Overview
This course covers Buddhism's four traditional heart-opening practices: loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.
These practices are often called the Brahmaviharas, meaning 'abodes of Brahma'. This name comes from a story in the Pali Canon (the record of the earliest teachings of Buddhism), in which a follower of the religion of Brahminism asks the Buddha if he knows 'a path to companionship with Brahma'. If you're curious, you can read the whole story here: Majjhima Nikaya 99.
The Brahmaviharas are also known as the 'heart's limitless release', and there's a quality of boundlessness to them when they're working well. We'll start to explore that boundless quality from week 2 onwards.
These practices are often called the Brahmaviharas, meaning 'abodes of Brahma'. This name comes from a story in the Pali Canon (the record of the earliest teachings of Buddhism), in which a follower of the religion of Brahminism asks the Buddha if he knows 'a path to companionship with Brahma'. If you're curious, you can read the whole story here: Majjhima Nikaya 99.
The Brahmaviharas are also known as the 'heart's limitless release', and there's a quality of boundlessness to them when they're working well. We'll start to explore that boundless quality from week 2 onwards.
Week 1: Loving kindness, and Three Flows of Compassion
Core practice: metta, loving kindness
- Loving kindness: goodwill, friendliness, benevolence, wishing someone well
- Far enemies: ill will, hatred
- Near enemies: greed, lust, ostentatious/performative 'kindness'
- Phrases:
- May you be happy
- May you be well
- May you be at peace
- Visualisations:
- Golden light spreading joy and peace
- A smile that sparks a smile in response
- The order of practice:
- A very dear friend (someone it's easy to feel goodwill towards)
- Yourself
- A friend
- A neutral person
- A difficult person
- (The guided audio also includes an 'opening out' step that we won't cover until week 2 - either go along with it or ignore it for now, up to you)
Guided audio
Supplementary material: Three Flows of Compassion
The core idea: emotions such as kindness and compassion can flow in three directions:
We may be 'blocked' in one or more of these directions, which can make these heart-opening practices difficult. We can experiment to see which of the three is easiest for us, as a way of connecting with the emotion we're cultivating, and then gradually work on opening up the other directions.
The classical heart-opening practices work with the self-to-other and self-to-self directions, and don't include other-to-self, but you can substitute other-to-self at any step of the practice, either using a real person (e.g. imagining a dear friend wishing you well) or, if that's challenging for you, you can use an imaginary, idealised person - someone who you would like to have in your corner in an ideal world.
Finally, remember that this doesn't have to work all at once - it can take time for these practices to open up for us, and that's fine. Nothing is 'going wrong' if the practices don't seem to work right away, and it doesn't mean that you're a bad person or anything like that!
The core idea: emotions such as kindness and compassion can flow in three directions:
- From self to other
- From self to self
- From other to self
We may be 'blocked' in one or more of these directions, which can make these heart-opening practices difficult. We can experiment to see which of the three is easiest for us, as a way of connecting with the emotion we're cultivating, and then gradually work on opening up the other directions.
The classical heart-opening practices work with the self-to-other and self-to-self directions, and don't include other-to-self, but you can substitute other-to-self at any step of the practice, either using a real person (e.g. imagining a dear friend wishing you well) or, if that's challenging for you, you can use an imaginary, idealised person - someone who you would like to have in your corner in an ideal world.
Finally, remember that this doesn't have to work all at once - it can take time for these practices to open up for us, and that's fine. Nothing is 'going wrong' if the practices don't seem to work right away, and it doesn't mean that you're a bad person or anything like that!
Articles
- Debugging your heart (using the Three Flows of Compassion to understand and work with difficulties in heart-opening practice, with a focus on loving kindness)
- Unlocking metta (how to get into loving kindness practice if it doesn't grab you straight away)
Week 2: Compassion, and working with difficult people
Core practice: karuna, compassion
- Compassion: recognising the suffering of yourself or another and wishing that it could be relieved
- Far enemy: cruelty
- Near enemies: pity (looking down on someone), ostentatious charity
- Phrases:
- May you be free from suffering
- May you be free from pain
- May you be free from troubles of body and mind
- Visualisations:
- Golden light soothing pain and suffering
- A helping hand
- The order of practice:
- A 'pitiable being' (someone it's easy to feel compassion towards)
- Yourself
- A friend
- A neutral person
- A difficult person
- (This week we also introduced the 'opening out' step at the end)
Guided audio
Supplementary material: working with difficult people
- Try to find something positive in the other person
- Try to find compassion for them if there's nothing positive about them - how hard their lives must be!
- Recall that by continuing to resent the other person you only harm yourself
- Deconstruct them - are you angry with their hair? Their teeth? Their earlobes?
- Reflect on the benefits of heart-opening practice (see next week!)
