The Four Useful Attitudes

The Four Brahmaviharas, roughly translated as the "Four Abodes of God," are an essential Dharma teaching that can be found both in foundational Hindu texts like the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and throughout Buddhism as well.  In Buddhist teachings, they are also called the "Four Immeasurables" or "the Four Immeasurable Minds," but I prefer to call them, more colloquially, the "Four Useful Attitudes." They refer to four dispositions of mind that seekers of enlightenment should strive to cultivate and revisit on a regular basis, and they are as follows:

1. Maitri (in Pali, Metta): Often translated as "loving kindness" or "benevolence," including gratitude, this should be our default attitude toward all other living beings. It denotes the consciously cultivated disposition to be friendly, open, and generous to all whom we encounter; to wish them well. It is, in effect, our baseline for relating to others (and to ourselves as well). It is well encapsulated in a mantra that the Dalai Lama recently shared with us: "Breathing in, I cherish myself; breathing out, I cherish all beings."

2. Karuna or compassion: This is a logical extension of Maitri toward all whom we encounter, or hear of, who are suffering or in distress. It is not simply "pity" (which is often condescending); rather, it is more precisely understood as empathy, the cultivated ability (and willingness) to heal others' pain by feeling it as if it were our own. It thus entails a disposition to action--to taking care of everyone, and abandoning no one.

3. Mudita or selfless joy: We can visualize this as the feeling that arises spontaneously when we first see a newborn child, whether our own or that of someone we love, or even someone we never met. It is also, for example, the feeling we get when we watch young people at a graduation ceremony--whether we know them personally or not--overcome with joy, excitement, and pride as they receive their diploma. And finally--like the others--it can be consciously cultivated when we look at a flower, at buds opening up on a tree, at a beautiful sunset over a lake, or a magnificent snow-capped mountain appearing in the distance. It is, in short, a joy that takes us out of ourselves--the joy of life itself.

4. Upeksha (Pali Upekkha): This refers to equanimity--the cultivation of patience, even in the face of adversity. This should not be confused, however, with indifference. It harmonizes, that is, with the other three Brahmaviharas, and it could be seen, for example, in the quiet, serene imperviousness of the Civil Rights activists when subjected to sneers, insults, and abuse from white racists in the South.

As Swami Satchidananda points out in his beautiful translation and interpretation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, these four attitudes, or dispositions of mind, constitute a comprehensive repertoire of attitudes we can take toward anyone we meet.  We start with Maitri--benevolence--as our default attitude toward everyone we encounter; if the person is suffering or in distress, we shift to Karuna, or active, engaged compassion; conversely, if the person is smiling, we smile back with Mudita, or selfless joy; and finally, if the person is a complete jerk, we return to our breath and cultivate patience, or upeksha.

So how can we best cultivate these four useful attitudes? There are, of course, many practices for achieving this, but one I have developed is as follows:

As you settle into formal meditation, try associating each of these dispositions of mind with the following mantra--on four complete breaths to start with:

1. BREATHE with benevolence and gratitude (Maitri);

2. OBSERVE with compassion and empathy (Karuna);

3. LET GO with selfless joy (Mudita);

4. ABIDE in equanimity (Upeksha);

You can start with a whole breath, in and out, while contemplating each in turn. Thereafter, if you wish, you can condense them into one breath: On the inhale, breathe (with benevolence) and observe (with compassion); on the exhale, let go (with joy) and abide (in equanimity).

Then, if you wish, you can shift from "Breathe-Observe-Let Go-Abide" to "Om Mani Padme Hum"--the classic core mantra of Buddhism. These seed syllables evoke the same basic attitudes: gratitude, compassion, joy, and equanimity. But of course, they take it all to a deeper contemplative level. As the Dalai Lama points out, this mantra encapsulates all the teachings of the Buddha.

--and as always, once your mind is focused, you can forget these mantras completely, calmly abiding in Samadhi, or what Huston Smith aptly characterized as "Infinite gratitude toward all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility to all things future."