The Five Factors of a Mettā Practitioner, the Qualities Needed, and the Benefits of Mettā

The Five Factors of One Who Practices Mettā Meditation

1. Tathāgatabodhisaddhā, confidence in the Buddha’s awakened wisdom, which grows into ratanattayasaddhā, confidence in the Triple Gem: the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha (the community of the Buddha’s noble disciples).

   That faith must go together with wisdom: seeing how the Buddha lived and how he fulfilled the perfections (pāramī) back when he was still a bodhisatta (a Buddha-to-be), looking deeply into the details of how he fulfilled the ten perfections, the ten higher perfections and the ten supreme perfections.

   Seeing his determination, seeing the process by which he trained, we feel faith: in the end, an ordinary human being trained himself until he attained the meditative absorptions (jhāna-samāpatti), developed insight wisdom (vipassanā), realized the noble path and the noble fruit, and was able to become a Buddha.

   Tathāgatabodhisaddhā is confidence in the Buddha’s awakened wisdom, confidence in the Dhamma he taught and in the noble disciples who arose, and confidence in oneself that one can follow the path walked by the Victor, the Buddha, to leave the defilements and the mass of suffering behind.

2. Good health
   Able to stand, walk, sit and lie down; the fire element (tejodhātu, the element of heat that digests food) still works well. If the body is in turmoil, one cannot practice the Dhamma very well. One must not be troubled by illness beyond reason, and must have good strength of body and mind, a body healthy enough to stand, walk, sit and lie down, able to train oneself fully.

3. Being upright, speaking truthfully, acting truthfully, being sincere, and respecting one’s teachers
   Just as a baby suckling at its mother’s breast does not bite the nipple off, so one who has entrusted oneself as a disciple and received training from a teacher should bear the teacher’s admonitions patiently and should not hold a grudge.

   Be grateful and repay kindness; do not lie to your teacher. When a problem comes up in your practice, report it to your teacher truthfully. Do not hide or disguise anything.

4. Sammappadhāna or sammāvāyāma (right effort): intense effort in practice
   Practice will certainly run into problems, but do not lose heart. While practicing, have a loving heart, have effort, keep the mind focused. When practice is under way, it is as if we were going into the presence of the Buddha, training and developing ourselves with mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. The mind grows bold and courageous and cuts off the defilements in time.

5. Correctly understanding the way of practice in that particular meditation (kammaṭṭhāna)
   This point is the most important; learn the details well. To cultivate mettā (loving-kindness), you must understand mettā correctly. If you do not yet understand it, you must rely on a kalyāṇamitta (a good spiritual friend), that is, a teacher who knows the Buddha’s teaching.

Indeed, for this reason…
that Buddha, the Buddha, is an arahant (a fully awakened one),
far from the defilements, rightly awakened by himself;
the Buddha is endowed with the eight kinds of knowledge (vijjā) and the fifteen kinds of conduct (caraṇa);
he has gone well; he knows the worlds;
he is the unsurpassed trainer of those who can be trained;
the teacher of gods and humans;
the one who knows, the one who is awake, the one who blossoms;
the one who analyzes and explains the Dhamma Jewel.
The Buddha taught the Dhamma that is beautiful in the beginning, in the middle and at the end, and proclaimed the holy life (brahmacariya), complete in meaning and in letter, wholly pure and perfect.

The eight vijjā (the eight kinds of ñāṇa, knowledge): the knowledge that leads to liberation, to the end of suffering.

The fifteen caraṇa means beautiful conduct, fifteen in all: keeping virtue in one’s conduct, pure right down to the true mind, leading to liberation, acting without greed, anger or delusion coming in to bind the mind; keeping oneself in virtue ever more finely, level by level, restrained within the fifteen caraṇa.

The Beauty of the True Dhamma

First interpretation

Sīla (virtue) is the beauty at the beginning
Samādhi (concentration) is the beauty in the middle
Paññā (wisdom) is the supreme beauty

Second interpretation

Sīla, samatha, vipassanā (virtue, calm and insight) are the beauty at the beginning
Ariyamagga, ariyaphala (the noble path and the noble fruit) are the beauty in the middle
Nibbāna is the supreme beauty

If we have the confidence that is tathāgatabodhisaddhā, the principles the Buddha taught, the teachings of the brahmavihāra (the divine abodes), can lead the current of our life to become established in the characteristics of mettā: love, goodwill and care, truly arising.

And they can bring forth mettā as a quality and as a state of mind, offering benefit to all beings without discrimination, truly.

Once mettā has arisen, it can destroy stress, anger, ill will and irritation continuously and without a break. In the end, neither aversion nor ill will, neither stress nor anxiety can seep into the mind.

A state of mind soft and gentle like the full moon will truly arise. The mind will reach a steadiness that does not waver, that is not shaken.

