พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าเมตตาธรรมคือความนุ่มนวลบริสุทธิ์ของใจ ต้องอาศัยบารมี 8 อย่างเป็นฐานจึงจะเข้าถึงได้ มีอานิสงส์มากกว่าการให้ทานมหาศาล สามารถขจัดปฏิฆะและค้ำจุนโลกได้ แต่มีข้อจำกัดที่พัฒนาใจได้เพียงระดับทุติยฌานHe explains that metta (loving-kindness) is a soft, pure quality of mind resting on eight other perfections as its foundation, carrying far greater merit than even great acts of giving — able to dissolve resentment and sustain the world — though it can refine the mind only up to the level of the second jhāna.
He offered this teaching on the nature and benefit of (metta).
Metta is the soft purity of the mind, resting on a foundation of other perfections
Radiating loving-kindness is a matter of the softness and of the mind — and no one can purify another person's mind; only oneself can purify oneself. Because the purity and softness of a mind imbued with loving-kindness makes it easy to access ever more subtle, profound , loving-kindness is of the utmost importance. If everyone in the world held loving-kindness toward one another, the land would be at peace, free of all danger. This was a teaching from the revered grandmother-teacher.
For the world to remain at peace, it depends on loving-kindness, which arises from someone in whom the proportion of wholesomeness is dominant and who has reached truth. Looking at the ten perfections — generosity, , renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolution, loving-kindness, and equanimity — loving-kindness sits at the ninth rank, nearly the highest. Raising the quality of the mind to reach loving-kindness is therefore no simple matter; it requires the foundation of generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, and resolution already in place beneath it.
Sincerity is the heart of metta's quality
For loving-kindness to be truly set, the mind must reach a state of accomplishment. When abiding within system, the mind naturally becomes an accomplishing element; whatever right and good intention is set will succeed. But the quality of loving-kindness depends specifically on sincerity — how genuine the goodwill is. The revered elder advised recalling the heart of a mother toward her own infant, full of love and genuine goodwill — that is the standard of sincerity. If we only radiate the words, the quality reaches one level; but with genuine sincerity, the quality rises to another level entirely. Loving-kindness takes the form of a round, clear, bright sphere; once established, its brightness is a soft, refined brightness — and it's precisely this softness and refinement that leads us toward purity and liberation, carrying tremendous power to draw in merit.
Its benefit surpasses even generosity, and it dissolves resentment
The Buddha once gave a comparison: if offerings were laid out in a row one yojana long — sixteen kilometers — and given continuously to people for seven days and seven nights, the merit gained would still be less than radiating loving-kindness for the span of a single finger-snap. The difference between the two is vast.
One special quality of loving-kindness is its power to dissolve paṭigha — resentment and irritation. When radiated into the surrounding atmosphere, it purifies that atmosphere, and both people and beings within it receive that light, dissolving the resentment in their own hearts. In that very moment, the wholesome nature already within them seizes the opportunity to become the house-owner, drawing in pure energy to refine their own elements and purify themselves — we don't purify anyone ourselves; their own wholesome nature simply uses that opening to do its own work. And while we are cultivating loving-kindness, the immense merit flowing from Nibbana also flows in to support and sustain us.
Loving-kindness sustains the world, but is limited to the second jhāna
Loving-kindness is one of the four divine abidings — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — which bring immense benefit to the world and the cosmos. When loving-kindness is established, unwholesome states like aversion can hardly arise; if anything arises, it might only be a kind of bias born of attachment. Even so, loving-kindness has a limit: it can refine the quality of the mind only up to the level of the second . To go higher, to the third jhāna, other meditation methods are needed.
The scriptures record that when a Bodhisatta cultivated loving-kindness, its light shone throughout the forest, making plants and crops flourish abundantly; the trees, grass, and soil all grew soft and refined, the air stayed fresh, warm in winter and cool in summer, the water clear. Even carnivorous animals would not hunt within that area, because no intention to harm could arise there at all — they had to go elsewhere to find food. Fierce, violent-minded creatures couldn't remain there either, because the nature of the elements differed too greatly; they were driven far away. And while loving-kindness was being cultivated, poison, guns, crossbows, and weapons of every kind could cause no harm at all.