Mettā Discourse
In this beautiful chanting session, Bhante Bodhidhamma recites the classical Mettā Sutta (Khp 9), one of the most beloved texts in the Theravāda tradition. Also known as the Karaṇīyametta Sutta, this discourse presents the Buddha's comprehensive teaching on cultivating mettā (loving-kindness) as both a meditation practice and a way of living.
The sutta begins by outlining the moral foundation necessary for mettā practice—being skilled in goodness, upright, gentle in speech, humble, and contented. It then presents the famous aspiration: "May all beings be at ease," extending this wish to all categories of life without exception. The text includes the powerful simile of a mother's boundless love for her only child, encouraging practitioners to extend such care to all living beings.
The chanting concludes with guidance on maintaining this "sublime abiding" (brahmavihāra) in all postures and activities, while remaining free from fixed views and sense desires. This practice is traditionally used for protection, healing relationships, and developing the heart qualities essential for spiritual progress. Regular listening to and contemplation of this discourse supports both formal mettā meditation and the cultivation of loving-kindness in daily life.
So this is what should be done by one who was skilled in goodness and who knows the path of peace. Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech, humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied, unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways, peaceful and calm and wise and skillful, not proud or demanding in nature. Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
Wishing, in gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease. Whatever living beings there may be, whether they are weak or strong, omitting none, the great or the mighty, medium, short or small, the seen and the unseen, those living near and far away, those born and to be born, may all beings be at ease. Let none deceive another or despise any being in any state. Let none through anger or ill will wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life a child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings, radiating kindness over the entire world, spreading upwards to the skies and downwards to the depths, outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down, free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection. This is said to be the sublime abiding.
And by not holding to fixed views, the pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision, being freed from all sense desires, is not born again into this world.