Lovingkindness (Buddhism)

In this state of detachment, one is benevolent towards all beings, not only persons to whom one is close, but also those who are indifferent or even ill-disposed towards one. In meditation as practised in Hinayana Buddhism it is accompanied by doing away with feelings of aggression. Having prepared himself for meditation, the meditator reviews the danger of hate and the advantages of patience or forbearance by means of which hate can be put away. He then commences to develop lovingkindness, but not at first towards those to whom he is antipathetic, to very dear friends, to a neutral person, to an enemy or hostile person or to a member of the opposite sex or to a dead person. In fact, he first develops it towards himself, making the concern he feels for his own welfare and happiness an example of how he feels towards others. He is then pervaded with lovingkindess and may specifically apply his mind to loving one to whom he is antipathetic, a very dear friend, a neutral person, an enemy. He is endued with loving kindness in heart and mind and in all directions. He becomes versatile in the unspecified pervasion of love (five ways), specified pervasion (seven ways) and directional pervasion (ten ways); and eleven advantages arise.

One of the four divine abidings or states, brahma vihara described as subjects for meditation in Hinayan Buddhism.