Knowra Mettā Mettā Mettā is a Buddhist virtue and contemplative practice of cultivating goodwill and loving-kindness toward oneself and other beings, without requiring affection or agreement.
Mettā meditation : A contemplative practice that deliberately develops goodwill through phrases, attention, and visualization. This is the formal practice for cultivating the goodwill that mettā names.
Pāli : A Middle Indo-Aryan language used in the texts of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition. The term mettā comes from Pāli Buddhist vocabulary.
Pāli Canon : The collection of scriptures preserved by the Theravāda Buddhist tradition. Its discourses and verses are foundational textual sources for mettā.
Buddhist ethics : Buddhist principles and practices concerning actions, intentions, and the reduction of suffering. Mettā informs how goodwill is expressed in everyday conduct.
Taṇhā : Craving or thirst that grasps at experiences and fuels suffering in Buddhist accounts. Mettā wishes beings well without grasping for possession or personal reward.
Brahmavihara : A set of four Buddhist practices of immeasurable social attitudes: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Mettā is one of these four cultivated attitudes.
Maitrī : The Sanskrit Buddhist term for loving-kindness, goodwill, or friendliness toward beings. Maitrī is the Sanskrit counterpart of Pāli mettā.
Khuddaka Nikāya : A collection of texts within the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon. It includes the Sutta Nipāta, where the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta appears.
Nonviolence : The principle or practice of avoiding violence, sometimes paired with active concern for others. Goodwill can support non-harming without requiring passivity or approval.
Dosa : Hatred, aversion, or ill will, identified as an unwholesome mental root in Buddhist teaching. Dosa is the hostile state that mettā counters.
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