Upekkhā

Muditā
Karuṇā

Mettā
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 Loving-Kindness (Mettā)

Mettā = Loving Kindness / Goodwill; it can turn into a kind

of possessive love or attachment to a particular path for
them (eg. going from genuinely wanting the best for someone,
to believing you know specifically what is best for them);
 Anger Group (Dosa)

1 Dosa Anger

2 Dosa-Issā Envious anger

3 Dosa-Macchariya Avaricious anger

4 Dosa-Kukkucca Remorse anger

 Metta
Definition
Characteristics (lakkhaṇa)
Functions (rasa)
Manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna)
Proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna)
Loving-kindness that which
softens one's heart.
Benevolent attitude/promoting
the aspect of welfare.
The wish for the good and
happiness of all/prefer welfare.
The removal of annoyance/
discard ill-will.
 Seeing loveableness in beings.
 Beginning

Myself (atta)
 Don’t

• A very dearly loved friend (pīya)

• A neutral person (majjhatta)
• A hostile person (verī)
• An antipathetic person
• Towards the opposite sex
• Towards a dead person
 Spreading mettā
• May all beings be free from suffering
• May all beings be free from enmity
• May all beings be free from affliction
• May all beings be free from anxiety
• May all beings live happily
• Etc…
 Karuṇā (Compassion)

Karuna = Compassion (…arises when we meet suffering with

metta); it can turn into grief or overwhelm;
 Compassion

Definition That which makes the hearts of the good quiver

when others are subject to suffering or that which
dissipates the sufferings of others.

Characteristics (lakkhaṇa) The wish to remove the sufferings of others.

Functions (rasa) Its function resides in not bearing others’

suffering and its direct enemy is wickedness
(hiṃsa).
Manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna) As non-cruelty and its indirect enemy is
passionate grief (domanassa)
Proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna) Compassion embraces sorrow-stricken beings
and it eliminates cruelty/to see helplessness in
those overwhelmed by suffering.
 Joy (Muditā)

• Muditā = Joy (…arises when we meet happiness, good fortune,

or positive qualities with metta); it can turn into a sense
of intoxication with one’s own or another’s joyful situation.

Definition
Characteristics (lakkhaṇa)
Functions (rasa)
Manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna)
Proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna)
Muditā
Muditā is not mere sympathy but sympathetic
joy.
Happy acquiescence in others' prosperity and
success (anumodanā)/as gladdening
(produced by others’ success).
Its function resides in being unenvious and its
direct enemy is jealousy.
Its indirect enemy is exhilaration (pahāsa). it
eliminates dislike (arati) and is the
congratulatory attitude of a person/as the
elimination of aversion (boredom).
Muditā embraces prosperous beings/seeing
beings, success.
 Equanimity (Upekkhā)

• Upekkha = Equanimity (…arises when we meet change or

impermanence with metta); it can turn into indifference or apathy.

Definition
Characteristics (lakkhaṇa)
Functions (rasa)
Manifestation (paccupaṭṭhāna)
Proximate cause (padaṭṭhāna)
Upekkhā
Equanimity means to view impartially, that is, with neither
attachment nor aversion.
Impartial attitude/as promoting the aspect of neutrality towards
beings.
It is not hedonic indifference but perfect equanimity or well-
balanced mind/to see equality in beings. Its direct enemy is
attachment (raga).
It is the balanced state of mind amidst all vicissitudes of life
such as praise & blame, pain & happiness, gain & loss, repute &
disrepute. Its indirect enemy is callousness.
Seeing ownership of deeds (kamma) thus: “beings are owners
of their deeds. Whose [if not theirs] is the choice by which they
will become happy, or wil get free from suffering, or will not
fall away from the success they have reached?”
 Brahma-vihāra house
jA[®0d[m&tdrf
Equanimity Oayu©m/
law of karma ur®oum

Compassion, u&kPm? Sympathetic joy rk'dwm?

appreciative joy
suffering 'ku©udk MunfhNyD;udk,fcsif;pm
wdk;wufatmifjrifrIudk MunfhNyD; 0rf;om

Loving-kindness, arwåm
dissolves fear and opens hearts aMumufpdwfudk y,fazsmuf? cifrif&if;eD;ap

Minfulness, owdy|mefw&m;
 1. Mettā - Loving kindness

• 1. Karaniya Metta Sutta (Khp.9/Sn.1.8)

