This post explains the four important mind-states or heart-states known as "divine dwellings" or "heavenly abodes" (brahmavihara). It doesn't assume any prior knowledge, but it does get into a bit of interesting detail. First I'll explain what type of thing they are generally, then we'll consider each of the four specifically.
What Sort of Thing Are the Divine Dwellings?
The things identified by the Buddhist notions of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity, can all be considered intentional states, conditions, or dispositions of the heart and mind.
What do I mean, in this case, by 'intentional'? I mean that these states are affective, yet also somehow directed-toward something or someone, although not necessarily any specific someone or something. And this "toward-ness" may be as much receptive as active.
(Note: 'affective' basically means: having to do with emotion or feelings.)
Love, for example, is certainly affective, but also somehow directed-toward. We feel it, but it isn't merely a feeling quality. There is a certain directed-towardness to love. But again, the "toward-ness" isn't always active and seeking. It's also just as much receptive. And it can be toward specific persons or things, or it can be "toward" without being toward something or someone already specified.
Love would be a good example of an "intentional state" anyway, but it this case, it is also a good example because one of the four divine dwellings could be referred to as love. Most commonly, however, it is referred to in English as "loving-kindness." Sometimes is is also referred to simply as love or as kindness, and sometimes it is left untranslated, as "metta." The remaining three divine dwellings are typically known in English as Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity.
Loving-Kindness
The specific quality of loving-kindness is expressed well in the standard verses used in formal loving-kindness meditation:
May _____ be safe.
May _____ be happy.
May _____ be healthy.
May _____ be at peace.
These verses express wishes of safety, happiness, health, and peace for oneself and for others. That kind of wish is the intentional and affective quality specific to loving-kindness.
Note: Loving-Kindness aligns with the "Good Will" factor of Right Intention. (Right Intention is the second part of the Eightfold Path.)
Free of Craving and Grasping
In addition, loving-kindness is free of craving and grasping. To be free of craving means it does not contain a greed or thirsting for pleasant-feeling experiences. To be free of grasping means not to demand, or to predicate one's love and kindness upon, a particular outcome. For example, our love, if it is loving-kindness, does not demand that someone behave or feel a certain way. And this is true even if that someone is oneself. Further, because there is no grasping, loving-kindness does not lead to ill-will or hatred when things do no go as you might prefer.
Beginning with and from the Self-Relation
It's important to understand that all four heavenly abodes -- loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity -- begin with and from oneself. The self-relation, the intention toward oneself, is the basis for how one relates to all other people, and even to all other sentient beings. Thus loving-kindness, for example, begins with genuinely wishing safety, happiness, health, and peace for oneself, and with openly receiving this wish. This is a "structural" quality of the heavenly abodes.
It also structures the formal meditation for each divine dwelling. A formal loving-kindness meditation begins with the intention: May I be safe; May I be happy; etc. It then expands progressively to include others. (This is why the verses were written, above, with blank spaces after the word 'may'.)
Equanimity
You can see the specific quality of equanimity in its standard verses:
May _____ accept things as they are.
May _____ be open and balanced.
May _____ find equanimity and peace.
Besides being its own diving dwelling, equanimity provides a key element of the other three. The non-craving, non-grasping quality of loving-kindness is actually equanimity. This does not mean that the non-grasping quality is not essential to loving-kindness. Loving-kindness which craves or grasps is not loving-kindness.
Compassion and sympathetic joy also have this non-grasping quality as an essential aspect. Equanimity is woven through and contributes to the very fabric of loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy. Equanimity is also its own, distinctive intentional-affective state.
Note: Equanimity aligns with the "Renunciation" factor of Right Intention. (Right Intention is the second part of the Eightfold Path.)
Compassion
Compassion's standard verses are:
May _____ be free from pain.
May _____ be free from sorrow.
May _____ be free from danger.
The specific quality of compassion can be expressed as those wishes: that oneself and others be free from pain, sorrow, and danger.
You might notice a contrast between this and the fact that, in life, no one can securely avoid pain, sorrow, or danger.
That is where the importance of equanimity is most obvious. Compassion is free of craving and grasping, just as loving-kindness is. Compassion wishes that we all be free from sorrow. Compassion feels for us in our pain. Compassion motivates appropriate actions to comfort oneself and others in our suffering, and to save us from needless suffering. At the same time, it fully accepts whatever pain, sorrow, and danger do end up coming into being.
Note: Compassion aligns with the "Harmlessness" factor of Right Intention. (Right Intention is the second part of the Eightfold Path.)
Sympathetic Joy
Sympathetic joy is perhaps the least often discussed of the four divine dwellings. Its specific quality can be expressed in wishes that oneself and others find and retain happiness, joy, and good fortune.
Its standard formal meditation verses, as expressed toward oneself, are:
May my happiness not leave me.
May my good fortune not diminish.
May my joy continue.
The meditation does then expand to wishing the same toward others, of course.
Although its English language name, 'sympathetic joy', can make it sound like another person always has to be involved, sympathetic joy does begin with oneself, just as with the other divine dwellings.
Considered more carefully, the name reminds us that we do stand in relation to ourselves. We intend thoughts, attitudes, and emotions toward ourselves constantly, although we perhaps hardly realize we are doing so.
Sympathetic joy is the important counterpart to compassion. Just as it is wise and skillful to feel for and comfort oneself and others in suffering, so it is important to be gladdened by and celebrate joy and good fortune, both our own and that of others.
In closing / See also
Johann Hari actually tells a story about Sympathetic Joy in his Lost Connections book about causes of depression. See my review of Lost Connections: Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and Environmental Causes of Depression- Johann Hari's Lost Connections.
See my Books / Resources page for books dealing with these four Divine Dwellings, including instruction in developing them (formal meditation instruction).
See my related article about the Eightfold Path: The Eightfold Path: A Non-Technical Overview.
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