How to Truly Love: An Ancient Guide to a Life of Kindness

An engaging new translation of a timeless fifth-century Buddhist meditation guide that teaches practices for becoming happier and freer by learning how to love everyone

Sages and religious teachers the world over have taught us to love one another, extending our love and kindness beyond our immediate family and friends to strangers and even enemies. But such lofty aspirations can seem unrealistic and even perverse given how difficult and annoying other people can be, and how unloving they can be toward us. Why should we love these people? And even if we are convinced that we should, how can we possibly do it? In How to Truly Love, Maria Heim presents an enlightening new translation of an important fifth-century Buddhist text that teaches practical strategies and meditation techniques for becoming happier and freer by loving others.

The work introduced here is the important "Sublime Attitudes" chapter from The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), a meditation manual by the Theravada Buddhist monk and scholar Buddhaghosa ("Voice of the Buddha"). Based on a subtle understanding of how the mind works, "Sublime Attitudes" teaches powerful cognitive and affective therapies for cultivating lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity by letting go of their opposites, including hatred, anger, and indifference. By radically reconceiving how we see others, we can break down barriers between ourselves and them, and come to seek their happiness and well-being as though it were our own.

Featuring an illuminating introduction and commentary, as well as the original Pali text on facing pages, How to Truly Love invites today's readers to explore ancient Buddhist practices that countless people have found life-changing.

Author: Buddhaghosa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 09/29/2026
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 6.80h x 4.40w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780691292816

About the Author
Buddhaghosa was a fifth-century CE scholar and monk who was born in India but spent most of his career in Sri Lanka editing and translating the Pali Buddhist commentaries sacred to the Theravada tradition. His most famous work is The Path of Purification, a meditation manual of morality, contemplation, and insight that aims at bringing about ultimate freedom. Maria Heim is the George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion at Amherst College. Her books include Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India, How to Feel: An Ancient Guide to Minding Our Emotions, and How to Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go (with Jay L. Garfield and Robert H. Sharf) (all Princeton).