So this is the second talk on what are known as the Brahma Viharas.
These are sublime attitudes that are boundless when we cultivate them.
One of my teachers calls them the four faces of love.
So the heart has,
The idea is that the heart has four faces and each sees the world in different ways and speaks with a different purpose.
Yet as each aspect belongs to the same heart,
They're inseparable,
Like the four directions of a compass.
So the image of the four faced heart,
It's borrowed from the Buddhist mythology of the god Brahma who has four faces,
One for each of the four kinds of unselfish love that is kind of the championed intent of Buddhism.
And in the language of the Buddha,
These four faces are known as metta,
Karuna,
Mudita,
And upeka.
And in English,
They are known as loving kindness,
Compassion,
Appreciative joy,
And equanimity.
So today we're on the second of these immeasurables.
And that is compassion,
Karuna.
And compassion is the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering.
So it's a counter to cruelty.
So for example,
When a mother sees her son seriously ill or father sees their child seriously ill,
They will naturally be moved by compassion and wishes that that child may be free from suffering from sickness.
In the same way most people have experienced the feeling of compassion when seeing the suffering of a schoolmate or a relative or a loved one or a pet.
All these are examples of really ordinary feelings of compassion.
To become a sublime state,
A brahma vihara,
Compassion has to reach beyond the limits of a group of individuals or beings whom we love and we have to extend it to all sentient beings.
Like in the metta suta that was shared by Kurt and that we have a breadlust on Tuesday.
Like the way in which a mother loves her only child so too do you spread that love out to all beings.
And certainly now we live in a time where there is so much suffering.
You know it's phenomenal that the entire globe as a whole is sharing this degree of personal challenge and collective challenge.
There are so many challenges that people have right now.
So how do we live with these challenges?
And a lot of this practice is about how we relate to whatever is happening and how we respond and live with what's happening.
How can we feel the suffering of the world and care for the world?
How can we feel our own suffering and have care for it rather than fighting it or pushing through or running away?
The practice of karuna is to approach it and soothe it.
To find a way of offering ourselves care.
These teachings on care and compassion particularly in this time of you know the ongoing COVID virus and then all of the variants.
It can be really transformative to have care.
You know one definition of compassion karuna is the trembling of the heart of good people.
The trembling of the heart of good people.
The vibration of the heart of good people and we're all good people.
We're all capable of being good people.
So to be able to really relax in our goodness and find that goodness and care from that place.
Find it in others.
One way that's useful when we're understanding or when we're suffering is to understand that others are also suffering in a similar way to our own.
Other people are also experiencing their version of a broken heart.
Our challenges and our struggles are shared.
You know in this way we can have more empathy and understanding.
It was the Dalai Lama who said that think about where you are suffering in your life and then think about all the other people who are going through similar situations.
It's a very powerful practice.
We're all in this together.
We're all connected and when we remember this connection remembering that there are people just like me that have lost a loved one to suicide that don't want to wear a mask but they do it to protect others.
There are people who are sick and I too am vulnerable of becoming sick.
I could get sick.
I am not immune.
When we remember this our connection and our care it comes before our fear and we can be mindful of any experience.
As we practice we can expand the range of what we're mindful of.
You know in my own experience I went from not being able to work with about 99% of my experience when I first started practicing and the range just keeps opening and opening and opening and we start to get that understanding that the range just keeps opening for every one of us.
We're all of us waking up together and when we can start to see that hey that's just like me that person that that experience I've had that I can understand that compassion arises and compassion feels joyful.
It feels good in the body.
So there are different ways we can bring about the conditions for compassion.
In the eighth century text The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shanti Deva he writes all the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others while all the misery the world contains has come through wanting happiness for oneself alone.
That's a really important understanding.
All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others while all the misery the world contains has come through wanting happiness for oneself only.
So one practice we can do in any moment when you're feeling sorrow or suffering or sadness or fear is to think of all the other beings that are feeling this too.
I'm not saying it's like a magical practice but there is a power in it.
Another practice is to train yourself to hold your own hand like just this gentle gesture.
It's a movement towards nonviolence.
It says I care about this.
It's a gesture of inner nonviolence.
So these are my reflections this morning on Karuna compassion and next week we'll explore deeper into empathetic joy or appreciative joy and equanimity.
Thank you.
I hope to see all of you next week.
Have a happy happy safe and peaceful new year.
We'll connect again.
Okay.
