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THE
BRAHMA VIHARA
MEDITATION
Venerable Namgyal
Rinpoche
April 4, 1974
In
the Buddhist Theravadin teaching there are forty classical
meditations. Key amongst these is the Brahma Vihara, sometimes
called the Divine Abidings, to which the 4 Brahma-Vihara
belong. Brahma is the Pali and Sanskrit word for god or
gods and Vihara basically means to live. Thus, Brahma
Vihara suggests a living with the gods, or living in a
god-like state. The phrase is sometimes translated as
the divine or sublime abodes of the spirit. In Pali, with
English translation, they are the meditations on; metta,
love or all-embracing friendliness; karuna, compassion;
mudita, sympathetic joy; and upekkha, detachment. Usually
these four are practiced in that specific order, just
as it is considered that they unfold in life in this order
as well.
The
meditation on metta is concerned with the development
of an all-embracing friendliness rather than love of a
sexual nature or 'falling in love'. The word metta comes
from 'mitta'which means friend. One of the first prerequisites
of the spiritual path according to the Buddha is 'Kalyana
mitta', suitable friends. One must distinguish the quality
of friendship from that of passionate love of a more overly
sexual character, which is generally associated with feelings
of possessiveness, exclusiveness, and overwhelming states.
Friendliness is something lighter, less directional and
more embracive. It is worn with more ease than is passionate
love.
Some
eastern teachers have pointed out that metta is basically
a very cool, passive state somewhat like a basic feeling
of ease. It should not be thought of as something that
is particularly active or directed, but rather as a foundation,
comfortably rotund. It is a state of wishing well to everyone
you meet in the course of the day. This sense is the first
prerequisite for those who wish to walk the holy path.
The goal of the meditation on metta is to become equally
friendly to all sentient beings. In such a state there
could not be any anxiety in one's meeting with new or
old acquaintances or situations. Once metta has been established
in one's being one of the results is that a greater knowing
develops. From this point you can go on to explore the
two active qualities: karuna and mudita.
In
the exploration of your world you will begin to notice
that all beings go through strong emotional uprisings,
the strongest of which is suffering. By identification
with the suffering one develops compassion. Compassion
cannot be maintained in a hysterical reaction, it rests
on coolness of being. You cannot talk about compassion
separate from a quality of calm and clarity as well as
an active application of skill-in-means. Feeling no identification
with the suffering of others can't lead to effective action
unless you are able to avoid being overwhelmed by the
situation. For example, by ego-identifying with the soldier
in the fields whose guts are hanging from his body there
is little chance that one could go beyond hysterical weeping
or fainting from fear, which really doesn't help the wounded
person at all. However if an army surgeon comes along,
someone who has had great experience with human suffering,
he would not allow an emotional reaction to overwhelm
his consciousness. He might suture the wound in a cold-minded
way, thus his intervention would be effective. This is
the central understanding of the mantra OM MANI PADME
HUM. Mani is the compassionate mind which is clear, still
and centered. It is a jewel. Padme is the moving part,
the flowing energy which knows what to do and how to do
it.
If
you have a friend gravely ill in hospital and you wish
to think of that being in a compassionate way, it would
seem, according to the understanding of that mantra, that
you ought to do something active. Since you cannot actually
perform an operation yourself except in the direst of
emergencies maybe the only thing left for you to do is
send waves of metta, envelop the person in a healing ray
through meditation. Certainly you wouldn't visit beings
in a hospital and weep hysterically at their bedsides,
adding further to their discomfort! Give support through
loving words, a friendly greeting, or the gift of joy,
or a toy. It is always skillful not to be dramatic, not
to have the big solution to everyone's problems, including
your own. In fact to have all your own answers is simply
masochistic. Sometimes a mediocre but well-meaning doctor
has more success through friendliness than the most brilliant
technician. There are other planes of healing beyond the
obvious ones.
