Mettā is a Pali word usually translated as loving-kindness, goodwill, or benevolence. In Buddhist practice it refers to cultivating a sincere wish for the welfare and happiness of oneself and others without requiring possession, agreement, or personal closeness.
Mettā as a quality of mind
Early Buddhist texts praise the development of a mind of loving-kindness. Mettā is counted among the four brahmavihāras, or sublime states, together with compassion (karuṇā), appreciative joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā).
How mettā meditation is practiced
Methods vary. A practitioner may begin by establishing goodwill toward oneself or a respected person, then extend it toward friends, neutral people, difficult people, and progressively wider groups of beings. Repeated phrases such as wishes for safety, health, peace, or well-being are common teaching methods, but the phrases themselves are tools rather than the whole practice.
Mettā and compassion are related but different
Mettā wishes for beings to be well and happy. Compassion responds specifically to suffering with the wish that suffering be relieved. The two qualities often support each other, but Buddhist texts distinguish them.
What mettā is not
Loving-kindness does not require approving harmful behavior or ignoring boundaries. It is a mental orientation of non-hostility and goodwill. Ethical action and wisdom remain necessary when responding to conflict or harm.
Mettā is especially prominent in Theravada teaching, but forms of loving-kindness and compassion practice are also found across Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under different terminology and methods.
Mettā in Buddhist texts
The well-known Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta describes an attitude of boundless goodwill toward living beings. Other early texts praise the cultivation of a mind of love as a wholesome practice. Later meditation manuals developed systematic ways of extending mettā across different categories of people and beings.
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