Buddhism Teacher

Twenty Ten has begun and it’s beginning to look a lot like what we don’t want it to look like: devastating earthquakes, cruel terrorist attacks, senseless suffering from political wars, injustices from intolerance and frustration over Middle East challenges, world poverty, health care, water shortages, travel safety, global warming, etc., etc., etc.

But . . . look around.  You can see bravery, compassion, love, and lots of caring, enlightened and hard-working individuals, organizations and societies striving to make things better . . . and being happy when seeing others happy, people they don’t even know.  While we need to be aware of all the bad stuff going on in our world so we can try to deal with it skillfully, we need also to know about the good stuff so we can enjoy life.  Therefore, let’s focus on that for a moment.

Some 2500 years ago the Buddha, witnessing the condition of his then known world, knew that suffering was rampant and that although it was difficult to eliminate, it wasn’t impossible. 

Faced with many of the same challenges still with us today, the Buddha taught the cause of the suffering and the way out of it.  To help people to cope with life’s natural realities, he developed a teaching that today is just as valid as it was then; he taught the Brahmavihāras of Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity.  These states of consciousness also are known as the Four Immeasurables and the Four Sublime Mental Conditions.

The type of love the Buddha was referring to is called Metta in the ancient language of Pali.  It means loving-kindness, not just the feeling of it, but a reflection of it, an action.  And not just toward other people, but also toward oneself.  Expressed in an affirmation or prayer:  May all beings always be content and satisfied with life, and may they possess within them the ability to cause themselves and others to be content and satisfied with life.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard Cutler called this the attaining of “The Art of Happiness.”

The kind of compassion of which the Buddha spoke also includes a reflection of it, an action.  In Pali the word is Karuna and here’s the affirmation or prayer:  May all beings always be free from dukkha (unsatisfactoriness, suffering) and its causes - among them desire, attachment, greed, anger, hate and ignorance, and may they always be able to act upon their feelings of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

Sympathetic joy in Pali is Somanassa. It means being happy over the happiness or joy that others experience.  A good example is how you feel when you see the reaction of a person receiving the thoughtful gift you gave . . . sometimes you’re even happier than you are when you receive a gift.  Here’s the affirmation for that mental state: May all beings always experience glad-mindedness, bliss and happiness, and may they enjoy sympathetic joy, the joy one receives from witnessing the happiness of others.

Equanimity means accepting things as they are, without judgment.  Instead of judging things as being good or bad, right or wrong, pleasant or unpleasant, etc., one can analyze in order to arrive at a better understanding of the person or situation.  In Pali it’s called Upekkha and includes the practice of tolerance, understanding and patience.  Affirm it with this:  May all beings always be free from the poisons of judgment, attachment and anger, and may they always understand that things are as they are, but not indifferent and unwilling to make them better.

So what do you think?  Doesn’t that sound like some positive approaches for twenty-ten . . . or for any and every year?  Affirming and practicing these four sublime and wise approaches to living, these mental states whose benefits and rewards are indeed immeasurable, can truly improve one’s quality of life.  Something to think about isn’t it . . . or to act upon?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Buddhanature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.