The
brahma vihara that is largely neglected by Buddhists is
mudita. This is usually rather awkwardly translated as
"sympathetic joy". I say awkwardly because for
many people the word "sympathetic" has connotations
of illness or disaster, whereas what is meant here is
more like empathetic joy or shared joy, being happy because
someone else is happy. This is a most important meditation,
especially because so many people seem to want to go overboard
on compassion. If you only look for suffering, constantly
only seeking and dealing with suffering you begin to think
that that is all there is and soon there is no hope of
anything else existing. In reality, the aim of compassion
is to overcome suffering, to break through to joy.
Occasionally
a spontaneous bubbling occurs in beings, a laughter arises
which is very liberating. Occasionally the bird gets out
of its cage and flies freely. When you hear the laughter
of children and enter into that, or when you see a young
couple's love for one another, or an elder person's constructive
discoveries and you share their joy, your life becomes
richer. Whenever you appreciate another beings' happiness,
or someone's serene satisfaction at seeing something beautiful,
there is a growing of the spirit in your being. This is
an extremely important state and by fostering it you will
develop much more quickly towards the enlightened understanding.
Many
beings spontaneously move towards entering into the joy
of another but then defilements arise to hold them back
from this and they are sidetracked into such unfortunate
states as envy or criticism. Joy is not something you
have to deserve; it is something that bubbles up unsummoned.
It is a gift. You should be happy that for a moment someone
has been able to escape from their suffering when you
see pleasure in another. It should delight you when your
"enemies" experience joy. If you could see your
enemies as human beings, suffering and in need, you would
have no enemies. You have to understand that the bad in
beings is usually caused by forces beyond their control.
There must be more than an outward turning of the cheek
while clinging to bitterness within if you are sincere
about liberation. There must be seeing with depth compassion.
From
the motivation to good and friendliness that develops
through these first three of the four great meditations
you become a well-wisher to mankind. The wishing well
fulfills your life wish to awaken. Once set in motion
this state of being cannot be hindered. There is a continuous
dialogue between the compassion of Chenresi and the joy
of Vajrasattva. The great work consists of raising compassion
to joy and through this work 'upekkha', detachment, comes
into being. Perhaps we might define this as holy indifference
rather than detachment: indifference with serenity. There
are two approaches one can have to life situations: hedonism
or involvement in openness, sharing. If you are essentially
a defensive being you hate anyone who interferes with
you. You aren't interested in whether others are happy
or unhappy, are born or die. This is hedonistic indifference,
forced detachment. But there is a second type of indifference
that manifests as a serene presence through all manifestations
of life, a constant awareness through all ups and downs.
Holy
serenity comes from awareness. It is the detachment of
a saint who moves equally unhindered through the noise
and music of life. This gives freedom to adapt, change,
alter and direct all beings and all things to the awakening.
It is the state of absolute non-fear. The Bodhisattva
pledges to enter all states of consciousness, to bring
all beings through to awakening. He must be equally capable
of sporting himself in heaven and bearing the torments
of hell. A true Bodhisattva is serene when dealing with
a schizophrenic just as he is joining in with the bubbling
laughter of the rishis who (it is said) always fly through
the heavens with matted hair-such is their nature!
Mudita
often turns into defensiveness when it is practiced. Beings
unfortunately find this quality hard to develop, just
as they find it difficult to practice sympathetic joy
over another's good fortune without falling prey to greed.
The reason for this is that people don't understand that
momentary well-being is just that, momentary and transient,
based on objects that can only give temporal satisfaction.
An object that gives joy can only hint at the far greater
joy that is the birthright of every human being. The successes
of life give momentary glory, they should be considered
only as a sign of what is to come. If one sees clearly
one must know that only a permanent God can give permanent
satisfaction.
If
you so choose you can turn any situation into a moment
of humour and good will. You can utilise all the negatives
you encounter as a challenge, turn difficult situations
around to your advantage. Why do so many people do the
opposite? Why turn an opportunity for sympathetic joy
into envy? Jealousy arises basically when beings don't
see the possibilities of their own good and so they become
involved in fighting for the transient rather than for
the eternal.
