Loving kindness: the essential Buddhist contribution to primary care

Loving kindness (metta), a traditional Buddhist concept, implies acting with compassion toward all sentient beings, with an awareness and appreciation of the natural world. The giving of metta, an integral part of Buddhist medicine, has the potential to enhance modern primary health care. Metta must be given with selflessness (saydana), compassion (karuna), and sympathetic joy (mudita). For the believer, Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha, is the Supreme Healer. His ancient but timeless message of metta is alive and well today, The Dalai Lama being it key proponent. The Buddhist system features several techniques, such as the Noble Eight-Fold-Path and the metta meditations, to keep physicians moving toward metta. One does not have to be a Buddhist to practice metta, or more humane medicine, and the notion of "tender loving care" is spreading in biomedical circles.