BV-Inter-relationships Among the Brahma Viharas

And these Brahma Viharas are on the side of the wing of compassion. We have the two wings of Buddhist philosophy, and one of them is the wing of wisdom, and The other is the wing of compassion, and we need the heart practices very much in our practice because without them the practice gets very dry and intellectual. Uh, you can have great clarity of mind but still not have concern for the suffering of the world.

And I just want to start this talk with a recognition of the war that’s going on in Iran and spreading around the Middle East. And it’s one of so many wars, so many places of conflict in the world. And one of the most ancient texts of Buddhism is the Dhammapada, and it starts off with, hatred never ceases.

Hatred. By love alone does it cease. And I don’t think we even have to get into the realm of politics to know that there are people who are suffering because of war.

And so to keep that in mind as we go through this talk, we’ll be practicing each one of the four brahmavidharas, uh, to keep that awareness that there are people who are being killed right now, and to open our hearts to everyone, everyone involved. Nyanaponika Thera was a German Buddhist who died in 1994 at the age of 93, and he wrote about the interrelationships of the four sublime states, or the brahmaviharas. The first one is metta, or loving kindness, then karuna, or compassion, then mudita, sympathetic joy, and finally upekkha, equanimity.

But before we explore the interactions among the four divine abodes, that the Buddha taught to open the heart. Let us review each one in turn and briefly practice them. So those of you who’ve been practicing for a while know that metta is a mental state more than a feeling or a reaction.

Practicing loving kindness purifies the mind. It releases fear and doubt. Over time, we develop unconditional friendliness, and we let go of negative judgments about ourselves and others.

We always start the metta practice with ourselves. Knowing that until we can include ourselves in the loving kindness, it’s very difficult to include others. We learn slowly through these heart practices to receive life as it is without trying to manipulate it, or change it according to our preferences.

We know that life flows like an eternal river, and we are happiest when we flow and follow its natural currents without resisting. As we learn to bring appreciation to each pleasant moments and patience to each unpleasant moment, we foster contentment and inner peace. And when we do feel inner peace, it’s very difficult to promote violence.

The Buddha taught that people who love themselves do not harm others intentionally. So it’s very worthwhile to act like your best friend and offering yourself friendship. We long to be recognized for who we really are, but we resist exploring what lies beneath our idealized self-image.

We all have kind of a self-image that we like to project in the world. And what the Buddha was saying is, sit with that, look at that, but you are so much more than that. You’re born with innate Buddha nature.

When we can accept ourselves just as we are, we’re freer to change any unhealthy habits. And we all have unhealthy habits. We all have ways we sabotage ourselves.

In traditional Metta practice, we send loving kindness in turn to ourselves, to loved ones, to a neutral person, someone we don’t know very well, to a difficult person, someone who we find hard to include in our hearts, and finally to all beings everywhere. We use 4 simple, honest phrases that we plant like seeds in the heart. In a brief practice session right now, sense your heart resonating with the last word in each phrase.

Just sit comfortably, no need to sit in any special way, and close your eyes. And become aware of the area around your heart. May I be peaceful and happy.

May I be healthy in body and mind. From inner and outer harm, may I be safe. From all suffering, may I be free.

Really take that in. May I be peaceful and happy. May I be healthy in body and mind.

From inner and outer harm, may I be safe. From all suffering, may I be free. And now, since this is abbreviated, we’re going to visualize someone in the Middle East right now.

Someone we don’t know, someone who may be scared in a bomb shelter. May you be peaceful and happy. May you be healthy in body and mind.

From inner and outer harm, may you be safe. From all suffering, may you be free. This is not abstract.

These practices are palpably affecting you, and over time they make a huge difference. After metta, the second of the four brahmaviharas is compassion. You can open your eyes and just listen to this part.

It’s known as karuna in the Pali language of the Buddhist teachings. Compassion practice directs loving kindness specifically towards suffering. It develops an attitude of non-judgmental care.

So we’re not saying, I care about Anne, but I don’t care about Mark. It’s not choosing one or the other. It’s all-inclusive.

And sometimes that all-inclusiveness is challenging. My teacher Koshin has a little statue of some political figures who are quite difficult on his altar to include everybody, everybody. So compassion goes beyond our likes and dislikes for a person who’s suffering and for the causes that have led to that suffering.

So we’re not judging, we’re not saying, oh, the person was homeless and addicted and didn’t live right and so deserves that suffering. We’re not judging it. It entails opening to the universal nature of suffering.

Anyone here not suffer during your life? Dubious. We all do. And we basically suffer because we want reality to be different than it is.

We all would like it the way we’d like it. We naturally feel compassion when the heart trembles in resonance with someone else’s pain and suffering. And we’ve all seen how young children are intuitively drawn to help.

If there’s a wounded animal, they go right over to hug it or to help care for it. Or if they see somebody crying, they go right over to comfort. Ideally, we would all like to care for all beings in our path.

As a mother nurtures her beloved child. Kuan Yin and Avalokiteshvara are archetypal figures, the ones who hear the cries of all the sufferings in the world with unconditional acceptance and equilibrium. And you know that Mark and I have had the great fortune to be with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara.

And it is real. That guy loves everybody unconditionally. And you feel the joy in his presence.

It’s absolutely, you can touch it. Not caught in identification or attachment, and you neither turn away nor try to fix anything. So they don’t meddle, they just beam compassion, listening intuitively, sensing wise ways to ease the burden of suffering.

Reminding us that bearing witness can be as effective as taking action. So we’ll do a little brief practice and close your eyes again. Try to visualize in front of your heart someone you know who is suffering in this moment.

