Brahmavihara Dhamma

Teaching will be given based fundamentally on the Metta Sutta, which is quite familiar to a majority of the people here. The Metta Sutta is of paramount importance for the Buddhists in Burma. It has become an indispensable Sutta when reciting prayers and various kinds of hymns or incantations (parittas) which are usually chanted at religious functions to ward off the influence of evil spirits and impart loving-kindness to all beings, thereby affording us also a contemporary message of goodwill or blessing.

(34) Metta is also the way to enhance Dana or alms-giving.

If offerings of gifts were accepted while reciting the Metta Sutta, and by developing metta at the same time, immense advantages can be derived by the benefactors who are donors. It is, therefore, necessary for the Bhikkhus (monks) to seriously study the text so as to grasp the meaning and significance of the Metta Sutta. Practice should be made so as to be able to recite this Sutta correctly and precisely with a smooth flow and without making any errors. Then, while reciting this Sutta, metta should also be developed. So by developing metta in this way it will of bring benefits to the reciter and also the donors.

I shall now make a clear exposition of the Metta Sutta, commencing from the first stanza in the body of this Sutta.