The second of the five carita-viśodhana practices, corresponding to the dveṣa-carita (hatred-temperament) practitioner. The Śrāvakabhūmi treats maitrī in its definitional aspect — three marks (mitra-pakṣa, friend-side; amitra-pakṣa, enemy-side; udāsīna-pakṣa, neutral-side), three intensities, the brahma-vihāra division of labor across the four immeasurables, and the temperament rationale for why hatred yields specifically to the cultivation of friendliness. Procedural development of the practice itself is given separately in the vipaśyanā illustration in sbh3.2.
id
Sanskrit
English
hitādhyāśayamupasthāpya mṛdumadhyādhimātrasya sukhasyopasaṁhārāyādhimokṣaḥ |
having established the benefit-aspiration, [it is] the resolve to bring mild, middling, or strong happiness —
Three intensities preserved: mṛdu (mild), madhya (middling), adhimātra (strong). The resolve is graduated, not all-or-nothing.
tatra yo hitādhyāśayaḥ, sukhopasaṁhārāya cādhimokṣaḥ samāhitabhūmikaḥ ayamālambaka iti |
The benefit-aspiration and the resolve to bring happiness, grounded in the concentrated plane — this is the operator.
yaścālambakastadekatyamabhisaṁkṣipya maitrītyucyate |
and the operator, combined into one — this is called lovingkindness.
Maitrī defined as the compound of object (ālambana — the three categories of beings) and operator (ālambaka — hitādhyāśaya + adhimokṣa). Not a feeling; not a wish; a resolve on a specific cognitive object with a specific aspiration backing it.
tatra yattāvadāha maitrīsahagatena cittenetyanena triṣu pakṣeṣu mitrapakṣe, amitrapakṣe, udāsīnapakṣe hitādhyāśaya ākhyātaḥ |
When [the canonical formula] says 'with mind imbued with lovingkindness,' by this the benefit-aspiration is named, [extending] through the three sides — friend, enemy, neutral.
avaireṇāsampannenāvyābādhenetyanena tasyaiva hitādhyāśayasya trividhaṁ lakṣaṇamākhyātaṁ |
'without enmity, without opposition, without harming' — by this, the threefold characteristic of that benefit-aspiration is named.
Asanga is unpacking the standard sutta-formula maitrī-sahagatena cittena... avaireṇa asapatnena avyābādhena (Pali: mettāsahagatena cetasā... averena avyāpajjena avirodhena; MN 7 and many other places). The local explanation uses asamarthatā in the sense of non-opposition rather than literal incapacity, so the English avoids 'rivalry' here.
tatrāvairatayā hitādhyāśayaḥ sā punaravairatā dvābhyāṁ padābhyāmākhyātāḥ |
Of these: by non-enmity, the benefit-aspiration [is characterized]. This non-enmity is named by two further terms:
tatrāpratyanīkabhāvasthānārthenāsamarthatā |
Non-opposition is so named because it has the sense of being-without-an-opposing-stance.
apakārāviṣaṣṭanārthena avyābādhatā |
Non-harming is so named because it has the sense of being-without-malice-and-injury.
vipulena mahadgatena pramāṇenetyanena mṛdumadhyādhimātrasya sukhasyopasaṁhāra ākhyātaḥ |
'vast, exalted, immeasurable' — by this, the bringing of mild, middling, or strong happiness is named:
The intensity-gradation mapped onto cosmological structure: mild = kāmāvacara (desire-realm pleasure), middling = first-or-second-jhāna prīti-sukha (rapture-and-ease), strong = third-jhāna niṣprītika-sukha (ease without rapture). The root prints pramāṇena, but the standard brahmavihāra formula requires apramāṇena ('immeasurable'); translation follows the formula while leaving the Sanskrit unchanged. A practitioner can wish for others a happiness they themselves have access to.
kāmāvacarasya, prathamadvitīyadhyānabhūmikasya vā, tṛtīyadhyānabhūmikasya vā |
happiness of the desire-realm, or of the first-and-second-absorption planes, or of the third-absorption plane.
adhimucyasyānirvopasampadya viharatītyanena sukhopasaṁhārādhimokṣaḥ samāhitabhūmika ākhyātaḥ |
[Damaged/Conjectural]: 'having attained, he abides resolved upon' — by this, the resolve to bring happiness, grounded in the concentrated plane, is named.
The Sanskrit phrase adhimucyasyānirvo in the source is corrupt; reading uncertain. The functional sense is 'having resolved... having attained, he abides' — the standard sutta formula for absorption-grade radiation. A Sanskritist with the Tibetan parallel could resolve the reading.
sa punareṣa sukhopasaṁhāro hitādhyāśayaparigṛhītaḥ |
This bringing of happiness, encompassed by the benefit-aspiration,
aduḥkhāsukhite mitrapakṣe, amitrapakṣe, udāsīnapakṣe, sukhakāme veditavyaḥ |
should be understood as directed toward those who are neither-suffering-nor-happy, desiring happiness, on the friend-side, enemy-side, or neutral-side.
aduḥkhāsukhita — literally 'non-suffering-non-happy,' the neutral baseline. The brahmavihāra division of labor: this neutral being is the object of maitrī; the suffering one is the object of karuṇā; the happy one is the object of muditā.
yastu duḥkhito vā, aduḥkhito vā punarmitrapakṣaḥ |
Whereas for the one who is suffering, or the non-suffering [that is, happy] one, on the friend-side,
The source has aduḥkhito (non-suffering) where context suggests sukhito (happy); preserved as-is. The classification distinguishes the suffering being (→ karuṇā) from the happy being (→ muditā); the Sanskrit reading is likely correct as 'non-suffering' = 'happy.'
yaḥ sukhitaḥ sa muditāyā ālambanamiyamucyate maitrī |
the happy one is the object of sympathetic joy. This is called lovingkindness.
tatra vyāpādacaritaḥ pudgalaḥ maitrīṁ bhāvayan sattveṣu yo vyāpādastaṁ pratanu karoti |
The ill-will-conduct person, cultivating lovingkindness, attenuates the ill-will toward beings.
Vyāpāda-carita is kept as ill-will-conduct, distinct from the broader dveṣa-carita hatred-conduct label used in the five-practice summary. Pratanu karoti — 'attenuates,' literally 'makes thin.' The verb is precise: maitrī practice does not eliminate ill-will in a single move but progressively thins it. Same gradual-pacification model as the nine mental abidings.