given by Nomon Tim Burnett
Red Cedar Dharma Hall
July 17, 2009
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As promised here is the story of the creation of the Metta Sutta by the Buddha. This appears in the commentaries to the Canon not in the actual Cannonical texts. I think it was written down by Buddhaghosa who was a major major author or commentaries from the 5th century. An Indian monk who travelled to Sri Lanka.
[Here I gave my own telling of this story. Passages in bold are ones I want to quote verbatim]
On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi when the [time for the] taking up of the Residence for the Rains was near at hand. Now on that occasion many bhikkhus from various countries, who were desirous of taking up residence for the rains in various places after taking a meditation subject in the in the Blessed One's presence, had approached the Blessed One.
The Buddha expounded meditation subjects suitable for the eighty-four thousand shades of temperament . And there he had expounded meditation subjects suitable for the eighty-four thousand shades of temperament in the following way, that is to say: for those of lustful temperament he showed Loathesomeness as a meditation subject of the eleven kinds as with consciousness and without consciousness; for those of hating temperament the fourfold meditation subject beginning with Lovingkindness; for those of deluded temperament, the meditation subject consisting in Mindfulness of Death, etc.; for those of speculative thinking temperament, Mindfulness of Breathing, the Earth Universal, etc.; for those of faithful temperament, the subjects consisting of the Recollections of the Enlightened One, etc.; and for those of intelligent (discovering) temperament, the Definition of the Four Elements.
So when [a party of] five hundred bhikkhus had learnt each a meditation subject in the Blessed One's presence and were seeking a suitable resting place with a village as alms resort, eventually in the outland country they came in sight of a mountain forming part of the Himalaya range. While its surface glittered like blue quartz crystal, it was embellished with a cool dense shady green forest grove and a stretch of ground strewn with sand resembling a net or a silver sheet; and it was furnished with a clean spring of grateful cool water. Now when the bhikkhus had spent one night there and the dawn was drawing near, they attended to the needs of the physical frame and then went for alms into a town not far distant. The town was connected with a thousand clans and constructed as a community-residence, and the people there had faith and confidence.
The local villagers were overjoyed. They fed the monks and begged them to spend their retreat there.
Since it is hard in the outlands to get a sight of those gone forth into homelessness, they were happy and joyful when they saw the bhikkhus, and they fed them and begged them to stay on for the three months (of obligatory residence during the Rains) and they had five hundred work-rooms built and furnished with all such necessities as beds, chairs, pots for drinking and washing water, and so on.
On the following day the bhikkus went into another town for alms, and there too the people served them in like manner and begged them to stay on for the Rains. The bhikkhus consented subject to there being no obstacle. The re-entered the wood, where they [arranged to keep up] energy night and day by having a wood-block struck for the watches, and abiding much in reasoned attention, they went to the roots of trees and sat down.
The tree deities were discouraged by the virtuous bhikkhus’ courage, and they came down from their own mansions and wandered back and forth with their children, just as when a block of houses is commandeered from villagers by kings or royal ministers and the human inhabitants of the houses who have had to evacuate them and go to live elsewhere watch from a distance, [wondering] ' When are the venerable ones going way', so too the deities came down from their own mansions and wandered back and forth, watching from a distance wondering 'When are the venerable ones going away?'. Next they thought thus ' Bhikkhus who enter upon the first period for residence for the Rains will certainly stay on for three months; but we cannot live with our children away from home for so long. Let us show the bhikkhus some object that will scare them away '.
So in the night when it was the bhikkus' time to give effect to the monks’ True Ideal, they created terrifying forms of spirits, and standing in front of each of them, they made dreadful noise. When the bhikkhus saw the forms and heard the noise, their hearts quailed, they grew pale and jaundiced and they could no longer unify their cognizance. When they were harassed again and again by this fear, with their cognizance ununified they forgot their mindfulness. As soon as they had forgotten their mindfulness, the deities harassed them with bad smells. Their brains to seemed to smother in the stench, with feelings of oppression in their heads. However, they did not mention their hauntings to each other.
