Search results for: "The Brahmavihara"
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- The Equanimity of a Winner… There’s the equanimity of a doctor, which would be equanimity in the context of the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes. You have goodwill for the patient, compassion for the patient’s suffering. You’re happy for the patient when he or she recovers, but you have to be equanimous when you see there are certain patients you can’t cure. So instead of focusing …
- Anumodana… So as you go through the brahmaviharas, take good note of empathetic joy. And as you go through the day and the monks give the anumodana, realize that they’re rejoicing in your goodness, reminding you that it’s a character trait that deserves rejoicing. This gives nourishment to your practice. It’s one of the ways in which we can help one another …
- Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources… But this is where the limitless nature of the brahmaviharas meets up with the limitations of being a human being. You have only so much time, so much energy, so much strength. Your mind needs training. So you have to balance these things out. The amount of compassion is limitless, and the range of people to whom you want to extend compassion is limitless …
- The Need for GoodwillEvery evening, we have the chant on the brahmaviharas: “May all living beings be happy. May they be freed from their suffering. May they not be deprived of the good fortune they have attained.” All of those are wishes, aspirations. Then there’s the fourth: “All beings are the owners of their actions, heir to their actions. Whatever they do, for good or evil …
- Negativity… That leads to the second way to strengthen your mind, which is to develop thoughts of limitless goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—in other words, the brahmavihāras. Once you’ve recognized a mistake, have some goodwill for yourself. Remind yourself that you are aiming at happiness, and that any voices inside you that are not aiming at happiness are not Dhamma at all …
- You’ve Got Friends… This is one of the reasons why we think of thoughts of goodwill for all beings, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity—all the brahmaviharas—to all beings before we meditate to open up the mind to a little bit of infinity, at least for a few moments. That’s infinity in space. Also think, as the Buddha says, of the inconceivable beginning of time. Which …
- The Quest for Inner Happiness… For instance, the chant on the brahmaviharas: “May I be happy. May all beings be happy.” That’s meant to remind us of why we’re here. We want true happiness, a happiness that doesn’t cause any suffering, any harm to anybody else—which, of course, is a happiness that has to be found inside. With external happiness—depending on food, clothing, shelter …
- Give of Yourself… The Buddha talks about getting into jhana, getting into the brahmavihāras, and then going to Brahma worlds after you die. But if you’re not a noble disciple, then when you fall from those Brahma worlds, where do you go? Down to hell, the animal womb, the realm of the hungry ghosts. They’re not a safe destination, those Brahma worlds. You’ve got …
- Equanimity… In the brahmaviharas, it acts as a reality check. We have goodwill for all beings: May they be happy. May they understand the causes for true happiness and be willing and able to act on them. May they look after themselves with ease. Compassion: May all beings be freed from all stress and pain. Empathetic joy: May those who are happy not be deprived …
- Serenity… Another way of making the mind more serene is to develop the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes: immeasurable goodwill, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable empathetic joy, immeasurable equanimity. These thoughts are soothing to the mind. In the beginning, you have to work through them. Ask yourself, “Is there anybody out there for whom you cannot feel goodwill?” And certain faces will probably appear in your mind. You …
- A Happy Tradition… To make your mind wealthy, you develop the brahmaviharas: goodwill for all, compassion for all, empathetic joy for all, equanimity for all. You train your mind not to be overcome by pleasure, not to be overcome by pain. You develop your virtue; you develop your discernment. So, there are skills that can enable you not to suffer, no matter what your past karma is …
- Unchanged by Loss… Other topics include the brahmaviharas: spreading goodwill for all the people who’ve harmed you, spreading goodwill for all the people you’ve harmed, spreading goodwill for yourself; reflecting on impermanence, the inconstancy of things; reflecting on not-self—all of the things inside and out that are beyond your control. Then, as the mind begins to accept these truths, it develops a greater …
- Understanding Goodwill & Equanimity… So all the brahmaviharas, all the sublime abidings, require understanding so that they really lead to the happiness we want. And the happiness we want is one that spreads itself around. It’s not like the happiness of the world—based on gaining status, gaining fame, gaining wealth—where, when one person gains, somebody else has to lose. With the happiness that comes from …
- Keep Your Spirits Up… You’re training the mind to train the mind; using the breath, using whatever topics—the brahmavihāras**, the different recollections—as ways of getting a handle on the mind. If your gaze is steady, you’ll be able to remember the fact that, yes, you do have these other techniques. You gain a sense of which one might be appropriate for right now and …
- Turtle Meditation… This way you’re getting practice in the brahmaviharas, learning how to develop a goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity that are universal, limitless. Then you learn how to apply these different emotions as appropriate. So as you get more sensitive inside, it puts you in a better position to be more sensitive to what you’re doing outside, more sensitive to what the …
- Faith as a Virtue… He tells this to the Kalamas and then he says, “Try to develop the brahmaviharas. Let your actions be motivated by universal goodwill, universal compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Then if there is rebirth, you’ve acted in a way that will lead to good results—assuming that your rebirth is shaped by your karma. If it turns out that there is no rebirth …
- The Demands of Goodwill… There was a book years back, a survey of early Buddhist teachings, that organized everything under the four noble truths and then, at the very end, tacked on the brahmaviharas—as if they were somehow not integral to the practice. The author said they formed the social dimension of Buddhism, whereas everything else was totally devoted to the training of your mind—as if …
- Goodwill as Wealth… There’s a passage where the Buddha says that for a monk, the brahmaviharas—goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity for all beings without measure, without limit—are a monk’s wealth. As monks, we don’t have that many material possessions, but we can develop a sense of expansiveness, based on the sense of well-being we develop as we practice. This applies not …
- De-domesticated… In other words, develop the brahmaviharas as much as you can. But at the same time, maintain your sense of values. As meditators, we’re dealing with a part of ourselves that we don’t share with other people, in a world that has nothing to do with anyone else’s worlds. But the fact that we’re focused here means that we’re …
- Equanimity After Victory… As for the equanimity in the brahmaviharas, the Buddha again doesn’t say to go straight to equanimity. You have to start with goodwill. There are some people for whom it’s easy to feel goodwill; for other people, it’s not so easy. You don’t just tell yourself, “Okay, goodwill, goodwill, goodwill.” You have to think about, “Why do I have trouble …
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