Hello Everybody,

Karaniya Metta Sutta contains instructions on what type of person is the practice of metta intended to, and what qualities should one develop for practicing metta.

Does the practice of metta leads automatically to developing the above-mentioned qualities? How do you develop them? IMHO, only the close association of monks can help in this matter.

love,
Marino

My hypothesis is that it's a continuum. Just be being capable, upright, straightforwad, gentle, living lightly, I've noticed my mind incline towards peace naturally.

​​​​​​​I strongly value silence (within the mind, outside is nice too but not necessary) and in fact quite love it. Never touched nibbana, but my intuition is that nibbana is a movement towards deeper and deeper silence .

 Well, I see the effort as having two major sides: strengthening the wholesome, and weakening craving. If you sit and feel the warm feeling of wishing yourself well, and gradually stretch that feeling over your teacher, parents and family, friends, people you don't know well, and unfriendly people, this is strengthening the wholesome, and it's definitely a good thing. But the major personality changes require the other side of the coin, which is weakening all the craving that pulls you away from your wholesome object.

In TWIM, the way to do this is, when you notice you have gotten distracted, just stop indulging that subject of craving, but don't push it away. Allow it to be there. But, importantly, relax tension in the body and mind. Feel the relief of having done this, and smile. Only then, gently put attention back on the wholesome object.

I do think it's reasonable to think that doing this will eventually get you into Buddha's Good Boys Club.