Then one day when all had assembled at the time for waiting on the Senior Elder of the Community, he asked them 'Friends, when you first entered into this wood, the color of your skin was quite pure and bright for some days and your faculties were clear; but now you are lean and pale and jaundiced. What does not suit you here?' Then a bhikkhu said 'Venerable sir, at night I saw and heard such-and-such a dreadful object and I smelt such-and-such a smell, and so my mind was not concentrated', and all told in the same way what had happened. The Senior Elder said 'Friends. two kinds of entry upon Residence for the Rains have been described by the Blessed One, and this resting place does not suit us. So let us go to the Blessed One and ask about another resting place that will suit us.'
The others agreed, and so they all put their resting places in order, and then they took their bowls and [outer] robes and without even telling anyone--for they had no attachments among the clans—they set out to wander by stages to Savatthi. They went to the Blessed One. When he saw them, he said ' Bhikkhus, a training rule has been made known by me saying that no one is to go wandering during the Rains. Why are you wandering?
They told the Blessed One all that had happened. The Blessed One adverted to the whole of Jambudipa, but he saw not so much as even a place for a four-legged chair that might suit them as a resting place. Then he told them 'Bhikkhus, there is no other resting place that will suit you. It is only by living there that you might reach the exhaustion of taints. So go and occupy that same resting place. But if you want to be free from fear of deities, then learn this safeguard; for this will be both a safeguard and a meditation subject for you,' and he uttered this Sutta.
Hearing the returning monks reciting the sutta, the tree deities welcomed the bhikkhus to the forest and keeping them safe.
So the Metta Sutta is actually a kind of effective tool - it really has an effect in the world is the way it's understood in the tradition. Not just a nice poem. A tool.
Now let's backtrack a minute to the virtuous qualities a practitioner should develop in order to practice loving-kindness well. We had to sort of rush though this list last week and maybe not everyone was here last week. I want to bring up this list again and have a discussion time in small groups to consider where we are with this list. Do we have any objections to these things? Do they all seem worthy of our effort? Do some of these virtues feel easier or harder than others to practice? And what are the obstacles in our lives to the practice of these virtues. So I've made a new handout for you giving again the Pali and English for this list of virtues.
And two points to highlight about these virtues.
First that the two virtues of not being encumbered by responsibilities and not being too busy we wondered last week if they are only applicable to monastics. That as lay people that's just how it goes. I think maybe we have some options in terms of attitude and approach even if we do have to go to work and raise our family and so on but see what you think. Maybe those don't seem relevant to us.
And secondly the second to last virtue was certainly formulated to the particular situation the Buddha's monks were in. Not to be too greedy for supporters so that in their daily begging rounds where they'd receive all of their food for the day they were steady and non-discriminating and didn't make trouble. This virtue is re-interpreted in our Sutra Book translation as not being greedy for one's family - do not desire great possessions even for one's family - but it was certainly meant originally the other way around - don't be greedy for support from others, from one's family, from one's supporters. And it seems to be that its productive for us to consider that both ways.
[explain the style of small group discussion with active listening, confidentiality, etc. get into groups, 5 minutes for each person]
Okay now let's start the second of three sections in the Sutta which remember is considered to be divided up into three sections of Sila or virtue, Samadhi or morality, and Panna/Prajna or wisdom.
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3 |
Na ca khuddaṃ samācare kici yena viū pare upavadeyyuṃ Sukhino vā khemino hontu sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā: |
Do not do the slightest thing that the wise would later censure. Think: Happy & secure, may all beings be happy at heart. |
Let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. |
The phrase 'Sukhino vā khemino hontu sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā::' starts and ends with two forms of the word sukkha (the opposite of dukkha) meaning happiness. And this isn't really supported by the Pali directly but I guess the commentaries say that sukhino refers to physical well-being and sukhitatta refers to happiness - not glee or mirth but a happy sense of well-being. khemino means physically safe or secure - it has at it's root the word for a fence so like a place of refuge safe from danger. Hontu is an imperative verb - 'may they be!'. sabbe is all, and satta is beings. bhavantu is another form of hontu so really emphasizing that we really, really wish for this.
So literally we might translate this famous phrase of the Sutta as 'May all being be well and safe from danger, may all beings be happy.' But the word order in Pali doesn't line up with English so we have many different versions of this. The thing to remember is the strong sense of imperative - that it says twice that we wish for this - and the three versions of well-being that are listed: good health, safety, and happiness.