If no image comes, simply sense a caring connection resonating in your heart. Notice whenever pity or sorrow or detachment or irritation arise. Try to let those mental states pass away without judging yourself.

And I’ll give you some short phrases for you to repeat silently. Whenever you catch your mind wandering, reconnect with the heartfelt meaning of the phrases. Continue concentrating on the one you’ve chosen to receive your compassion I care about your pain.

May you be free from suffering. May you find peace. I care about your pain.

May you be free from suffering. May you find peace. And now visualize yourself dealing with a painful situation.

We must have compassion for our own struggles. And repeat silently these phrases: I care about my pain. May I be free from suffering.

May I find peace. I care about my pain. May I be free from suffering.

May I find peace. And staying in touch with your heart, you can open your eyes, and we will now deal with the third Brahma Vahara. Mudita, sympathetic joy.

That means to be favorably inclined towards others, to have appreciation for the joy and beauty in life, take pleasure in other people’s happiness and success, moving beyond feelings of jealousy or envy. Mudita cultivates enough contentment to share with others. So when you hear about somebody having success, instead of saying, oh shoot, I would really have liked that for me, it’s no, fabulous, there’s enough to go around actually.

The Dalai Lama speaks of mudita as a kind of enlightened self-interest. Despite growing— showing great compassion for the suffering of other beings, he laughs frequently. He shares the joy of all of those around him.

At the age of 90, he has the relaxed facial muscles of a 20-year-old. He clearly benefits from his capacity to appreciate others’ happiness. Mudita is associated with the divine smile on the Buddha’s face, a smile that persists despite deep knowledge of the world’s pain and suffering, a smile that conveys hope, fearlessness, and tremendous love.

By attuning us to what is positive and pleasant about our actual situation, mudita practice often leads to a state of gratitude. So we’ll do a brief practice, and you can close your eyes again. Imagining a beloved person, someone you know who’s experiencing a period of joy or good fortune or success right now.

Either visualize or sense the presence of that person with you right now and repeat silently the following mudita phrases. Directing them towards this beloved person who’s having a moment in the sun. I am happy that you’re happy.

May you enjoy happiness and abundance. May your happiness and good fortune continue. May your happiness May your happiness and good fortune increase.

I’m happy that you’re happy. May you enjoy happiness and abundance. May your happiness and good fortune continue.

May your happiness and good fortune increase. And staying in touch with that mudita, open your eyes. And the fourth divine abode is equanimity, or upekkha.

This has to do with the clarity of wisdom, with being fearlessly open-minded without judgments, desire, or aversion. Equanimity implies accepting the reality of life’s highs and lows, developing an attitude of inner peace amidst inevitable change. Upekkha is considered a wise practice for balancing the mind and liberating ourselves from reactivity and attachment.

It takes regular practice to be able to open the heart in a stable, sustained way, letting go of preferences. Sometimes equanimity is confused with indifference. Oh, whatever.

But it’s really very different. It’s in touch with the heart. It’s not indifferent.

That’s considered its near enemy because it’s confused with it sometimes. Oh, I don’t care. When we are indifferent, the heart is closed and it’s defended.

To protect itself. But equanimity stems from a very open, compassionate heart. So take a moment to reflect upon the benefits of a balanced mind, the gift of bringing a peaceful heart to the world around you, and then silently repeat these phrases to yourself.

You can close your eyes again. Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I calm my mind.

May I be balanced. May I be at peace. Sense yourself quieting in body and mind.

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I calm my mind. May I be balanced.

May I be at peace. And then expand this sense of tranquility into a spacious equanimity, remembering that all created things arise and pass away. All joys, sorrows, pleasant and painful events, all people, Buildings, animals, nations, whole civilizations arise and pass away.

Let yourself rest amidst all that is impermanent. With a deep exhalation, you can stay in touch with your heart and slowly open your eyes. So finally, we’ve come to the place where we’re ready to review Nayana Panika Thera’s insights about how these four brahma-viharas are interconnected.

Unbounded love, or metta, protects compassion from discrimination or aversion so that no beings are excluded from our caring. To equanimity, metta brings selflessness its boundless nature. And when that is transformed and channeled skillfully, it strengthens equanimity’s power of keen perception and wise restraint.

Compassion prevents metta and mudita from such a narrow focus. On love and joy that the existence of dreadful suffering is forgotten. So it’s like we must keep our hearts open to the sorrows of the world.

Compassion is a reminder that even amidst our celebrations, our delight, happiness coexists with loss, In fact, sorrow and pain will continue to arise until suffering is completely uprooted at the attainment of nirvana. And that’s going to take a while, I think. With compassion, metta and mudita avoid states of self-satisfied complacency or jealousy, or privilege.

The practice of compassion expands the scope of love. It motivates sympathetic joy to grow into a truly boundless state. Compassion keeps equanimity from sliding into selfish isolation.

Or into indifference, its near enemy. Sympathetic joy brings mild serenity, equanimity. It softens its sternness.

And mudita, this joy, sympathetic joy, protects compassion from being overwhelmed by the extent of the world’s suffering. So sometimes we can just collapse because it seems too much, and the mudita is necessary so we don’t just despair. Sympathetic joy relieves the mind’s tension.

It soothes the painful burning of a compassionate heart that feels too much woe. With mudita, compassion avoids melancholic brooding or futile sentimentality. Sympathetic joy spurs compassion into active empathy so that we act upon our caring.

The Buddha wisely perceived that our hearts need the practices of all four divine abodes to become fully mature and liberated.