Books/In Praise of Great Compassion/The Four Immeasurables
FOLLOWERS OF the Pāli tradition cultivate the four brahmavihāras (divine abidings, immeasurables) — immeasurable equanimity, love, compassion, and empathic joy — toward others. In the Mahāyāna these four are expanded and built upon to become the altruistic intention of bodhicitta that seeks to attain buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings. Practitioners engage in the practices of the Perfection and Vajra Vehicles motivated by this altruistic intention. We’ll begin by exploring the four immeasurables as explained in the Pāli text The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), by the fifth-century Indian sage Buddhaghosa. His explanation not only accords with Mahāyāna teachings but also gives practitioners of the Mahāyāna some new angles to approach love (maitrī, mettā), compassion (karuṇā), empathic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekṣā, upekkhā). This will be followed by an explanation of the four immeasurables in the Perfection Vehicle (Pāramitāyāna) and in the Vajra Vehicle (Vajrayāna). All of these explanations are instructions for meditation.
The Four Immeasurables in the Pāli Tradition
Buddhaghosa devotes an entire chapter of The Path of Purification to the development of the four immeasurables, which are widely taught and practiced in both the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions. They are called "immeasurable” or "boundless” (apramāṇa, appamañña) for several reasons. First, they are directed with a mind free of prejudice or partiality toward an immeasurable number of sentient beings. In addition, they are ideally to be practiced in states of dhyāna in which the limited intentions of desire-realm minds have been superseded. Although meditators may have been born in the desire realm, their minds become form-sphere consciousnesses when entering a dhyāna with one of these four as its object. A form-realm consciousness is not limited by the five hindrances (āvaraṇa) that interfere with the cultivation of concentration: sensual desire (kāmacchanda), malice (vyāpāda, byāpāda), lethargy and sleepiness (styāna-middha, thīna-middha), restlessness and regret (auddhatya-kaukṛtya, uddhacca-kukkucca), and deluded doubt (vicikitsā, vicikicchā). Dhyānic states also are imbued with the five dhyānic factors: investigation (vitarka, vitakka), analysis (vicāra), joy (prīti, pīti), bliss (sukha), and one-pointedness (ekāgratā, ekaggatā) that render them boundless.4
The four immeasurables are also called "brahmavihāras” or "divine abodes,” after Brahmā, the deity who is the ruler of one of the dhyānic realms where beings’ minds are pure, smooth, and gentle. In the term "brahmavihāra,” "brahma” implies pure because these four are free from attachment, anger, and apathy. They are also the best — another implication of the term "brahma” — because they are beneficial attitudes to have toward sentient beings. The four are called "abodes” or "ways of living” because they are peaceful resting places for the mind, in that they are virtuous mental states that help us to live in constructive ways that help ourselves and others.
Practiced in daily life, love, compassion, empathic joy, and equanimity will make our minds and relationships with others warmer and more peaceful. Practiced in meditation, these four can be used to cultivate concentration and attain the dhyānas (meditative stabilizations). Of course the best effects come if we do both, because maintaining a peaceful mind by practicing the four immeasurables between formal meditation sessions increases their power during meditation sessions. Similarly, after abiding single-pointedly in one of the four immeasurables during meditation, a person’s mind tends to be permeated with it after the meditation session.
The Three Higher Trainings and the Four Immeasurables
The three higher trainings are encapsulated in the four immeasurables, as illustrated by the Mettā Sutta. At the outset of this sūtra, the Buddha spoke of the type of person who practices love. This practice involves the "higher training in ethical conduct, because to develop love for others we must first refrain from harming them. The second part of the sūtra details all the beings to extend love toward and explains how to meditate on love so that it leads to states of meditative absorption, which pertains to the higher training in concentration. The end of the sūtra speaks of how this practice can lead to the cultivation of insight and thus to nirvāṇa, which necessitates the higher training in wisdom.
"When practiced by someone who has not cultivated wisdom, meditation on the four immeasurables has the potential to lead to rebirth in any of the divine realms of the Brahmā world that correspond to the dhyānas.5 However, the ultimate aim of meditation on the four brahmavihāras is to attain a pliable, concentrated mind that can penetrate the three characteristics — that is, the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of things — and serve as a basis for insight.
In many sūtras, the Buddha spoke of practitioners abiding with their hearts imbued with love that extends in all directions. Such practitioners have attained a meditative absorption that is called the "liberation of mind with love” (P. mettā-cetovimutti). This mind, which genuinely wishes all beings to have happiness, has temporarily abandoned the five hindrances, especially anger and malice, through the force of single-pointed concentration. The Buddha praises this samādhi because of its ability to prevent anger from arising and banish anger that has arisen. When practitioners have attained "the ārya eightfold path and apply this mind of dhyāna to it, they progress through the stages and attain arhatship.6
Teachers may present the four immeasurables in slightly different ways — for instance, as a practice to improve our relationships with others, as a practice to heal destructive emotions, or as a practice through which to cultivate serenity.
One way to practice them in our relationships with others in daily life is as follows: Love has the aspect of friendliness toward sentient beings and wishes them to have happiness and its causes. This should be our basic attitude toward any living being we encounter. When we see the suffering of sentient beings, we respond with compassion, abandoning any fear or disgust, and do what we can to be of assistance. When we witness their happiness, success, virtue, and good qualities, our response is empathic joy — the opposite of the jealousy that so often plagues us. After that, we remain balanced and equanimous because our aims for sentient beings have been accomplished. However, sometimes we see others’ duḥkha and try to help, but they are not open to removing the causes of their misery. At that time, rather than giving in to frustration or despair, practicing equanimity is best. In that way, the door remains open so that we can help them if an opportunity arises at a later date.
Introduction to the Four Divine Abodes
The Path of Purification says love "has the aspect of friendliness as its characteristic. Its function is to promote friendliness. It is manifested as the disappearance of malice and annoyance. Its proximate cause is seeing others as lovable. When it succeeds, it eliminates malice. When it fails, it degenerates into selfish affectionate desire.
