Why Practice Mettā
This guide to “Why Practice Loving Kindness” offers a comprehensive exploration of mettā meditation as presented in the Buddha’s original teachings found in the Suttas. It demonstrates how mettā (boundless love) serves as both an ideal foundation for new practitioners and a profound path for advanced meditators, addressing its unique ability to activate the body’s relaxation response, liberate the mind from unwholesome states, and develop the seven factors of awakening.
Drawing from extensive Pali textual analysis with word-by-word translations, the book reveals how loving kindness meditation naturally leads to jhāna, provides tangible healing for emotional wounds, and creates the wholesome foundation necessary for wisdom and liberation.
This theoretical guide prepares practitioners for experiential understanding while emphasizing that true mastery requires retreat practice under qualified guidance, making it an essential reference for anyone seeking to understand the profound scope and transformative power of the Buddha’s teachings on boundless love.
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A comprehensive teaching that explores why practicing loving kindness meditation and its profound role in the Buddha’s path to awakening. This teaching addresses common questions from vipassanā practitioners about mettā bhāvanā, revealing how loving kindness is far more than a preliminary practice—it’s a complete vehicle for developing the seven factors of enlightenment, accessing jhāna, and cultivating the boundless heart that leads to liberation.