And then the next two verses go on to list different classes of beings. This can be read as just a sort of elaboration for emphasis on the idea of 'all beings.' That's how I think we'd take this reading the Sutta with our eyes as Western literature. But actually the tradition sees this as meditation instructions.
First bring up a deep desire for the well being of ALL beings and practice with that. But that's so general that it's hard to work with and hard to keep it steady in the mind so then systematically turn that wish towards each of the following classes of being and wish each of these groups well being, safety, and happiness. And of course the classifications seem a little odd to us because they are from a different time and culture.
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4 |
Ye keci pāṇabhūt' atthi tasā vā thāvarā vā anavasesā Dīgha vā ye mahantā vā majjhimā rassakā aṇukathūlā |
Whatever beings there may be, weak or strong, without exception, Long, large, middling, short, subtle, blatant, |
All living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle or low realms of existence, small or great, |
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5 |
Diṭṭhā vā ye vā addiṭṭhā ye ca dūre vasanti avidūre Bhūtā vā sambhavesī vā sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā |
Seen & unseen, near & far, Born & seeking birth: May all being be happy at heart. |
visible or invisible, near or far, born or to be born, may all beings be happy. |
Verses 4 and 5 lists these different categories of beings and ends with the last part of the 3-part wish for happiness, which stands for all three.
The classes of beings listed are tasā and thāvarā which means moving and stable. The implication is kind of the opposite of Western thinking. We say 'I'm still moving' or 'I'm still getting around' to imply strength and perseverance, but in Buddhism following Indian thinking it's the opposite. Those who are strong and stable don't need to move. Those who need to move are in difficulty. Think squirming I guess.
Then we lists of sizes. We recognize Digha and Majjhima from the names of other collections of suttas - the Digha Nikaya is the collection of long suttas, the Majjhima Nikaya is the collection of middle length suttas. One thing kind of strange here is one of the lists of sizes appears to refer to density. So have less dense, more sense and middle density beings at the end of verse 4.
And verse 5 is pretty literal in both of our translations too. Diṭṭhā means seen and addiṭṭhā means not-seen. This could imply the beings on this realm of existence the humans and animals as opposed to the beings in the other 3: the hungry-ghosts, the beings in the hell realms, and the Devas, the god-like beings.
Or we could maybe more usefully take it in the sense of perception and awareness. So many beings we either can't see because they aren't here physically or we just don't notice in a literal way or a psychological way. Do we really see the person behind the counter. Do we really see the people we live with fully every time they are in the same room as us? So we wish all beings seen or unseen happiness.
Next we have those living far away, dūre vasanti, and those who are not-far avidūre. And far away again can be physically far away, in Asia, in Africa on other planets, or cosmologically far away, on other plains of existence. The teachings in commentary apparently are quite specific about casting one's inner glance in each cardinal direction one at a time and into each plane of existence. Very systematic and step by step. Not a kind of global thing.
And lastly the born and to be born part is kind of interesting. The word for birth in Pali is jati which is not seen here. va is a form of to be, so Bhūtā vā means 'have come to be' and ambhavesī vā means 'are coming to be.' So we can take this literally in a rebirth kind of way if we want or again we can see it more metaphorically and psychologically to include beings moving through different stages of life, or existence, or awareness. Maybe we can include people who are so twisted by hate and confusion that we can't imagine them being happy as beings who are moving towards that possibility who are not yet 'born' into the circumstances that allow happiness.
And then we close the verse with the wish sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā that all of these beings be happy.
Resident Priest Nomon Tim Burnett has been a student of Zoketsu Norman Fischer since 1987 when he was a resident at San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm. After sitting practice periods at Green Gulch and Tassajara Zen Monastery, Tim helped found the Bellingham Zen Practice Group in 1991. Tim was ordained as a Zen Priest by Norman in June, 2000. Like his teacher, Tim is interested in the possibility of deep and complete practice by lay people.
A person of wide-ranging professional interests, Tim has been a botanist, elementary schoolteacher, writer, and computer programmer. In addition to his work at the Resident Priest of Red Cedar Zen Community, Tim works as a software developer.