Articles
- Compassion without borders (working with difficult people to make our heart-opening practices truly boundless, with a focus on compassion)
- Why 'Brahmaviharas'? (the origins of early Buddhist heart-opening practices, and compassion in early Buddhism)
Week 3: Sympathetic joy, and benefits of heart-opening practices
Core practice: mudita, sympathetic joy
- Sympathetic joy: rejoicing in the good fortune of yourself or another, 'resonant joy'
- Far enemies: envy ('I want that too!'), jealousy ('I wish you didn't have that!')
- Near enemies: insincerity ('oh how NICE for you!'), flattery (seeking to gain something from the other person)
- Phrases:
- I am happy for you
- May your good fortune continue
- May you not lose the good fortune you've gained
- Visualisations:
- Golden light shining in their heart that causes a light to shine in yours in response
- Seeing the other person smiling and feeling the response of your own heart
- The order of practice:
- A very dear friend (someone it's easy to feel sympathetic joy towards)
- Yourself
- A friend
- A neutral person
- A difficult person
- (This week we also introduced the 'simultaneous' variation of the technique, where we keep adding people to the practice and balancing out the emotion between all the people in the group)
- The guided audio below is for the 'simultaneous' version - if you don't like that, you can find a 'standard' version on the Audio page. There are also 'simultaneous' versions of the first two practices there, so if you really like the simultaneous approach, you've got guided versions of all four practices.
Guided audio
Supplementary material: benefits of heart-opening practice
- Traditionally:
- You will sleep and wake easily, and have pleasant dreams
- People and animals will love you
- Your face will be radiant, and your mind serene
- You will die unconfused
- Alternatively:
- Whatever states we cultivate become our 'new normal'
- Discovering inner resources of wellbeing reduces our dependence on external sources
Articles
- Rejoicing in another's good fortune (the benefits of heart-opening practice, and another way to explore boundlessness, with a focus on mudita, 'sympathetic joy')
- In heaven's river (the hidden gem of the Brahmaviharas, and some poems from the mountain monk Enku)
Week 4: Equanimity, and the big picture
Core practice: upekkha, equanimity
- Equanimity: equipoise, emotional stability, peace
- Not about indifference - turning toward, not turning away
- Two levels:
- Emotional stability that can get us through difficult times
- Peace of mind as the highest happiness
- Far enemies: emotional instability, overwhelm
- Near enemies: indifference, callousness
- Phrases:
- I accept you as you are
- I care for you, but I cannot guarantee your happiness
- You are welcome here
- Visualisations:
- Golden light shining on you and the other person, holding you both in its peaceful light
- Seeing the other person going about their day without any assistance or interference from you
- The order of practice:
- A neutral person (someone you don't have strong feelings towards, so it's easy to feel equanimous toward them)
- Yourself
- A friend
- A very dear friend
- A difficult person
- (Again, we practised the 'simultaneous' technique this week)
- The guided audio below is for the 'simultaneous' version - if you don't like that, you can find a 'standard' version on the Audio page. There are also 'simultaneous' versions of the first two practices there, so if you really like the simultaneous approach, you've got guided versions of all four practices.
Guided audio
Supplementary material: the big picture, how it all fits together
The core of all of these practices is the experience of an open heart:
We also looked at two models for how these practices work:
Which is 'right'? Whichever works for you! Over time, your view might change, and that's fine too. These practices are yours, to work with however you wish.
May you be happy and free from suffering, may you enjoy good fortune, and may you be at peace even in difficult situations.
The core of all of these practices is the experience of an open heart:
- Metta is the open heart's natural expression of kindness toward all beings
- Karuna is the open heart's natural response to suffering, whether yours or that of another
- Mudita is the open heart's natural response to joy, whether yours or that of another
- Upekkha is the grounded quality of the open heart that prevents us from being swept away by the highs and lows of the other emotions
We also looked at two models for how these practices work:
- The 'cultivation' model: we can look at these practices as developing positive emotional qualities within us, planting and nurturing seeds which grow into beautiful qualities of the heart
- The 'Buddha Nature' model: we can see these qualities as innate within us, part of our birthright, and the practices as clearing away the obscurations which get in the way of their full expression in our lives
Which is 'right'? Whichever works for you! Over time, your view might change, and that's fine too. These practices are yours, to work with however you wish.
May you be happy and free from suffering, may you enjoy good fortune, and may you be at peace even in difficult situations.
Articles
- Unshakeable peace (the practice of equanimity, and how it binds the other Brahmaviharas together, counterbalancing their tendency to drift into their near enemies)
- Equanimity is the heart of the Brahmaviharas (how equanimity enriches our emotional life, and how the seemingly 'imaginary' practices of Brahmavihara lead to tangible real-world effects)