Sabbe satta sukhi hontu

Pronunciation notes:

• a is pronounced as u in cut
• ā (or aa) is pronounced as a in father

Sabbe satta sukhi hontu is the key of the development of lovingkindness and compassion. Although most religions teach us to love our neighbors and even our enemies, it’s often hard to know exactly how to do that.

Buddhism, being a very practical tradition, offers a number of practices, including the development of lovingkindness (metta bhavana), and the development of compassion (karuna bhavana) meditations. Each of these practices helps us to develop a healthier and more loving relationship to oneself and others.

Metta is often translated as love as well as lovingkindness, and the essence of love in this sense is that we recognize that all beings, just like us, wish to experience happiness and do not wish to experience suffering. Metta is an empathetic sense of caring for others’ well-being. It’s for that reason that sabbe satta sukhi hontu (“may all beings be happy”) is considered to express the heart of the lovingkindness practice.


In cultivating lovingkindness, we commonly repeat phrases such as “May all beings be well; May all beings be happy; May all beings be free from suffering.” The accumulated effect of those words, when they are mindfully repeated, is to create a genuine sense of caring.


There are many other Pali chants that are similar and that are also closely related to the practice of lovingkindness, yet none seem to be as common as sabbe satta sukhi hontu, which really expresses the essence of lovingkindness.
Variants include:

• sabbe satta avera hontu (may all beings be free from enmity and danger)
• sabbe satta abyapajjha hontu (may all beings be free from mental suffering)
• sabbe satta anigha hontu (may all beings be free from physical suffering)
• sabbe satta dukkha muccantu (may all beings be free from suffering)
• sabbe satta sukhi attanam pariharantu (may all beings protect themselves joyfully)