Mudita
is active in the sense of willing oneself to identify,
to enter into another's joy. The best medicine for the
alleviating of human suffering is to bring beings to a
state of joy. Freudian analysis is not enough insofar
as it emphasises the removing of illness. When the illness
is removed, however, there is a natural tendency for the
force of joy to take over, and this should be augmented
by conscious direction of the mind to joyousness. When
you perform compassionate acts you bring about joy, and
joy is of itself the most active of forces. It is a scattering
of seeds, it is unfolding. The colour of joy is yellow.
It is a sort of gravitational thing, like a marble rolling
down a hill. With joy many things can be accomplished
very easily. It is hardly something you have to make effort
to practice except for the effort of maintaining awareness,
to notice joy in others and to enter into it. You can
attain great strength from joy. It is not compassionate
to yourself to remain totally obsessed with your problems.
Don't you begin to understand how limited your existence
has become?
All
beings should be raised to victory, to glory and joy.
Great mistakes have been made by beings that have identified
with the goal of their own ego, or their nation's destiny
rather than seeing the goal as God. Certainly in any world
religion there must be a note of fascism: enthusiasm is
needed to embark on a victorious march. There must be
a vista which makes demands on you, which brings out the
heroism in your being. In the opera "Siegfried"
by Wagner there is a beautiful description of the hero's
dialogue with the anima. Siegfried confronts the woman
who has all knowledge and all strength except the strength
to dare. Later in the "Gotterdammerung", when
both have been united and consumed by fire, the Rhine
overflows, revealing its treasure, and all is golden.
There has to be this victory motif, along with a communal
sharing of sympathy for others: Gentleness and loving,
and the Elysian fields of joy. Fascism, democracy, and
communism must all be present (and well-balanced) in the
religious life. There is no point in making demands on
students unless they want to respond, unless they want
to bring forth from their being a kind of spiritual professionalism.
You can only touch beings who want to succeed, who think
in terms of victory. Will you give up at the slightest
difficulty or will you triumph over all!
Somewhere
in every being there is a steely hardness. Where are you
applying that in your life? There is an imperial will
in every being, an obstinacy that even the most hedonic
person has. How else could some of you keep your masks
on for so long? Apply this principle for your profit;
not for profit or power over others, but for triumph over
the weakness of your own being and for the problems of
life.
There
is nothing so discouraging for a teacher as to be met
with a student who wants to be a perpetual failure. Beings
like that have such ego-difficulties! They think that
the world owes them a living and if they don't get it
how they weep and wail, and gnash their teeth as if they
had been cast into outer darkness. You must practice the
path of righteousness. And you will fail, so you practice
again and fail again, but you will learn to bear the mantle
of life with goodwill through this process. And then one
day, surprisingly you will find that you have succeeded.
Here,
in the relationship with the guru, what you are embarked
upon is the most difficult task on earth. Billions of
years have gone into making this undertaking possible.
Not billions of years of your effort, but of the effort
of nature. It is not a snap. It is a conquest over the
self, over the problems of life, over the very structure
of mind. Fortunately you have the talent to succeed. Every
human being has the talent to awaken. What remains is
hard work. Like the parable told by Christ, every being
must negotiate with his talents, invest them. Some will
study science and get back ten talents for the one they
had, some will get back one hundred. In this teaching
you are asked to bring your talent back a thousand-fold.
So it is a hard task.
Every
time you fail in meditation just wipe your nappies and
carry on. The first sign of ego weaklings is that they
conduct their spiritual life in spurts. They do prostrations
like an orgasm, with no continuum of stability. Stability
is really the greatest requirement of the spiritual life.
Pay attention to details, day by day, and the big problems
will solve themselves.
First
edited by Cecilie Kwiat
Re-edited by K Senge Gyaltsen, Sakya Shasanadhara, (Wesley
Knapp),
Of the Sakya Namgyal Archive - Markham, March 2005
For Olivier, Michael, Juniper, Micah and Radhi
May this work benefit them and through them, all other
beings.
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