Search results for: "The Brahmavihara"

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  2. At the End of the Day
     … Several years back I was teaching a group of people the topic of the brahmaviharas, and we came across the passages where the Buddha is talking to two women who have lost their children, in a way to help them get over their grief. Someone in the group complained that the Buddha was saying that you shouldn’t let the women grieve. After all … 
  3. Refuge for All Beings
    When the Buddha teaches the practice of universal goodwill or the brahmaviharas as a whole, he does it in two main contexts. One, contexts in which you’ve been wronged by other people; and two, contexts in which you have wronged other people. It’s necessary in both. In the first context, it’s basically for your protection—not against their wrong doing, but … 
  4. Body Contemplation Is Compassionate
     … So there’s nothing in the contemplation of the body that’s in any way contradictory to the brahmaviharas. In fact, it’s part of your way of showing goodwill for yourself and goodwill for the people around you. The less lust you have, the less pride you have in your own body, then the less damage you’re going to do—both to … 
  5. Love is Conditional, Goodwill Is Not
     … Another meditation the Buddha taught to Rahula before teaching him breath meditation, though, was the brahmaviharas: thoughts of unlimited goodwill, unlimited compassion, unlimited empathetic joy, and unlimited equanimity. You want to make these attitudes without measure. In other words, you’re not going to be measuring out your goodwill, saying “I’m going to give this much to that person, but a little bit … 
  6. Hold on for All You’re Worth
    We had those chants on the brahmaviharas just now to put us in the right frame of mind to meditate. We have goodwill for ourselves, goodwill for other beings. In other words, for ourselves we want a happiness we can trust, one that’s worth the effort that goes into it. At the same time, we have goodwill for others. We don’t want … 
  7. Issues of Control
    We have the chant on the brahmaviharas—particularly the chant on goodwill—to make the mind expansive. It’s good to think goodwill for all beings several times a day, like that character in Through the Looking Glass who said he liked to think about two or three impossible things before breakfast every morning to open up his mind. We open up our minds … 
  8. The Ennobling Path
     … It might be the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; qualities of generosity, goodwill, any of the brahmaviharas ; the practice of virtue. Contemplate these things until the mind feels inspired. Once it gets lubricated, you can settle down with the breath again. And you find that the mind is willing to settle down and be still. So the practice of concentration is designed specifically … 
  9. Training the Mind to Train the Mind
     … Then there’s the reflection on the brahmaviharas, wishing all beings to be happy. Those who are suffering: May they end their suffering. Those who are already happy: May they continue in their happiness. You think about, of course, the fact that you are one of the beings you want to see happy. At the same time, if your happiness depends on making other … 
  10. Diagnosing the Mind
     … Sometimes it requires learning to take a different topic for your meditation for a while, like goodwill, equanimity, any of the brahmaviharas. Or you can use contemplation of death, or what they call the four guardian meditations. There’s recollection of the Buddha, which is for encouragement, to inspire you to practice; development of goodwill, when you’re dealing with anger; contemplation of the … 
  11. Sending Happiness
     … The second is to develop the brahmaviharas. So this is a good night for that kind of reflection. What kinds of mistakes would you like not to make again? And then as motivation to stick with that determination, develop goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, with the emphasis on the goodwill: wishing happiness for others, the people you’ve wronged, to remind yourself that … 
  12. When it’s Hard to Settle Down
     … The large river here stands for a mind that’s trained—specifically, trained in the brahmaviharas: goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—learning to extend these attitudes to all people, all beings, both for their benefit and for yours. For their benefit, sometimes you simply extend goodwill to other beings and they’ll feel it. There are other times when they won’t feel … 
  13. Friends with The Breath
     … This refers to the brahmaviharas, but also to training in virtue, training in discernment, training so that your mind isn’t overcome by pleasure or overcome by pain. These are all things we can do right now so that the salt of our past bad actions gets dissolved away. And the goodness of our current actions is like that broad river. So pay attention … 
  14. Restraint
     … In this case, you realize, “I can keep my mind from feeling hemmed in by giving it a more expansive state.” You can develop the brahmaviharas—starting with g**oodwill for everybody all over the world. Think about all the beings all through infinity, all the different galaxies, the huge universe for which you can have goodwill: “May all beings be happy.” Then bring … 
  15. Do Jhana
     … The Buddha also gives recommendations for how to develop the brahmaviharas, like we chanted just now: attitudes of unlimited goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Sometimes, when you’re sitting and meditating, the face of somebody you know may appear: somebody you like, somebody you don’t like, somebody from your past, somebody you don’t recognize at all. Your first reaction should always … 
  16. Cleaning up Your Personal Environment
     … When you try to maintain your precepts and all the other aspects of the practice as you deal with other people, the nourishment for that determination to act skillfully is greatly strengthened by developing the brahmaviharas. So try to make them part of your daily practice as well. Every morning when you wake up: thoughts of goodwill for everyone, without exception. Every night before … 
  17. Intent
     … This has to do with your practice of the brahmaviharas, and these start with the breath. As Ajaan Lee says, if you don’t have a sense of well-being inside when you spread goodwill, it’s like opening a water faucet where there’s no water. Just air comes out. And even though the flow of air may be cool in some ways … 
  18. Training the Committee
     … Goodwill and compassion, all the brahmaviharas, are another set of the guardian meditations. Think about how you’d like a happiness that doesn’t harm anybody, partly because you feel empathy with other beings and partly because you realize that if your happiness depended on other people’s suffering, it wouldn’t last. They would do what they could to destroy it. So you … 
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