--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-21' ai_model: gemini-3.1-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 2d625dd6 audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-12-10' is_meditation: false mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12551/20201210-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-brahmavih_ras_loving_kindness_4_of_5.mp3 section_slug: brahmavihras-loving-kindness-4-of-5 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: "Brahmavih\u0101ras: Loving-Kindness (4 of 5)" url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12551 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: BDp6CpmTy0w imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Brahmaviharas: Loving-Kindness (4 of 5)' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDp6CpmTy0w --- # Brahmavihāras: Loving-Kindness (4 of 5) - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [Brahmavihāras: Loving-Kindness (4 of 5)](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12551) In the ancient teachings of the Buddha, there's a record of a conversation with someone coming to the Buddha with great enthusiasm for mindfulness. They said that when people practice mindfulness, everything goes better for them; everything works out well for people who are mindful. The Buddha said, "Actually, it's a little different. It's when people have mindfulness and loving-kindness that everything goes well, that everything is good in a certain way." It's remarkable that the Buddha, who emphasized mindfulness so much, really brought in loving-kindness as a companion and a partner to mindfulness. It is the experience of many—I've certainly heard this from fellow teachers, and it matches my own experience—that as mindfulness gets stronger, or as loving-kindness gets stronger, they kind of merge. With well-developed mindfulness, loving-kindness seems to come along with it. And with very strongly developed loving-kindness, mindfulness comes along with it. Maybe with mindfulness, the mind opens up and releases all the places where we're held back and closed. And so, the natural tenderness from which care, goodwill, and love can radiate can be there. As loving-kindness gets stronger and stronger, we're more and more in the present moment. We're not thinking about other things. It's so compelling to be here and now. When mettā[^1] is strong, mindfulness comes along with that. So, the two can be seen as partners. Some people find they don't need to practice loving-kindness in order to have it grow alongside mindfulness. But there's also the explicit practice of loving-kindness. Some people will intentionally do meditations in loving-kindness, or even go on mettā retreats—whole retreats where the primary thing they're cultivating is this loving-kindness, or mettā, this warmth. It is quite something to have the primary focus of the mind's activity be love and kindness. Just like if you're focusing on the breathing and you can get really concentrated, feeling you're right there with every breath. It feels so delightful to finally be in the present moment, with the mind not scattered and distracted, but just really present. In the same way, one can do that with the practice of loving-kindness. Rather than the primary characteristics of the mind being preoccupation, neurosis, anger, resentment, hurry, fear, or wanting to get things done—all the kinds of things that can often preoccupy a person as they go through their daily life—the mind is instead occupied with loving-kindness. Mettā becomes the primary focus, the primary characteristic of what we think, what we feel, what we experience in the body, and what we're motivated by. It's a gathering together, a unification, a oneness with just loving-kindness. It's a phenomenal thing to have it become strong. The predominant way of being then becomes one that is saturated and filled with this kind of goodwill and love. It's just a great thing, a way of experiencing a deep peace. For some people, the practice of loving-kindness is phenomenally healing. As it gets strong, it begins to act almost as medicine for the places inside that are wounded, hurt, afraid, or closed. Its warmth tends to settle, relax, and open things for us. The Buddha gave this visualization. He said, "Imagine that there is an easily accessed pond with clear, delightful, refreshing, cool water. If a tired, parched, thirsty, and hot person, scorched and exhausted by the hot weather, came across the pond, the water would be used to quench both the person's thirst and the hot-weather fever. It is the same for a person who becomes a practitioner, and after learning the Buddha's teachings, cultivates loving-kindness. For this person gains inner peace, and because of this inner peace, cultivates what is appropriate for the path of liberation." Here, loving-kindness can provide this cool, refreshing sense of peace to a person. I should point out that in the guided meditation I just did, I emphasized warmth, whereas in this example, the Buddha talks about coolness. This might represent a difference between two different cultures. English evolved in cold, cool England, where warmth was a really nice thing. India is often a very hot country, so coolness