The Four Immeasurables
The Four Immeasurables
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings rejoice in the well-being of others.
May all beings live in peace, free from greed and hatred.
Each of the four verses corresponds to a mental state: loving kindess, compassion, sympathetic joy, and peace (or equanimity).
The following commentary is take from the Wikipedia entry for Brahmavihara.
The four immeasurables, in the original Pali and Sanskrit, Brahmavihāra Apramāṇa:
Brahmavihāra means “Brahma abidings”, or “sublime attitudes.” It may be parsed as “Brahma” and “vihāra”; which is often rendered into English as “sublime” or “divine abodes”.
Apramāṇa, usually translated as “the immeasurables,” means boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable.
In English the “Four Immeasurables” are known as follows:
1. Loving-kindness (Pāli: mettā, Sanskrit: maitri) towards all: the hope that a person will be well; “the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy.”
2. Compassion (Pāli and Sanskrit: karuṇā): the hope that a person’s sufferings will diminish; “the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering.”
3. Empathetic joy (Pāli and Sanskrit: mudita): joy in the accomplishments of a person—oneself or another; sympathetic joy; “the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings.”
4. Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā, Sanskrit: upekṣā): learning to accept loss and gain, praise and blame, and success and failure, all with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others. Equanimity is “not to distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind—not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness or agitation.”
- Rachel Maddow
- Frank Schaeffer
- Roberto Ruiz
Former HHS Assistant Secretary Dr. Howard Koh talks with Rachel Maddow about why wearing a mask to h
Rachel Maddow shows how the Donald Trump administration never bothered to do the work of setting up
Rachel Maddow looks at the lessons learned the hard way in the early days of the coronavirus epidemi
Watch the full episode of Thursday night's The Rachel Maddow Show.
Watch the full episode of Thursday night's The Rachel Maddow Show.
Rachel Maddow shows that even though Donald Trump has not offered any federal leadership in addressi
Rachel Maddow notes that many Americans who survive being infected by the coronavirus are likely to
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about new d
Watch the full episode of Wednesday night's The Rachel Maddow Show.
Watch the full episode of Wednesday night's The Rachel Maddow Show.
By David Smith in Washington Read at The Guardian The president has had a difficult period and is tr
The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intellig
Being a moral person who cares about America means removing hundreds of boogaloo accounts for ‘promo
Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, is an evangelical. She is lying for Trump. Therefore McEna
Please watch and share this video and learn how Donald Trump’s Magical Thinking is affecting you, yo
I began my life in a right-wing evangelical fundamentalist cult, started by my famous evangelical fa
By Jesselyn Cook and Nick Robins-Early Read at HuffPost Around the time news broke on Monday afterno
By Nicholas Kristof Read at New York Times What can we possibly make of the crisis that unfolded in
By Editorial Board THE VENOM of American racism is as toxic in major cities as in rural areas, in th
By E.J. Dionne Jr. Read at Washington Post George Floyd’s brutal killing brought home to a large maj
After having been unjustly convicted of the bogus charges brought against him in that most infamous
Ever since I first watched Memento and its fascinating exploration of the philosophical question of
The philosophical problem of evil—the question of how the existence of unnecessary suffering is poss
Life is hard enough as it is. Existence, in many ways, is suffering. Obviously, some have it much wo
If you are a geek, you are likely to get excited over things others might find boring, laughable, la
James Baldwin, the great essayist, poet, civil rights activist, writer and orator, would have turned
Few figures have been more important and influential in the history of civilization than the ancient
Anyone who's ever contemplated Raphael's celebrated painting The School of Athens knows th
As his presidency sadly comes to an end, President Obama delivered last night what is sure to become
Art critic John Berger's recent death has left a huge void in the world of art appreciation. Wh
Leave a Reply