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The Four Boundless Qualities, the Brahma Viharas


For Week 5 of Basics of Buddhism, Id like to talk a little about a foundational teaching in
Buddhism called the Four Immeasurables, its also called the four sublime states of being or
sublime attitudes, originally called The Brahma Viharas in Pali and Sanskrit.
Brahma-Vihara means heavenly abode or best home. The Buddha taught that practicing
these four qualities leads to awakening our heart to be more fully alive with love, tenderness and
openness. I love Sharon Salzbergs description of these sublime attitudes:

Loving-kindness is both friendship and also gentle, like a gentle rain that falls
indiscriminately upon everything. Loving-kindness practice is a steady, unconditional
sense of connection that touches all beings without exception, including ourselves. The
Buddha first taught it as an antidote to fear.
Compassion is our caring human response to suffering. A compassionate heart is nonjudgmental and recognizes all sufferingour own and that of othersas deserving of
tenderness. Compassion is combined with wisdom to create wise action.
Sympathetic Joy is the realization that others happiness is inseparable from our own. We
rejoice in the joy of others and are not threatened by anothers success.
Equanimity is the spacious stillness of mind that provides the ground for the boundless
nature of the other three qualities. This radiant calm enables us to ride the waves of our
experience without getting lost in our reactions.

'Compassion and love, joy and equanimity are not mere luxuries.
As the source both of inner and external peace,
they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species.'
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
Here is the short prayer for these qualities:
May I and all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness,
May I and all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering
May I and all beings have sympathetic joy which is free from suffering
May I and all beings come to rest in the great equanimity which is beyond attachment or
aversion to friend, enemy or stranger.
The Buddha taught the following to his son Rahula
(from "Old path white clouds" by Thich Nhat Hahn):
"Rahula,
Practice loving kindness to overcome anger. Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness
to others without demanding anything in return.
Practice compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of
others without expecting anything in return.
Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the
happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success.
Practice equanimity to overcome prejudice. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one
thing only to chase after another.
I call these the four immeasurables. Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of
vitality and happiness for others."
The practice of the Four Immeasurables calls upon each of us first to try and cultivate these four
feelings and actions. In these practices, sometimes we dont initially feel very loving or joyful.
We start to say this prayer about everyone being happy and peaceful, and we dont feel very

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happy or peaceful ourselves. Just sit with that reaction. Feel it completely, then go back to the
practice of visualizing feeling loving and kind. This practice is not to whitewash over
longstanding emotions. RATHER, it is to uproot those old habitual emotions, see them for what
they are, and replace them with kinder and more helpful ways of viewing the world.
Lets start with a deeper definition of Love. There are is the kind of love that many of us have
experience. That love when we see someone or something. I want that person, I want that car,
that thing. This kind of love is more like lust and greedit doesnt always have anything to do
with focusing on the other persons happiness, or at least only at the point at which it intersects
with your own. Love, in this practice, is Love without attachment. It represents divine,
unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love.
Next, compassion is described as an unselfish emotion which gives one a sense of urgency in
wanting to help others. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche often added that this is not idiot
compassion, where we feel we must over-give of ourselves and our money, which may come
from a place of our own feeling of lack or poverty or guilt. Compassion in this sense, is first
opening up the feeling that we are all inter-connected, therefore all suffering together, then
through this feeling of inter-connectedness, NOT shutting down to others pain, and taking
appropriate action to help alleviate their suffering, which sometimes is no action at all. Brene
Brown adds in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, that compassion is also about setting clear
boundaries, giving of ourselves, but also giving to ourselves the space and care we need.
Third is Sympathetic Joy. This is the joy we experience for others, when others gain. Do you
recall hearing that a co-worker got a raise or a new job, and perhaps, just perhaps, instead of
feeling joy, you might have felt jealousy or frustration? Cultivating sympathetic joy is a way to
clearly see where were holding on to our selves and our habitual clinging, and to let go, even
just a little, to rejoice in the good fortune of others.
Lastly, is equanimity, and in fact, in a longer teaching on The Four Immeasurables, this quality
is sometime taught first, with the idea that when we can first clearly see our clinging, aversion
and ignorance to all things and people, even to our selves, we can at that point, begin to realize
a better way of living, through non-preference and open curiosity, viewing all as equal. This
does not mean we treat everything single person and thing exactly equal, because certain
situations and certain people need different responses. We can start from a place equanimity,
wanting everyone, including ourselves, to experience living in that place of desiring the best for
all beings.
The cultivation of Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity is a way to FIRST see more clearly how
we are interacting in the world, and SECOND to explore a new way of being open and tender to
ourselves and the world, and THIRD to fully embody these experiences in everyday life.
I am the place where Love shines through.
Love and I are one, not two.
Love needs me where and as I am.
I need not fear, nor fret, nor plan.
When I can be relaxed and free,
Love and can its plan of Love through me.

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