Mettā for laypeople

The Watercooler
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Dear Everybody,

The Mettāsutta was given to the mendicants, whose lifestyle permits a full-time immersion in the spiritual practice of mediation and contemplation of the scriptures. They can start thinking about how to cultivate, develop, consolidate… the practice of mettā in their lives. Only then—when the practice of mettā has been fully undertaken and set as a basis of one’s life—can we expect to have the eleven wonderful benefits manifest in our lives.

“Mendicants, you can expect eleven benefits when the heart’s release by love has been cultivated, developed, and practiced, made a vehicle and a basis, kept up, consolidated, and properly implemented.

What eleven? You sleep at ease. You wake happily. You don’t have bad dreams. Humans love you. Non-humans love you. Deities protect you. You can’t be harmed by fire, poison, or blade. Your mind quickly enters immersion. Your face is clear and bright. You don’t feel lost when you die. If you don’t penetrate any higher, you’ll be reborn in a realm of divinity. You can expect eleven benefits when the heart’s release by love has been cultivated, developed, and practiced, made a vehicle and a basis, kept up, consolidated, and properly implemented.”

— The Benefits of Love

Most of us don’t have the privilege to be fully dedicated to spiritual life of mettā meditation. We have to work every day to meed our ends. Can laypeople expect to get the eleven benefits of mettā practice?

love,
Marino

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Hi Marino,

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Thank you Alexandra for welcome message. I already enjoy the technical side of the forum.

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Welcome to the forum!

It’s always possible to further cultivate, develop, consolidate metta practise as lay people. To what extent? I don’t know but I don’t tend to view these matters in a binary 1 or 0. I think it was Ajahn Chah who said: Practise a little, gain a little freedom. Practise a lot - gain a lot. It’s this spirit that I have in mind when practising things as a lay person that were (predominatley) laid out for monastics.

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Hello Marino and welcome to the forum.

The Buddha taught metta to laypeople and encouraged its cultivation. Here are just a few examples from the suttas.

In AN 9.20, the Buddha teaches the layperson Anathapindika that the cultivation of metta for even the time it takes to pull a cow’s udder is more fruitful than undertaking the five precepts. (Of course, one would be better off doing both!)

It would be more fruitful to develop a heart of love—even just as long as it takes to pull a cow’s udder—than to undertake the training rules.

MN 41 shows the Buddha teaching the ten courses of wholesome action to brahmin laypeople. One of those actions is the mental action of non ill-will which is essentially synonymous with metta.

They have a kind heart and loving intentions: ‘May these sentient beings live free of enmity and ill will, untroubled and happy!’

MN 99 has the Buddha teaching the layperson brahmin Subha what the full cultivation of the brahmaviharas are like with a simile.

Suppose there was a powerful horn blower. They’d easily make themselves heard in the four quarters.

In the same way, when the heart’s release by love has been developed like this, any limited deeds they’ve done don’t remain or persist there.

I think that whether a person obtains the benefits of metta practice doesn’t depend on their monastic or layperson status. Instead, it depends on whether they have, in the words of the sutta, “cultivated, developed, and practiced, made a vehicle and a basis, kept up, consolidated, and properly implemented” metta practice. In other words, they’ve practiced it well for a long time and have generated the causes and conditions for those benefits to arise.

Both laypeople and monastics can become busy with duties that pull them away from bhavana. A layperson could be in a situation where they have more time for bhavana than many monastics. But even if one is busy, metta can be cultivated in any posture and in many situations. If a busy person were to ask if it was worth cultivating metta, I would say absolutely yes. Even if you don’t obtain those eleven benefits, there are many other benefits that accrue from developing metta such as having less anger arise and being more at ease around others.

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Thanks for this - I love “anti-establishment” Buddha quotes like these, they’re some of my favourite. :slight_smile:

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Starting with Right Intention/Thought (Sammā Saṅkappo) of the Eightfold Path may be more accessible for laypeople:

  • Non-greed / renunciation
  • Non-aversion / good-will (this includes mettā, even below the point of full absorption)
  • Harmlessness / compassion (this includes karuṇā, even below the point of full absorption)

Regarding the practice of mettā in full absorption (mettā bhāvanā), it is possible for laypeople who maintain sense-restraint and are regularly devoted to seclusion — though such cases are in the minority.

These are benefits of the practice of Dhamma as a whole. Right Thought together with Right Conduct (i.e., Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood), along with Generosity, also support the arising of these benefits — at least to some extent. Moreover, all of these practices form a necessary foundation for the successful development of mettā.

Although the development of mettā bhāvanā can lead to these protections, there may still be limitations depending on the ripening of previous kamma. Even the Buddha was injured in an attempted assassination by his cousin Devadatta — it was only a wound to the foot, and a Sammā Sambuddha cannot be killed.

