Basics of Buddhism - 4 - The Four Boundless Qualities

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"Compassion and love, sympathetic 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

The Buddha taught his son, Rahula, to cultivate these four attitudes and actions to find deep peace.  They are called The Four Immeasurables, Boundless Qualities, The Four Sublime States, which are LOVE, COMPASSION, SYMPATHETIC JOY and EQUANIMITY,

The short prayer practice goes like this:

May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering

May all beings have sympathetic joy which is free from suffering

May all beings come to rest in the great equanimity which is beyond attachment or aversion to friend, enemy or stranger.

We start to say this prayer about everyone being happy and peaceful, and sometimes we don’t feel very 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 productive ways of viewing the world. 

(From Sharon Salzberg) Brahma-Viharas is a Pali word (original language of the Buddha) meaning “heavenly abode” or “best home.” The Buddha taught that practicing these four qualities leads to the “liberation of the heart which is love.”

• 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 non-judgmental and recognizes all suffering—our own and that of others—as deserving of tenderness.  Compassion is combined with wisdom to create right 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 another’s 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.