Metta Magnets

The Metta ("Lovingkindness") Sutta is something we can all agree on. There are lots of great translations out there.

Now how does it go? ”May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety…”? Or is it “peaceful, and live in safety?”

Magnets have been cropping up around Portland that have it thus: “May all beings be happy. May they be safe and free from harm.” Maybe that is right. It doesn’t really matter who you are, or how you remember it: the Metta Sutta is good stuff.

A person I know well, who has recently moved to Portland, instigated this little Dharma outreach project. She was feeling overwhelmed by the newspaper headlines one day. Death and destruction, corruption and shortfall, often have that effect.

Yet Portland is a whimsical and hopeful place, my friend noticed. It gives rise to do-it-yourself arty types who make it their business to tie up toy horses at the hitching rings that dot so many sidewalk curbs. If there can be a Portland Horse Project, my friend thinks, why not a Portland Metta Sutta Project? If it’s good to stroll along, noticing a quirky homage to the days before petroleum-based transit; why not also be treated to something a little more present-and-future-centric?



Why not bring the Metta Sutta, one of the greatest and surest statements of goodwill, to the world? What if it chirruped at you, from news racks, bus stops, utility boxes, the backs of signs? You could call it tagging; you could call it art; you could call it Dharma. Or you could call it a heart cracking open.

My friend got online and found Vistaprint, an online outfit that churns out business cards for free or cheap, and found that they do magnets, too. A few clicks on a spa-style template later, and she had these words:

May All Beings Be Happy
May They Be Safe and Free From Harm.
-metta sutta

She ordered a bunch; the cost including shipping came to 25c apiece. And she set about sticking them in public places.

She was scared at first about sticking the magnets to things. Was this illegal? Would they be taken down and thrown away? It would be nice if people took them home to stick them on the fridge or the car. But who would know, if they vanished, where they had gone? A lot of them might end up in the trash. Would that be a waste, or a sort of blessing-of-the-trash? How many would have to change someone’s life, or make someone think, for it to have all been worthwhile? And would she ever know if it had?

It’s hard not to be attached to outcomes. Even outcomes of acts of lovingkindness-evangelism. And it’s hard not to worry about being caught. What do you tell the cops —“the Dharma made me do it”?

Some things you have to do anyway. Even if you’re shy.

It’s incredible how few things are metal anymore, or ferrous enough to sustain a weak, flat magnet. Bus stops don’t work. And a lot of new cars aren’t magnetic either. Newspaper boxes are good, though. More die in Baghdad blast. Iran defies nuclear test ban. Food aid to be cut in 2007.

May we all be happy. May we be safe and free from harm.

Today I went for a walk along one of her tagging routes. Some of the magnets have vanished. Some are still there. And then there was one, newly-affixed to the rear of an old (thus metal) Mercedes station wagon with Minnesota plates.

Somebody took it and put it somewhere. Somebody liked those words on that little blue magnet. This one Dharma tidbit, at least, has gone to happy home.

May we all find our place, too. And may we all have the guts to get out there and wish the world well. I don’t pretend to know what “should be done,” but I see things that can be done.

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in saftey,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

[click here for a teaching on lovingkindness]