Search results for: "The Brahmavihara"

  1. Page 7
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. The Treasure of Equanimity
    Last year, when I was in France, I glanced through the chanting book printed by the group there, and they had the chant on the brahmaviharas, the sublime attitudes, like we have here. The problem was that, in the French translation, when they got to equanimity, it wasn’t, “All living beings are the owners of their actions.” It was, “May all living beings … 
  6. The Skill of Patience
     … the one on the brahmaviharas. You can sit here for a little while thinking thoughts of goodwill, “May I be happy. May all beings be happy.” And then ask yourself, “Do you really believe that? Do you really want all beings to be happy?” Remember what it means for beings to be happy. It’s not that you’re going to touch them with … 
  7. Educating Equanimity
     … Is this one where you can make a difference? Or is it one where you can’t? And given the way the brahmaviharas are set out—starting with goodwill, compassion, and empathetic joy before they get to equanimity—the basic message is that you work on your goodwill first, you work on your compassion first, you try to do something when you see there … 
  8. Potentials Past & Present
     … You may have noticed in the chants just now from the brahmaviharas: Goodwill is a chant that may all beings be happy. Compassion: “May those who are suffering put an end to their suffering.” Empathetic joy is, “May those who are happy not be deprived of the good fortune they have attained.” It’s all “may, may, may.” But when you get to equanimity … 
  9. Loving Yourself Wisely
     … So you want to make your mind expansive, make it into that river of water, which he defines first as expansive through the development of the brahmaviharas, your goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. You want to make those large. As he says in another place, you make them large like the river Ganges, large like the element of space, large like the earth, bigger … 
  10. Values
     … Or think about the *brahmavihāras, *or about death, that it could come at any time. That last contemplation is not meant to be a sole topic of meditation, though. The way the Buddha recommends it is that you think about the fact that death could come at any time so you’ve got work to do. What work do you need to do? What … 
  11. Joy in Getting It Right
     … With the brahmaviharas, we’re trying to take our human goodwill, which tends to be partial, and make it the goodwill of a high level of heavenly being—in other words, we’re making it universal. That requires verbal fabrication, mental fabrication, all the components of a good state of concentration. Generosity, virtue, and developing universal goodwill are the traditional forms of puñña, which … 
  12. The Wisdom of Equanimity
     … This is one of the reasons why equanimity is said to be the highest of the brahmaviharas, because, to be skillful, it requires a large element of wisdom. It’s a particular kind of acceptance. And it’s a particular kind of indifference. The acceptance here is that if you want happiness, you’ve got to do things to find that happiness. You accept … 
  13. Determined to Make a Difference
     … When we chant the brahmaviharas, we start out with the wish for happiness, “May I be happy,” a wish for all beings to be happy, a wish for all those who are suffering to put an end to their suffering, for those who are happy not to be separated from their happiness. Then we come to equanimity—there’s no may there. Everything else … 
  14. Investing in Noble Wealth
     … Then you reinforce that intention with goodwill, with all the brahmaviharas, developing these attitudes so that they really are genuine: developing goodwill in your breath so that you can embody a sense of goodwill; developing compassion in the breath. empathetic joy, equanimity around the breath, so that when you start extending these attitudes to other people, they really are embodied. They’re not just … 
  15. No One Size Fits All
     … There were some people who needed to focus on the unattractiveness of the body; others, on recollecting the Buddha or the brahmaviharas. Concentration is a matter of finding something the mind feels comfortable with, a place where it feels it can settle down and be at ease. So you have to explore which of the topics can be your home base. Again Ajaan Lee … 
  16. Infinity
     … The first, of course, has to do with the brahmaviharas, starting with goodwill. You wish all beings to be happy. Sometimes you hear the word metta translated as loving-kindness, but that doesn’t seem to do justice to the attitude the Buddha’s recommending. Pali has a separate word for love, which is pema, and the Buddha didn’t place his trust in … 
  17. The Lessons of Equanimity
     … One of the other skills he taught was the teaching on the brahmaviharas, or the sublime attitudes. That chant we had just now: It starts with “May I be happy. May all living beings be happy.” That’s goodwill. Then there’s compassion: “Any beings who are suffering, may they be released from their suffering.” Empathetic joy: “Those who are happy, may they not … 
  18. You Can Make a Difference
     … You start by developing the brahmavihāras—trying to develop goodwill for all, compassion for all, empathetic joy for all, equanimity for all. You learn to be virtuous, develop discernment, and train your mind so that it’s not overcome by pleasure or by pain. That skill of not being overcome by pleasure or pain relates directly to the practice of concentration. We do try … 
  19. Two Guardian Meditations
     … The Buddha also recommended the brahmavihāras—the sublime attitudes—for dealing with problems of ill will, harmfulness, resentment. Equanimity is there to deal with passion, but it can also deal with all kinds of other unhealthy attitudes. You just don’t react. There are many levels of equanimity. The most basic is the level that comes simply from making up your mind that you … 
  20. Old Kamma & New
     … This relates to the brahmaviharas. You want your goodwill to be all around. You want your ability to feel compassion to be all around. You want your ability to feel empathetic joy to be all around. And the same with your equanimity: all around. In other words, you want to be able to tap into these things whenever you need them. In cases where … 
  21. Seriously Happy
     … The meditation that the Buddha recommends right at the beginning is the development of the brahmaviharas: developing thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity for all beings. Of those, the first three are basically expressions of goodwill. Goodwill itself is a general wish for happiness. Compassion is what goodwill feels when it sees people who actually are suffering. You want them to be … 
  22. Load next page...