Search results for: "The Brahmavihara"

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  2. Patience & Endurance
    When we chant the formula for the brahmaviharas, you may notice that the pattern for equanimity differs from the pattern for the other three. For goodwill, compassion, and empathetic joy, it starts, “May all beings be happy, may they be free from suffering, may they not be deprived of the good fortune they have obtained.” In other words, “may, may, may.” Whereas with equanimity … 
  3. Grief & Regret
     … After you’ve resolved not to repeat the mistake, he says to develop goodwill, goodwill in all directions, including yourself—all the brahmaviharas: goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Because these thoughts help get you past any desire to punish yourself or punish the other person or punish anybody at all. They reinforce your desire not to make mistakes that are harmful. And they give … 
  4. Goodwill as Right View
     … This is why the brahmaviharas all go together. But you do want to maintain your goodwill in all situations. As the Buddha said, you want to protect your goodwill as a mother would protect her only child. Sometimes that image is misinterpreted as meaning that you should love everybody the same way a mother would love her only child, but that’s impossible. The … 
  5. What You Can’t Change, What You Can
     … This is why the Buddha taught the brahmaviharas or the sublime attitudes as a set—qualities of unlimited goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—with the realization that some of them will be appropriate at some times and others appropriate at others. There’s no one attitude you take all the way all the time. Wisdom comes in knowing which attitude to apply in … 
  6. Secluded from Sensuality
     … Another contemplation the Buddha recommends is the brahmaviharas, starting with goodwill for all. Another is contemplation of the body. This is the main center of our thoughts for sensuality. It’s because we’re attracted to our body that we get attracted to other people, so the Buddha has you dissect your attraction to your body first. This is why we have that chant … 
  7. Discernment All Along
     … Even the brahmaviharas, which tend to be wishes, don’t have to be just wishes. You can stop to think about, “Well, what’s the wisest way to express goodwill?” If you really have goodwill for other beings—what does that mean? It means basically that you wish that they would behave skillfully, because that’s how they’re going to be happy. And … 
  8. Metta Math
     … But with the sublime attitudes, the brahmaviharas, you’re trying to raise the level of your mind to a brahma level. It’s the brahmas who have goodwill for everyone, with extra left over. If you can learn how to think in those terms, you become a brahma inside. So ask yourself: What’s keeping you from generating as much wealth as you want … 
  9. Generating Good Energy
     … Mudita, empathetic joy, is the brahmavihara that tends to get the least attention. We tend to feel that if people are happy already, they don’t need us. But that’s not the case. Because, one, empathetic joy means being happy not only for people who are happy, also for people who are doing good things. And those people need encouragement sometimes, so do … 
  10. Grounded in the Breath
     … Can you put them aside? One of the reasons we have the chant about the brahmaviharas before each meditation is to remind us that, one, we do want to have goodwill for ourselves and for all other beings. We’re looking for a happiness that harms no one, because we know that if we harm other people, the harm is going to come back … 
  11. Guardian Meditations
     … Goodwill is also useful—as are all the brahmaviharas—for dealing with anger or any unskillful state. If you really have goodwill for yourself, would you let yourself get bound up, say, in lust or anger, greed or jealousy, or whatever the unskillful state maybe? When you find yourself able to kindle some thoughts of goodwill for yourself, some genuine goodwill for yourself, then … 
  12. Tough Goodwill for a Tough World
     … They’re more-than-human attitudes—all the brahmaviharas. They’re the attitudes of brahmas who live in relative security. They’re not involved in the rough and tumble of the world. They’re not affected by human beings’ actions. So it’s a lot easier for them to have unlimited goodwill, unlimited compassion, unlimited empathetic joy, and unlimited equanimity. But it’s not … 
  13. Something to Stand On
     … Or as when we develop the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes, we prefer that everyone would be happy and that people would be able to overcome their suffering, us included. We’re happy for people when they’re happy or are acting on the causes for happiness. These are things we prefer. What it means to have no preferences is that whatever is required to … 
  14. Large Perspective, Small Focus
     … Then we have the brahmaviharas—as you think about all living beings out to infinity. It’s always good to air out your mind, to think in those larger terms several times a day, so that you can put all of this into perspective. After all, you want to find a happiness that doesn’t harm anybody. That reflection on equanimity—realizing that happiness … 
  15. Guilt & Shame
     … Develop all of the brahmavihāras, but start with goodwill: goodwill for the person you’ve wronged, goodwill for yourself, and then goodwill for everybody. Goodwill for yourself is to remind yourself that by punishing yourself you don’t gain anything. Part of the psychology of guilt is the feeling that if you punish yourself a lot, then others who might want to punish you … 
  16. Training Your Intentions
     … it. Other people have trouble adjusting the breath in a way that feels comfortable. If that’s the case, you can choose another one of the topics that the Buddha recommends: the brahmavihāras, contemplation of the body, recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Saṅgha—anything that gives rise to a sense of enjoyment in being here. You need that sense of enjoyment because … 
  17. An Island of Concentration
     … The other four were the brahmavihāras: goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. What’s interesting is when the Buddha talked about the establishing of mindfulness to this monk, he said that when you’re focused on the breath this way, being mindful of the breath this way, you develop the concentration with rapture, with pleasure, without rapture, without pleasure, with directed thought, without directed thought … 
  18. A Sense of Time & Place
     … That’s why we have the contemplation of the body for lust, developing the brahmaviharas to guard against anger and ill will, contemplation of death to overcome laziness, and recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to give us encouragement on the path. There’s also recollection of our generosity and our virtue to reinforce our sense of self-worth. These are … 
  19. Equanimity & Action
     … After all, he does teach equanimity as part of the brahmavihāras, to go along with goodwill. When equanimity is a reflection on action, it’s not telling you to be passive. It’s just telling you to look carefully at things in terms of the principle of action: what you’ve done in the past, what you’re doing right now, and the results … 
  20. W.W.B.R.
     … Learn to look at your thoughts in just the same way and try whatever antidote the Buddha recommends, whether it’s the brahmaviharas or the contemplation of the body, contemplation of death, contemplation of not-self, inconstancy. All of these contemplations we tend to equate with the wisdom part of the practice, which we think should come after the concentration, but that’s not … 
  21. Think Calmly about Death
     … The right attitude basically comes from developing virtue, concentration, and discernment—and particularly concentration around the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes. Learn how to make your mind spacious. Have goodwill for all beings. There was the time when the Buddha had a wound in his foot. Devadatta had tried to kill him by rolling a rock off of a mountain, and a long splinter of … 
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