"metta" or "Unreserved Friendliness"

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We have heard the Buddhist term metta translated as "unreserved friendliness.":) If this is accurate, it emphasizes a Way of practical, everyday Love that is often ignored or dismissed by most Christians.

Metta can be seen as "everyday maitri [Love] or, to use Jesus' word for "Love," everyday agape. Thus, friendliness, like courtesy (also often ignored in the West) is a real form of Love. We often think of "Love" on a grander scale-- and indeed, there is nothing "grander" or greater in the universe.

But we often allow ourselves to forget that real life does not consist in great and sweeping forces, but in the calm, "common," "ordinary," and "everyday." So, if we are to exercise Love (express Goddess) in our lives, we must often do so as metta, or "unreserved friendliness," including courtesy. For a "Love" that lacks courtesy is not "Love" at all, but only a kind of grand-vision phoniness.
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