Search results for: "The Brahmavihara"

  1. Brahmaviharas on the Path
     … It was organized around the four noble truths, but then at the very end, as a kind of afterthought, it tacked on a chapter on the brahmaviharas. There was never any sense that the four noble truths and the brahmaviharas were in any way connected to each other at all. The brahmaviharas were just part of the Buddha’s social philosophy. The way the … 
  2. The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough
    There’s an idea that gained currency a while back—and it still pops up again every now and then tody—that the brahmavihāras are a complete path to nibbāna. If you develop one or four of them, that’s all you have to do to gain total release. The idea came from a scholar who was reading a sutta in the Canon where … 
  3. The Brahmaviharas & Karma
  4. Strength for the Brahmaviharas
  5. Tranquility, Insight, & the Brahmaviharas
  6. The Brahmaviharas Are Not Enough
     … In fact, the brahmaviharas as a set are not enough. Some books have been floating around recently, claiming that this was the secret teaching of the Buddha that somehow got lost by the tradition but has recently been uncovered: that all you have to do is practice the brahmaviharas, and they can take you all the way to nibbana. This interpretation is based primarily … 
  7. The Brahmaviharas Are Not a Complete Practice
     … That’s something you can’t learn from the brahmaviharas. You can apply that analysis to the brahmaviharas, but the brahmaviharas on their own—just sitting there, wishing thoughts of goodwill or whatever—are not going to accomplish that task. That’s why they’re not a complete practice. The brahmaviharas are useful in some ways, but a lot more is needed to really … 
  8. Verified Confidence
     … A couple of years back there was a movement to rewrite the Canon to say that the brahmaviharas were a complete practice. But as the Buddha himself said in many places in the Canon, the practice of the brahmaviharas, even though it leads to high levels of rebirth, doesn’t lead to dispassion unless you really look at the state of the mind that … 
  9. Brahmaviharas & Noble Truths
     … All the brahmavihāras are there, embodied in your practice, but we go beyond the brahmavihāras. There’s a passage where the Buddha talks about how, in a previous lifetime, he happened to be a king. The tradition within that line of kings was that as soon as you had your first white hair, you would abandon your kingdom, pass it over to your son … 
  10. Happy for People You Don’t Like
     … But if you just do the brahmaviharas, that’s as far as it takes you: to a very high level of being. It’s not release. As the Buddha said, the brahmaviharas on their own don’t lead to dispassion. They don’t lead to unbinding. But if you combine them with the factors for awakening, they can lead to unbinding. What this means … 
  11. The Brahmaviharas on the Path
     … This is particularly true when you’re working on developing the brahmaviharas. Ajaan Lee describes that the brahmaviharas as food for your precepts. And that’s how the Buddha presents them as well. There’s a passage where he talks about reflecting on the fact that you’ve made mistakes in the past. You’ve broken the precepts, harmed other people. The proper attitude … 
  12. Faith in Goodness
     … The Buddha focuses on the brahmaviharas, and particularly the brahmavihara of goodwill. But goodwill includes compassion and empathetic joy. You see people who are suffering, or who are creating the causes for suffering, and you don’t just leave them and say, “Well, they deserve to suffer.” You have compassion: May they find some way of ending their suffering. If there’s anything that … 
  13. Abandoning & Developing
     … Well, this is a good mind to be in—the mind of the brahmavihāras. You can also use the brahmavihāras as a background for developing the factors for awakening, because the brahmavihāras are a form of mindfulness. Based on that, you’re going to develop all the other factors for awakening. Analysis of qualities—in other words, analyzing what’s going on in your … 
  14. Unlimited Mind, Limited Resources
     … This means that when you practice the brahmaviharas, remember to develop all four parts of the practice. And make the practice all around. Include yourself. Having goodwill for yourself means that you have to know your strengths, your weaknesses, and your limitations. We try our best to expand our range of abilities, but everybody has limitations. As I say, even the past seven Buddhas … 
  15. Breath Teaches the Bramaviharas
     … So as we work with the breath, dealing with the problems of getting the breath to create a sense of well-being in the body, we’re learning a lot of lessons about all the brahmaviharas: how they apply to us right now, and how they apply to life in general, our engagement with the world. That way, the wish that begins the brahmaviharas … 
  16. Three Types of Equanimity
     … The first, of course, is equanimity in the brahmaviharas. This is the equanimity that realizes how even though you may have goodwill for all beings and compassion and empathetic joy, it’s not the case that everybody’s going to be happy or that they will be as happy as quickly as you might like. And there are times when no matter how much … 
  17. Empathetic Joy Is Ennobling
     … This is also why the Buddha includes in the brahmaviharas not only goodwill but also compassion and empathetic joy. Compassion is for when you see someone else suffering and you want to see that suffering end. You’re not going to take advantage of their weakness, you’re not going to add to their suffering. You may actually be in a position of power … 
  18. Brahmaviharas & the Breath
    Ajaan Lee, in all of his guides to meditation, would talk about how you have to start out with thoughts of goodwill—in fact, all the brahmaviharas: goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—as preparation for settling down with the breath. But he would also comment occasionally on how, when you’re developing thoughts, especially of goodwill, if there’s no sense of well … 
  19. Cooking the Present Moment
     … That refers, of course, to the brahmaviharas: having goodwill for all, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity for all. If you find that you’re suffering a lot from something that’s happening in your life, ask yourself: Are you lacking in these qualities? Which one are you lacking in? Where is the mind narrowing down? Are you jealous of other people’s good fortune … 
  20. When Ill Will Is in Fashion
     … Then you do the same with the brahmavihāras:** You start with goodwill, then on to compassion, empathetic joy, and then equanimity with directed thought and evaluation, with no directed thought and a modicum of evaluation, with no directed thought and no evaluation, with rapture, without rapture, with enjoyment, with equanimity. These are states that you can use as a basis for insight. Once the … 
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