Loving-Kindness

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Loving-kindness is the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy. Loving-kindness counters ill will (aversion). The attitude of loving-kindness is like the feeling which a mother has for her newborn son or daughter. She wishes that he or she may enjoy good health, have good friends, be intelligent and successful in all that he or she attempts.

One may have the same attitude of loving-kindness for a particular friend or for others in one's class, companion, community or country.

The extent of loving-kindness in the instances mentioned above is limited to those for whom one has some attachment or concern. The meditation on loving-kindness, however, requires one to extend loving-kindness not only towards those whom one feels close to, but also to others whom one may know only slightly or not know at all.

Finally, one's loving-kindness is extended to all sentient beings in all the realms of existence. Then only does the ordinary wholesome attitude of loving-kindness found in daily life reach the state of sublime or the immeasurable.

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