The Buddha Nursed a Sick Monk with Great Compassion

“Monks, you have no mother and no father. Who will nurse you? If you do not nurse one another, who then will nurse you?
Monks, whoever would attend on me, let him nurse the sick…”

Natthi vo bhikkhave mātā
natthi pitā ye vo upaṭṭhaheyyuṃ tumhe ce
bhikkhave aññamaññaṃ na upaṭṭhahissatha atha ko carahi upaṭṭhahissati
yo bhikkhave maṃ upaṭṭhaheyya so gilānaṃ upaṭṭhaheyya.

Qualities of One Who Will Cultivate Mettā

1. Able to train oneself in conduct, in mind and in views.

   In conduct, confident that one can keep the precepts.
   In mind, confident that one can bring about effort, mindfulness and concentration.
   In views, confident that one can develop wisdom.

2. Honest and upright in conduct, speaking truthfully, acting truthfully, sincere: good conduct of body, speech and mind (the three kinds of good conduct, sucarita).

3. Not crooked, honest and straight, possessing ujukatā (uprightness): straight in body, straight in speech, straight in mind, not crooked, not swayed by what one likes or dislikes.

4. Easy to admonish, someone who understands easily when spoken to, not stubborn or defiant, not resisting the teaching, like bamboo bending with the wind, gentle, inclining toward the teaching.

5. Gentle toward what is good: gentle in the wholesomeness of giving, of virtue and of meditation, adorning the mind, decorating the mind, refining the mind, soft and gentle in wholesome goodness.

6. Free of conceit (māna): raising oneself up, putting oneself forward, comparing oneself.

   Better than them, thinking oneself better than them
   Equal to them, thinking oneself equal to them
   Worse than them, thinking oneself worse than them

   For example, Venerable Sāriputta had put down his conceit. Wherever he went, he was like a bull whose horns have been cut off: even going into a narrow alley, it strikes no one with its two horns. Whatever level of society he entered, he did not raise himself up to compare or to put others down. This kind of person cultivates mettā easily.

7. Content, satisfied according to one’s strength and ability, satisfied with what one’s own capacity can obtain, not delighting in greed, or using greed to get rid of greed; easy to support.

8. Having few duties and tasks, not busily caught up in petty affairs. One who is bahukicco bahukaraṇīyo (with many duties, much to do), with troubling matters always weighing on the mind and other matters constantly disturbing the heart, finds it hard to cultivate mettā.

   We may have a great many things going on, but treat them like closing a drawer. Even if the work is not finished, when you stop, close it. Make a mark that says, “Today, time is up for this matter,” then take each matter in turn. Live simply, eat simply, without clinging and longing.

9. Mindful, closing the doors of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind against evil. This is called restraint of the senses.

   Each time you see something, be mindful: are you looking to indulge, or looking to learn? If you look to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the eye faculty, having no sense restraint at the eye.

   Each time you hear something, be mindful: are you listening to indulge, or listening to learn? If you listen to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the ear faculty, having no sense restraint at the ear.

   Each time you smell something, be mindful: are you smelling to indulge, or smelling to learn? If you smell to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the nose faculty, having no sense restraint at the nose.

   Each time you eat, be mindful: are you eating to indulge, or eating to learn? If you eat to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the tongue faculty, having no sense restraint at the tongue.

   Each time you touch something, be mindful: are you touching to indulge, or touching to learn? If you touch to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the body faculty, having no sense restraint at the body.

   Each time you think, be mindful: are you thinking to indulge, or thinking to learn? If you think to indulge, all you get is liking and disliking, letting evil and unwholesome states arise. This is called not restraining the mind faculty, having no sense restraint in thought.

   Sense restraint (indriyasaṃvara) needs mindfulness and clear comprehension (sati, sampajañña) to close the doors of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind against evil, so that lust, irritation, intoxication and infatuation do not flow into the mind while seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking.

10. Skilled at getting out of wrongdoing: whatever the fault, or whatever lingers on the mind, get out of it quickly; leave nothing stuck, and do not stay sunk in evil and the unwholesome.

11. Not doing anything the wise would criticize.

The Benefits of Cultivating Mettā

A person who succeeds in cultivating mettā will find their hopes in the world fulfilled.

The benefits of cultivating mettā are eleven:

1. Sleeping happily
2. Waking happily
3. Having no bad dreams
4. Being protected by devas (celestial beings)
5. Being dear to human beings
6. Being dear to non-human beings
7. Fire, weapons, poison and serious illness do not harm one’s life
8. The mind quickly becomes concentrated
9. A clear, radiant complexion
10. Dying mindfully, not dying confused
11. Going to a good destination (sugati), not falling into the lower realms: the states of loss, the bad destinations, the realms of ruin and hell

Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)
As a mother cow was nursing her calf, she gazed at it with love and mettā. At that moment a hunter used his weapon, intending to harm the mother cow. By the power of mettā, the hunter’s weapon could not harm her.