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Thank you! Precisely: “Practice a lot - gain a lot.” The more I practice mettā in my free time, the more results I feel coming from the practice. Even though I don’t have enough time to fully establish mettā as my way of life, I’m still getting benefits from the practice.

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Thank you Mkoll. I have read the Velāmasutta. It is really amazing to see just how fruitful the development of the heart of love really is. Buddha puts the importance of love above the training rules and I like that.

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You can’t be harmed by fire, poison, or blade. AN 11.15:2.2

Thats amazing. Please can you explain what you mean by your affirmation that " mettā bhāvanā can lead to these protections" from fire, poison, or blade .

How does it work? Can you give some contemporary examples please.

Thanks.

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There are various contemporary accounts of people receiving this kind of protection, but most of them are anecdotal and may not be very convincing to a more critical examiner. The reports I’ve read come from biographies of Thai Forest Tradition masters and were found by chance. If I happen to come across any of them again, I can share them here, but I’m not actively looking for them at the moment.

I don’t know the exact mechanisms that make mettā protective, and I haven’t found a detailed explanation in the suttas. But the main factor seems to be the demeanor of the mettā bhāvanā practitioner. A very friendly and peaceful presence may calm the harmful intentions of people who would otherwise cause harm through fire, poison, or blades.

In the case of poison, someone with well-developed mettā may be more perceptive of hostile intentions and avoid consuming suspicious substances.

Additionally, such a practitioner may be protected by deities. At first, they may help by preventing the practitioner from encountering hostile elements, and in cases of direct attack, they might even intervene physically — though I don’t recall reading any accounts of that kind.

Mettā practice may also influence the behavior of animals around the practitioner, reducing the likelihood of attacks. In some cases, animals even become peaceful toward one another in the presence of someone radiating mettā. This is actually the most common type of contemporary account I’ve encountered in the literature, especially in relation to forest-dwelling monks.

That said, I previously acknowledged that mettā practice has its limitations, and I wouldn’t rely solely on it at the expense of other safety measures—such as avoiding dangerous places, for example.

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@brunobr - thanks very much for so kindly making the time to write such a great reply. :anjal:

I believe I witnessed a bhikku appear to do just that by mindfully using annapansati and metta to dissipate a verbal “attack”. It needs to be clarified there was no ready exit and they weren’t under any direct physical risks. As you so well put it this approach isnt to be relied on " at the expense of other safety measures".

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I’ve found this to be the case as well.

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Hi Marino,

From what i’ve read elsewhere in the Pali Cannon and my own interpretation of Mettanisamsa sutta, i think it is perfectly possible to experience the eleven benefits of practising metta bhavana.
However the degree of benefit would be based on the degree to which the meditator has developed metta in their daily life.

Among lay disciples the Buddha declared queen Samavati to be the foremost among those who practiced Metta. There is an incident recorded in Dhammapada where Samavati was able to deflect an arrow shot by king Udena by radiating metta towards the king and also her maids who were lined up behind her. To be able to radiate Metta in the face of imminent death is an example of the highest commitment to practising metta.

For us however, with less paramis, metta can be practiced on a daily basis in more favourable conditions. I sometimes send metta to myself before and during a risky task. For example when working with kitchen knives by saying - ’ may i be free from harm and danger, may i be safe etc.
The benefits experienced by a metta practitioner is a direct kammic result of practising metta. Because metta involves generating and radiating loving kindness to all beings, naturally the metta practitioner also becomes a recipient of goodwill from humans as well as non-humans.

Metta is loving kindness, and wishing beings to be safe and free from all harm. Hence it is the opposite of ill-will or hatred, and intent to injure other beings.
Hence as a result of practicing metta the practitioner themselves become safe from harm and danger including fire, poison, weapons etc.

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Hello Adarsh,

I know from experience that the eleven benefits can be experienced in daily life, even for an ordinary laborer like myself. I do not claim that I have realized the eleven benefits to a full degree, but I have gained some benefits such as good dreams, bright complexion, a rather easy concentration, and like that.

I have found in my own practice that real mettā happens after some mental purification. I have also found how mettā gradually over time dissolves any mental concepts about the self. What’s left is just purified awareness and mental concentration, bereft of egotistic self-concepts. I can only dream what full-time meditators experience in their meditation.

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It’s good to know that you practice metta meditation and that you’re receiving the benefits. I try to practice metta meditation even if its for 5 minutes. I read somewhere that if one penetrates only one other person with metta even then the merit is great. If one were to send metta to countless beings the merits gained is countless. Its also interesting to know that metta can also lead towards insight about non-self.

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Mettā is dissolving my materialistic, body-based identification. Instead of being identified with and confined withing the bodily form, I’m now more a space of presence. More empty. The happiness is also closer to emptiness that to happiness based on enjoying some material object. May good things mettā brings if practiced every day.