more financial assistance,
âajahn geoffs well measuredâŚ,â I would say its the opposite, people always need reminding and envouragement, donât go for the ideal, go for the reality, meaning often times ideals donât necessarily coresspond with reality, being from the thai kammatthana tradition but teaching using notesâŚwould be my tounge in cheech example.
sabbe satta samadhi sampatti hoti!!
may all beings attain samadhi
I donât fully understand your point here but I think we better agree to disagree on this. 
hi again, I was thinking about this topic and it sprung to my mind that not only is giving intrinsic to the noble eightfold path, and hence related to other qualities such as hiri and otappa, giving is also metta. And as point of interest, why for example donât thai krooba ajahn teach metta meditation, because it occurs naturally-as opposed to the vissuddhi magga method- which is unatural and doesnât accurately reflect how the buddha taught-because he never taught it- hence there are lots of discourses about dana and not any specifically about a method how to do âmetta meditationâ perse. So in that context you could say the buddha interestingly enough never actualy taught âmetta meditationâ per se as its popularly understood as a specific method you do that results in the experience of âmetta,â but rather the developemnt of dana sila and bhavana or any other dhamma(s) will result in a naturally more compassionate person. Does that help sarath⌠sukhi hotu
( a given distinguishment for things such as the karaniya metta sutta, which is a genuine âbuddha vacanaâ metta method that just inloves recollecting kusala qualities âŚuju/straightforwardness anantimani/humility santusska/contentment, rather than a contrived method )
"That disciple of the noble ones, headman â thus devoid of covetousness, devoid of ill will, unbewildered, alert, mindful â keeps pervading the first direction [the east] with an awareness imbued with good will, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth. Thus above, below, & all around, everywhere, in its entirety, he keeps pervading the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with good will â abundant, expansive, immeasurable, without hostility, without ill will. Just as a strong conch-trumpet blower can notify the four directions without any difficulty, in the same way, when the awareness-release through good will is thus developed, thus pursued, any deed done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn42/sn42.008.than.html#brahma1
I suggest looking up the relevant topic on www.accesstoinsight.org.
With metta
Thats exactly the point!, there is metta as a method (karaniya only 1.sutta) or mostly nowdays (using a visuddhimagga method) and metta as a product or effect (brahma vihara type dhamma,) [quote=âBhante_Darma, post:66, topic:3860â]
imbued with good will
[/quote]
it was a nice quote though thanks. The point I was trying to get at was that it is often the case nowdays where there is seemingly a whole retreat based on this idea of metta and a method that is not really authentic, and little if any on say âthe gradual trainingââŚetc, in which the âmettaâ in the former is a technique and in the later a product/vipaka.
this following sutta style dhamma means post jhana, or a lower level upacara samadhi, so the inference would be samadhi first then metta but before samadhiâŚ