The Four Immeasurables

Kindness - Compassion - Joy - Equanimity. When these four qualities are cultivated they are said be a powerful antidote to negative mind states. These teachings are found in several different Buddhist texts, including the Metta Sutra.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Daniel.

I host this podcast Sharpening the Mind.

I am a Buddhist meditation teacher in Kansas City.

These teachings will always be given free of charge.

But if you feel compelled to make a donation,

There's a link in the show notes.

Thank you for listening and have a good day.

Hello,

I'm Daniel.

I am going to tell you about a teaching called that we call the four immeasurables.

The four immeasurables.

It's also sometimes called the four divine abodes and I think that's too I'm not crazy about the word immeasurable but I'm really not I really don't like the phrase divine abodes like that sounds really just extremely miserable.

But I'm not going to go into that.

I'm going to go into that just extremely myth mythological but the reason that they're called the four divine abode abodes is they're considered this is considered really important.

What this is is a list of virtues that help us specifically live in harmony with the world around us.

The Brahma Vahara is the original term that we've translated as immeasurables and I've heard it as immeasurable minds and I don't know that's fine.

So I'm just going to give a talk on what those are and that will be it.

So these are a list of the four virtues that are supposed to help us be in harmony with the world around us,

Especially with the people around us.

Okay.

So they are compassion,

Loving kindness,

Sympathetic joy,

And equanimity.

Compassion,

Loving kindness,

Sympathetic joy,

And equanimity.

Sometimes they're listed as this is a version I really like.

Kindness,

Compassion,

Equanimity,

Appreciation.

So in that list it's appreciation instead of sympathetic joy and it's kindness instead of loving kindness,

Which is good because loving kindness is kind of a clunky term and I don't know how that became the standard translation of this word,

But my tree of the word my tree,

But that's where we are.

So.

First of all,

We're probably wondering what's the difference between compassion and kindness.

Aren't they the same right?

So I'm going to go one by one through these and just explain what they are so.

Kindness loving kindness is.

Wishing for good things to happen to ourselves and others wishing for good things to happen to ourselves and others so.

That's really positive right.

It's having a it's having a.

A kind of positive intention for the world around you and it's not.

It's not like oh,

I'm so happy for you.

It's like you really want it and you really care about good things happening to other people.

Okay.

That is loving kindness or kindness.

And the second one is compassion and that is kind of the flip side kind of the other side of the coin that is not wanting bad things to happen.

To yourself and other people so kindness is I want you know I want you to get that promotion.

I want you to get a raise.

I want you to have your needs met.

I want you to.

Get the things you want,

I want you to get the things you want.

I want you to get the date with the person you want to go on a date with.

I want you to have the positive relationship with your kids that you want to have right.

That's kindness and then compassion is.

The darker the darker side,

I don't want the dark things to happen to you.

I don't want you to lose your job.

I don't want you to get hurt.

I don't want you to get sick right.

That's compassion.

And it's important that it applies to ourselves and to others because a lot of the time we we might just only think about other people and that's no good.

We need to think we are people too and this is about caring.

About people.

Caring about people and we're people right so we care about ourselves too.

So we strive to develop compassion and kindness.

I want to may you be happy is sort of kindness and may you be free from suffering is compassion.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

And the third one is sympathetic joy.

Sympathetic joy and that is.

Essentially.

When.

Good things.

Are happening for other people.

We are happy about it.

When good things are happening for other people.

We are happy about it.

So.

And a lot of us have a kind of sympathetic joy when good things are happening for our spouse or our kids or our best friends right.

This is not that though.

This is I mean this is that but this is extending that so.

If we can celebrate and be happy about the success and joy of everyone then we can be happy all the time.

So it's about taking joy in the happiness of others even not just the people close to us but people we don't really care about and even people we don't like taking joy in their success.

It's joy instead of jealousy.

Joy instead of jealousy.

We don't want to admit this about ourselves,

But a lot of the time when other people are really successful,

We might you know be like oh,

I'm so happy for you but have a little subtle undercurrent of jealousy and think why not me?

Why not me?

Where's when it's gonna be my turn right?

We might we might have that and that is not what we want.

We want to be able to take joy really take joy in the success of others.

And again because if we can do that,

We're gonna have a lot of harmony in our lives.

We're gonna have a lot have a lot of harmony.

We're going to be happier.

We're going to people will appreciate us as well.

If we if we really are taking joy in their success,

People can tell.

People can tell and that's really meaningful to people in the same way that if you really care about their happiness and you really care about their suffering.

If you really take joy in their success,

People notice that and they care.

That is meaningful.

It's very very meaningful.

So that's what we wanna learn how to do is take joy in the success of others.

Take joy in the success of others.

And then the final one is called equanimity.

Equanimity and this is probably.

It may be the hardest ones one to wrap our heads around and this is more about.

About ourselves,

Although we should also wish for this for others,

We should also wish for this for others.

Equanimity is the quality of mind that is undisturbed by the storms of life.

Quality of mind that's undisturbed by the storms of life.

So what does that mean?

