13. Development and Cultivation of the Four Immeasurable Minds

The Nikāyas give much of priorities to the direction of the practice of the four immeasurable minds (appamāṇacetaso) which are also known as the four ‘divine abodes’ (brahmavihāra):

1. loving-kindness (mettā),
2. compassion (karuṇā),
3. appreciative joy (muditā), and
4. equanimity (upekkhā).

The English word ‘loving-kindness’ actually does not describe the exact meaning of mettā. Mettā in the Buddhist practice is to wish for the welfare and happiness of others, but that wish must not be attached by personally sensual passion and clinging. While mettā is a wholesome conative state that is conducive to one’s own and others’ health and comfort, its false facsimile -the attachment -expresses on ordinary emotion and is itself the origin of suffering, unsatisfied, and interpersonal conflict. ‘Love’, as showed its narrow sense, readily turns into aversion and even enmity, but mettā does not. As almost of all human relations such as between parents and children, spouses, and friends and so on, there is normally assorted of both ‘love’ and mettā. In such human relations, according to Buddhist practice, one should train to attenuate the mental burden of attachment and cultivate the wholesome conative state of loving-kindness in order that their relations might become more comfortable and generous.

Traditionally, the Buddhist practice of loving-kindness is first begun from oneself. This point is explained by two aspects. On the one hand, man often lives too much for other and too less for himself in its negative sense. He is often effected by events or incidents which come from outside.

Others’ allusion, censure or criticism, or rude action, and so on, all might make him trouble. The unfortunate thing of relatives or success of hostile and so on all causes melancholy and suffering for him. Man often has not enough inner power to control his mind and keep it in balance state. And such all things are as considered by Buddhism not loving-kindness self. On the other hand, man often sets his ‘self’ above everything in the world. His ‘ego’ is what nearest and closest to him. For these two reasons, the practice of loving-kindness begins properly from oneself. The practitioner firstly trains ‘may I be free from all trouble, anxiety, free from hatred, animosity, and live happily’. After training this, the practitioner forwards his mind to others gradually from the person who is closest or respects such as parents, masters and so on to dear friends, and then to the neutral person and finally to person who he has felt dislike. The purpose of this practice method is to progressively the degree of loving-kindness for dear ones as for himself, for the neutral person as for the dear ones, and at last for the opponent as for the neutral person. By this way, the distinction between ‘I’ and ‘you’ becomes more and more close. When this distinction is completely rubbed out, the immeasurable and unconditional loving-kindness will be experienced.

The second of the four immeasurable minds is karuṇā, the compassion, which is the empathy with others in their suffering. Compassion and lovingkindness often go together. While loving-kindness brings happiness to others, compassion saves them from misfortune and danger. Compassion however often is mixed with righteous annoyance for the sake of others. The Buddhist practice of compassion not only extends not only to the miserable objects but also to the victimizers. If one extents his compassion to only the miserable objects and not to the evildoers, that compassion is really just another copy of the attachment. Such compassion is the source of hatred and ill will which absolutely is rejected by the Buddhist practice path. It is to say that the training of mettā and karuṇā without right view will leads to two extremes of clinging and anger which are the origin of suffering. In training of karuṇā, the victims with physical or mental suffering as well as the evildoers who are dominated by greed, hatred and delusion are deserving of compassion alike. However, compassion for evildoers does not mean to ignore their evils but to extent the compassion to them and wish them to be free from impulses that induce them to perform such destructive actions. The false duplicate of compassion is grief and its opposite is cruelty. Both such metal states are rejected in the training of compassion. The practice progress of compassion is similar to that of loving-kindness i.e. extent the compassion from the dear ones to the one who the practitioner has felt dislike. The aim of this method is to break down the barrier separating the different types of persons until one's compassion extends equally to all beings (see Wallace 2007).

Muditā ‘appreciative joy’, the third of the four immeasurable minds, is an action of rejoicing in others’ virtues and success. Naturally, one feels easier to sympathize with persons who are unhappy than him, but it is more difficult to rejoice in others’ virtues and success. It is because envy and selfish are two psychological inclinations that underlie deeply in all human beings. This training, therefore, is at higher level than the first two. The training progress is also similar to the training of loving-kindness and compassion. The aim of this practice is to make the practitioner’s mind become generous and magnanimous, empathizes with the other's joy and experiences it as if it were his own.

The last of the four immeasurable minds is equanimity (upekkhā). This is the highest level of the meditative practice of the four immeasurable minds. Equanimity is the attitude of detached impartiality towards beings; it means not apathy or indifference. The goal of this training is to cross out the bias of friend and foe in order to look and empathize deeply suffering as well as happiness of all beings as oneself equally. This training firstly begins from a neutral person, then to dear ones and finally forwards to adversaries. In each case the practitioner is required to remain his mind in a state of equanimity free of attachment and hatred. The bogus copy of the upekkhā is unintelligent insensitivity, and the opposite of equanimity is attachment to loved ones and antipathy to enemies.

In training of the four immeasurable minds, one extents these immeasurable minds not only to special objects he has known but also to all ten quarters of the world. This guide can be found in the Vatthūpama Sutta ‘The Simile of the Cloth’ (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 7). The practitioner is guided to “abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the forth; so above, below, around, and everywhere, and to all as to himself, he abides pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill will” (Majjhima Nikāya, Samyutta Nikāya 7.13). Having done this, his mind becomes pure and due to it his wisdom is developed; he understands clearly about the Four Noble Truth as well as the essence of things. “When he knows and sees thus, his mind is librated from the taint of sensual desire, of being, from taint of being, and from taint of ignorance. When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: ‘It is liberated’. He understands: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being’.” (Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta number 7.18).