You carry Mother Earth within you,
She is not just outside of you.
Mother Earth is not just your environment.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Love is also defined in the Oxford Dictionary. According to it, love means warm affection, attachment, affectionate devotion, etc. These are synonymous terms for love and they all refer to sentimental worldly love. So, Metta has no full English equivalent. For this Metta is much more than ordinary affection or warm feelings. The Pali word Metta literally means “friendliness”, but also means love without a desire to possess but with desire to help, to sacrifice self-interest for the welfare and well being of humanity. Metta is with out any selection or exclusion. If you select a few good friends and exclude a bad person, then you have not got a perfect grasp of Metta. Indeed Metta is not only benevolent thought, but also performing charitable deeds, an active ministry for the good of one and all.

In the “Metta Sutta” the Buddha has chosen the love of a mother for her child as an example. Imagine a mother’s love when her child is hungry; she watches carefully to feed her child even be fore it asks her for food. When the child is in danger, she will risk her own life. So the Buddha taught us to love all beings as a mother loves her only child. If we can do this even to a small extent, the world will become happier and more peaceful place. In the Dighanikaya, it is said by the Buddha that almost every virtue such as unselfishness, loving sympathy and loving kindness is included in this “Metta”.

(Discourse on Loving-kindness)
Written by U Nandiya

Link source

Scene in Montpellier province, France

Metta is the highest need of the world today, indeed it is more needed than ever before. Because in this new world, there are sufficient materials, money and brilliant wise men and scientists. In spite of these, there is no peace and happiness. It shows that something is lacking, That is Metta.

What is the Buddhist idea of Metta? The Pali word “Metta” means “loving kindness”, not the ordinary, sensual, emotional, sentimental kind of love. Metta has been translated by modem translators into English as generous, mindful loving, loving kindness, sending out thoughts of love towards others” but according to the words of Buddha, Metta has a far wider significance, and a much more extensive implication than this. It means a great deal more than loving kindness harmlessness, sympathy.

(Discourse on Loving-kindness)
Written by U Nandiya

Link source

Love is the way we show peace,
Love sets us free.
Love is the bond that joins us
to our community.
Love is the answer
that we’ve been searching for.
It lives inside all of us,
just open up the door,
And Love to find Peace…

~ Robert Alan Silverstein

Buddhist nun and Jendhamuni at the Meditation Center.

Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time –
and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. ― Georgia O’Keeffe

May peace harmonious bless this land;
May it be ever free from maladies and war;
May there be harvest rich, and increased yield of grain;
May everyone delight in righteousness;
May no perverted thought find entry to your minds;
May all your thoughts e’er pious be and lead
to your success religiously.

~Tibetan Great Yogi, Milarepa

Continue reading →

The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives — the way we develop our
industries, build up our society, and consume goods.  ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York.