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Radiating loving-kindness
Daily chants

Radiating loving-kindness

Mettāpharaṇa

Wishing well to oneself and to all beings — usually chanted to close a chanting session or after meditation.

When it is chanted

Chanted at the end of a chanting session, after meditation, or any time the mind feels sour towards someone.

Start with yourself: a mind still in pain finds it hard to wish others well. Then widen it to those you love, to people in general, and last to those you still feel resentment towards.

Background

Radiating loving-kindness is not sending energy to anyone. It trains the chanter's own mind to be familiar with goodwill, and over time anger and the wish to harm arise less easily.

The idea comes from the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta, which teaches boundless loving-kindness for all beings, like a mother's love for her only child.

Pali

  1. Ahaṃ sukhito homi May I be happy.
  2. Niddukkho homi May I be free from suffering.
  3. Avero homi May I be free from enmity.
  4. Abyāpajjho homi May I be free from harm.
  5. Anīgho homi May I be free from distress.
  6. Sukhī attānaṃ pariharāmi May I keep myself in well-being.
  7. Sabbe sattā sukhitā hontu May all beings be happy.
  8. Sabbe sattā averā hontu May all beings be free from enmity.
  9. Sabbe sattā abyāpajjhā hontu May all beings be free from harm.
  10. Sabbe sattā anīghā hontu May all beings be free from distress.
  11. Sabbe sattā sukhī attānaṃ pariharantu May all beings keep themselves in well-being.
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Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka

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