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śramana, Vol 59, No. 4/October-December 2008
having established oneself in the abode of divine living, one gradually extends the same thoughts to one's fellow human beings and later to all other living beings. The following sections will address the four main sublime virtues of Brahmavihära.
Mettä
The term Mettă is derived from the Pāli term Mejjati which means the state of love. The equivalent Sanskrit term for Metta is Maitrī meaning friendliness. There is no equivalent term Metta in English and hence it can be taken to refer friendliness, good-will, loving-kindness and universal love. It can be taken as the first sublime state of mind. It is the wish for the welfare and happiness of all beings. It is free from all carnal desires, attachment, and self-centered ideas. It is ultimate love ihat does not have any boundaries. Piyadassi Thera* views Mettă as a very pure sublime state of human mind; like a quicksilver it cannot attach itself to anything. It is a clam, nonassertive super-solvent among virtues. The main characteristics of Mettă are:
1. to promote the social welfare, 2. to remove hatred from mind 3. to regard the whole world as one's mother and all as fellow
beings.
Since anger and hatred are from the obstacle of Mettā, these defects are to be dropped as the following statement:
“Friends, when a man hates, is a prey to hate and his mind obsessed by hate, he kills living beings".
Mettä or loving kindness has the main purpose of subjugating ill-will. “Loving kindness has the purpose of warding off ill-will” Mettā softens heart of men toward each other in society. If one has the heart full of Mettä, one will do, speak and think only in the way that leads to good wishes for all. Mettā alone can bring people to a
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