Metta · Pāli: mettā; Skt: maitrī

Metta is goodwill: the plain, trainable wish that others be well. Its classic statement is the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta (Sn 1.8), where the wish is made universal — “May all beings be at ease!” — and given its most quoted image: “Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.” The practice is to keep “radiating kindness over the entire world”, “outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will”. The discourse calls this “the sublime abiding”.

That places metta among the four divine abidings. “Most lineages of Buddhism, including the Theravāda, value and practice the Four Divine Abidings (Pāli brahma-vihāra), also known as the Four Immeasurables”, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes, and it distinguishes them neatly: “the content of lovingkindness is a wish for others to be happy”, while “the content of compassion is a wish for others to be free from suffering”. The emphasis then shifts across traditions more than the substance does. “All serious Mahāyānists take the bodhisattva vow, promising to become Buddhas in order to help all beings”, the same entry says, and “followers of Vajrayāna also embrace the commitment to become Buddhas for the benefit of all beings”.

In Theravada countries metta is everyday liturgy as much as a formal meditation subject: the same encyclopedia calls the Metta Sutta “one of the most important and frequently recited scriptures in Southeast Asia today”. AN 11.16 attaches concrete results to it, promising “eleven benefits” to one whose “awareness-release through good will” is well developed, beginning with sleeping easily and waking easily.