is highly valued there. Either metaphor works. This meditation of loving-kindness can be developed. The idea of having a designated time to really develop, grow, expand, or—as I like to say—release the care and goodwill that's within us, is a great gift to the world. It allows this precious resource—something the Buddha called an inner wealth—to actually become strong. We don't leave it to accident. We don't leave it to chance, thinking, "Oh, it'll just appear when it does; it's here some days, and other days it's not." Instead, we take time to cultivate it, develop it, and make it strong. We make it easily accessible and easily called upon in a way that's sincere and authentic. Here's one description of a very strong state of meditation in loving-kindness. Hopefully, it's inspiring to know that it is a human possibility to have the feeling of mettā be this strong. The first half describes preparing oneself for this state: "Delight is born when one sees oneself purified and freed of greed, ill will, anger, revenge, contempt, bossiness, envy, deceit, and wrong view." Isn't that great? Delight is born when one is purified and freed from greed, ill will, anger, revenge, contempt, and so forth. When delighted, joy is born. When joyful, the body becomes tranquil. Someone whose body is tranquil feels happy. For someone whose body is tranquil, the mind becomes concentrated. Now, with this concentrated mind, comes the description of a very strong state of loving-kindness: "One abides pervading the east with a mind accompanied with loving-kindness. And likewise the south, the west, and the north. Above, below, and all around, everywhere and all over, one pervades the whole world with a mind accompanied with loving-kindness, extensive, expanded, limitless, free from hatred and ill will." Even if it were just a mind free of hatred and ill will, it would be pretty good and wonderful, since those are so painful for this world of ours. But to actually cultivate the radiance and fullness of loving-kindness, so that it feels like it radiates and spreads from us in all directions—east, south, west, north, and all around everywhere—is profound. It fills the field of our awareness, filling what seems like the whole world with it. It's that strong; it's that pervasive. It's a wonder. Sometimes we say that someone who is angry has a cloud hanging over them. You can feel the radiance of their anger or hostility. Similarly, it's possible to feel a radiance of love and kindness in oneself that radiates and spreads outward. It's phenomenal that we have this capacity to get so centered, focused, and absorbed into these beautiful states. Some people might say, "No, it can't be true," or "It's too artificial," or "It's too sweet," or "You can't be safe in those states." Well, we're talking about a meditation state. What we do when we come out of meditation may be different. But it's said that loving-kindness is one of the ways to create tremendous safety for ourselves—to be kind and friendly in this world. Some people will feel that practicing this way is selfish, self-absorbed, or just doing something for our own pleasure. I would say that it's the opposite. We certainly benefit from it, but it really allows us to go into the world to benefit the world—to be better citizens and helpful people, to not cause harm in the world, and to actually care about other people in a profound way. This is what I hope we can have: a world where we care about each other and live together with goodwill, kindness, and support. What I offer you today is sometimes called the practice of radiating loving-kindness. That's very different from the more classic way of practicing loving-kindness, which uses phrases and progressively directs them toward different categories of people: oneself, a benefactor, a neutral person, and an enemy, spreading it out from there. Both are great practices, but some people find it simpler and less complicated to just do the radiance. This seems to be how the Buddha taught it, because the Buddha gave no instructions for using different categories and phrases to cultivate loving-kindness. Someone asked for a citation for the passages I read. I read from a few different sources, but one of them is the Middle Length Discourses, Discourse Number 40[^2]. I hope that you will give some reflection today to loving-kindness, care, and goodwill. Maybe you can even have conversations with people about what their experience is with goodwill, how they evoke it, how they practice it, how they spread it, and what value they see in it. Experiment a little bit and see if you can go about your day practicing a bit more goodwill than you would have if you hadn't heard this suggestion. Thank you very much. It is wonderful to be here with you. We'll finish this series on mettā tomorrow with the topic of mettā and liberation. Thank you. --- [^1]: **Mettā:** A Pali word often translated as "loving-kindness," "goodwill," or "friendliness." [^2]: **Middle Length Discourses, Discourse Number 40:** Also known as the Majjhima Nikaya 40, or the _Cūḷa-assapura Sutta_ (The Lesser Discourse at Assapura), which outlines the practices and qualities of a true ascetic, including the cultivation of the Brahmavihāras.