Metta

Loving-kindness: the practice of wishing yourself and others well.

Metta is a Pali word usually translated as loving-kindness. It is the wish that all beings be happy and free from suffering, without conditions and without expecting anything in return. In Buddhism metta is the first of the four brahmaviharas, the sublime abodes, together with compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.

The best-known text is the Metta Sutta, in which the Buddha asks us to cherish love for all beings as a mother protects her only child with her life. In metta meditation that attitude is practised step by step: first for yourself, then for someone dear to you, then for a neutral person, then for someone you find difficult, and finally for all beings. Phrases are often repeated, such as: may I be happy, may I be safe, may I be free from suffering.

Strikingly, in another text the Buddha names eleven benefits of metta, and one of them concerns sleep and dreams. Whoever practises metta is said to sleep peacefully, wake peacefully and have no bad dreams. That is why many Buddhists practise metta before going to sleep, or after a nightmare.

In dream interpretation metta plays a practical role. After a dream in which you argue, lose someone or are afraid, a short metta meditation can help the feeling settle. Someone who dreams of a person with whom things are difficult can send metta to that person, without approving what happened.

Metta is not a feeling you must force, but a direction you practise. On Dreamkin the Buddhist readings often mention metta as a simple way to deal with a dream.