The Four Immeasurables

The four boundless qualities, enumerated in the early canon's Mettanisamsa Sutta (SN ) as the “four Brahma dwellings,” further both of them. These four .
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A monk suffuses the world in the four directions with a mind of benevolence, then above, and below, and all around — the whole world from all sides, completely, with a benevolent, all-embracing, great, boundless, peaceful and friendly mind … Just as a powerful conch-blower makes himself heard with no great effort in all four [cardinal] directions, so too is there no limit to the unfolding of [this] heart-liberating benevolence.

Four immeasurables

This is a way to communion with Brahma. The Buddha then says that the monk must follow this up with an equal suffusion of the entire world with mental projections of compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity regarding all beings with an eye of equality.

Even if one is not a disciple, one will still attain the heavenly life, after which, however depending on what his past deeds may have been, one may be reborn in a hell realm, or as an animal or hungry ghost. They are often practiced by taking each of the immeasurables in turn and applying it to oneself a practice taught by many contemporary teachers and monastics that was established after the Pali Suttas were completed , and then to others nearby, and so on to everybody in the world, and to everybody in all universes.


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A Cavern of Treasures Tibetan: A segment of it enshrines a Bonpo evocation of the four immeasurables. Prior to the advent of the Buddha, according to Martin Wiltshire, the pre-Buddhist traditions of Brahma-loka , meditation and these four virtues are evidenced in both early Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature.

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Three of the four immeasurables, namely Maitri, Karuna and Upeksha, are found in the early Upanishads of Hinduism, while all four are found with slight variations — such as pramoda instead of mudita — in Jainism literature, states Wiltshire. According to Peter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the four Brahmavihara meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition".

The pre-Buddha Chandogya Upanishad , states Jayatilleke, in section 8. In an authoritative Jain scripture, the Tattvartha Sutra Chapter 7, sutra 11 , there is a mention of four right sentiments: Maitri, pramoda, karunya, madhyastha:.

Benevolence towards all living beings, joy at the sight of the virtuous, compassion and sympathy for the afflicted, and tolerance towards the insolent and ill-behaved. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Four Immeasurables – practice | Unfettered Mind

Part of a series on Buddhism History. Four Stages Arhat Buddha Bodhisattva. Jnl Buddhist Ethics , Vol. A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma.


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BPS Pariyatti Editions, , p. And pray that all sentient beings may experience the same kind of good fortune. Train your mind in this way, again and again. If, when you practise training the mind in these four immeasurables, you proceed gradually—first considering your own parents; then including your friends and relatives; and finally extending the practice to your enemies—you will come to feel the same love and compassion for your enemies as for your parents.

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