It means that when things go wrong,

We if we have equanimity,

We don't fall apart.

If we have equanimity,

We keep our **** together and we don't fall apart.

And if we don't have equanimity,

Then when things go wrong,

It ruins our day.

If you've ever had the experience where something goes wrong at work and you get home and you're mean to the kids,

Right,

That is a failure.

That is a lack of equanimity.

Equanimity is the quality of mind that lets you just.

Take a minute,

Take a deep breath,

Notice the situation you're in and just say to yourself right now.

It's like this.

What can I do?

What can I do?

It's the mind that says what can I do when things go wrong instead of saying instead of saying why is this happening to me?

It's just well what right now it's like this.

What can I do right now?

It's like this.

What can I do and it's an incredibly hard thing to cultivate and I'm not I'm not suggesting that one day you will be walking along and you'll stub your toe and you'll be like oh right now.

It's like this.

There's pain in my toe.

What can I do but because I think you'll say something else,

But I think we can have a different relationship to the storms of life to the suffering to the constant change and the losing things we love and.

Bad things happening to us,

I think we can have a kind of different relationship to that.

And that is what equanimity is it's not getting torn down and it might be the hardest of these four.

I don't know for many people.

I think it's the hardest of these four to cultivate,

But I think it depends on what kind of person you are.

I think some people have a very easier a much easier time cultivating it and a much harder time cultivating the others because the others are so centered on caring so much about other people and some people have trouble with that.

That's not their natural state and they have to really try hard to cultivate that so.

Equanimity is important because life is full of suffering right bad things are gonna happen and.

We want to learn how to manage them and not and especially how does this relate to other people?

Well,

One we wish for them to have equanimity,

Of course,

But two so much in life are suffering are suffering when it afflicts us when we're struggling with what's happening when we're not having that mind of equanimity.

Our suffering spills out onto other people.

Our suffering spills out onto other people.

It really does and that is where this creates disharmony because our suffering spills out onto other people.

We sort of take out take it out on them when they don't have anything to do with it and so that is where we can have more harmony by having equanimity by having a calm and even mind.

And just if we can just learn how to do that,

Then we won't.

Spread so much suffering all the time.

We won't so those are the four immeasurables.

Kindness compassion,

Joy equanimity.

And.

I'm gonna do a short guided meditation.

And this is a guided meditation on.

The four immeasurables.

So I want you to sit up as straight as you can.

And close your eyes.

Find a position where your feet aren't gonna fall asleep.

And I generally say if you're on a chair,

Plant your feet firmly on the floor and if you're sitting on a cushion on the floor,

Cross your legs but whatever works for you and we wanna have a plan for what to do with our hands too.

I like to recommend the relaxation which is just hands on your knees or what I call the bowl which is one hand on top of the other thumbs gently touching resting in your lap.

Close your eyes.

This is the kind of meditation where we repeat things to ourselves.

Okay.

Take a couple of deep heavy breaths.

And.

We're gonna go through these one by one.

I'm going to say these phrases and I want you to mentally repeat them.

Okay.

Here we go.

Kindness.

May I be happy,

Well,

And at peace.

May I be happy,

Well,

And at peace.

May I open to things just as they are.

May I open to things just as they are.

May I experience the world opening to me just as I am.

May I experience the world opening to me just as I am.

May I welcome whatever arises.

May I welcome whatever arises.

Compassion.

May I be free of suffering and harm.

May I be free of suffering and harm.

May I be free of suffering and harm.

May I accept things as they are.

May I accept things as they are.

May I experience the world accepting me as I am.

May I experience the world accepting me as I am.

May I serve whatever arises.

May I serve whatever arises.

Joy.

May I enjoy the activities of life.

May I enjoy the activities of life.

May I enjoy the activities of life.

May I enjoy things as they are.

May I enjoy things as they are.

May I experience the world taking joy in all that I do.

May I experience the world taking joy in all that I do.

May I experience the world taking joy in all that I do.

May I know what to do no matter what arises.

May I know what to do no matter what arises.

Equanimity.

May I be free from preference and prejudice.

May I be free from preference and prejudice.

May I know things as they are.

May I know things as they are.

May I experience the world knowing me as I am.

May I experience the world knowing me as I am.

May I see into whatever arises.

May I see into whatever arises.

So that was a meditation on the four immeasurables directed at yourself.

And so I explained what the four immeasurables are and I led a meditation based on directing them at yourself.

And at a later time I'm going to do a longer version of this meditation that directs it at ourselves and at other people.

But for now that is all for today.

And this if you're wondering where that meditation came from it's inspired by a guided meditation by a Buddhist teacher named Ken McLeod.

Although I've changed some of the wording but it's inspired by a guided meditation that he wrote.

I do have to give credit for that.

So that was the four immeasurables and the four immeasurables practice.

So I just want to thank you for taking the time to listen to me today and have a good day.

I'll see you next time.

Hello I'm Daniel.

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That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening.

Have a great day.

Reviews

Really enjoyed that. It’s quite energetic and engages the mind, which aids focus. Thank you 💞