• 1.1. Three Aspects (truthfulness, determination and good wish)

• 1.2. Cultivation Method

• (11 kinds of metta by Mingun Tipitaka Sayadawgyi)

•
2. Patisambhidamagga Mettakatha (Pts. 2.4)

• 5 unspecified, 7 specified and 10 directions * 4 metta good wish

• (528 kinds Disāfarana metta by Mingun Tipitaka Sayadawgyi)

•
3. eleven benefits of Metta (ekādasa mettānisamsā)

• (1) “One sleeps well; (2) one awakens happily; (3) one does not have bad dreams; (4) one is pleasing to human beings; (5) one is pleasing
to spirits; (6) deities protect one; (7) fire, poison, and weapons do not injure one; (8) one’s mind quickly becomes concentrated; (9) one’s
facial complexion is serene; (10) one dies unconfused; and (11) if one does not penetrate further, one fares on to the brahmā world.

• (AN.11:16., Trs. Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2012)

• 4. Metta as mentioned in Kakacūpama sutta (MN.21)

• 5. Metta as mentioned in Sālha sutta (AN.3:66)

• If you start to get too attached to a person or an outcome,
compassion can help you remember that they are on their own
journey;
• If you’re getting overwhelmed with your own suffering (or
someone else’s, or the suffering of the entire world), you can reflect
on people’s positive qualities or the positive aspects of the situation;
• If you become so intoxicated with someone else’s choices, positive
qualities, or way of being that start wanting some aspect of their life
for yourself, you can cultivate a sense of contentment with your
own path;
• If you find yourself becoming apathetic or nihilistic because you’re
taking “accepting things as they are” to an extreme, a dose of loving
kindness can rekindle your sense of care.
• 2. Karunā - compassion
• Nyanaponika Thera. The Four Sublime States: Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and
Equanimity. BPS, 2013 (1958). pp. 13-14.
• Bhikkhu Ñānamoli, Trns. Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification. BPS, 2010 (1975). pp.308-9.

• 3. Muditā - sympathetic joy or gladness

• Nyanaponika Thera. The Four Sublime States: Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and
Equanimity. BPS, 2013 (1958). pp. 15-16.
• Bhikkhu Ñānamoli, Trns. Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification. BPS, 2010 (1975). pp.309-310.

• 4. Upekkhā - equanimity
• Nyanaponika Thera. The Four Sublime States: Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and
Equanimity. BPS, 2013 (1958). pp. 17-21.
• Bhikkhu Ñānamoli, Trns. Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification. BPS, 2010 (1975). pp.310-311.
 Reference
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trs.). Abhidhammattha Sa ṅgaha: A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma – The Philosophical Psychology of
Buddhism. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 2007.
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trs.). Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification. Colombo: Samayawardana Printers, 2010.
https://elizabethu.com/2019/10/13/brahma-viharas-near-enemies/
Suggested Readings
1.     Acharya Buddharakkhita, 2013 (1989). Mettā: The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love. Kandy: BPS. (294.2443.Bu.) (available online at: 
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/buddharakkhita/wheel365.html, retrieved 01 Dec 2021)
2.     Anālayo, 2015. Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation. Cambridge: Windhorse Publications. (294.3444.An.) Chp.I-III.
3.     Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (tr.), 2010 (1975). The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). Kandy: BPS. (294.3824. Bu.) Chp.IX. (Core reading)
4.     Bhante Gunaratana, 2017. Loving Kindness in Plain English: The Practice of Metta. Somerville: Wisdom Publications. (294.34.Gu.) (Core reading)
5.     B. Alan Wallce, Ph.D., 2006. The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind. Boston: Wisdom. (294.34435.Wa.)
6.     ParavaheraVajirañāna Mahāthera, (1962). Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice. Charleston Buddhist Fellowship edition published in
2010.(available online at: 
https://media.voog.com/0000/0037/7838/files/Paravahera%20Vajira%C3%B1%C4%81%E1%B9%87a%20Mah%C4%81thera%2C%20Buddhist%20M
editation%20in%20Theory%20and%20Practice.pdf
, retrieved 02 Dec 2021)
7.     Pa-Auk Sayadaw, Knowing and Seeing, the Penang Buddhist Association, Malaysia, 2000. Talk 3, Pp.81ff.
8.     Shaila Catherine (2011). Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
[294.34435 Ca] Chp.8. (Core reading)

Internet sources
Online Photos