Now that you have
explored mudita, its obstacles and its allies, use
these meditations to practice what you have learned.
Remember,
to reside in the heavenly abodes you will need to
apply what you have learned. These meditations will
help you in this process.
Guidance for meditating on the brahma-viharas
In these meditations you imagine different people
(including yourself), directing phrases to them that
will help uncover thoughts, attitudes and emotions.
Remember: you are not trying to will yourself to feel
and act more "compassionately." The goal
of these meditations is to create a shift in your attitudes
and emotions towards yourself and others.
The reflections you did during this lesson help affect
this shift by focusing awareness on how you habitually
think and feel in various situations with other people.
The phrases of these meditations then help reveal
the compassion already inside of you.
The phrases
In doing meditation specifically designed to nurture
mudita, use one or more of these phrases as a starting
point. As your own come to mind, use those.
"May
your happiness and good fortune not leave
you."
"May your good fortune continue."
"May
your happiness not diminish."
The sequence
The order of recipients of your mudita meditation
is:
A friend or loved one who is enjoying some happiness;
something good is going on for them
A benefactor
A neutral person
An "enemy"
All beings
To undertake sympathetic joy as a formal meditation
practice, begin with someone whom you care for. Begin
with someone you have good feelings toward, as we tend
to more easily feel joy for someone on the basis of
love and friendship.
Even with a friend or loved one, you may experience
difficulty or resistance in rejoicing in their good
fortune. Don't judge or resist this. The
meditations
will help diminish the conditioned tendencies of conceit, demeaning others,
and judgment.
How
does a meditator dwell pervade in one direction
with his heart imbued with sympathetic
gladness? Just as one would be glad on
seeing a very dear and beloved person,
so one pervades all beings with sympathetic
gladness. Buddha
Get into a comfortable posture. Your
physical comfort is important.
Move if necessary, but do so mindfully.
Close your eyes and relax.
Arrive on the cushion.
Sense the body sitting. (Scan your
body.)
Gently, and with kindness, bring
your attention to the heart center
(at the chest). Keep your attention
there.
Notice any sensations that you feel
there.
Breath in/out as if from your chest.
Take several deep breaths.
Choose a friend, someone toward whom
love flows naturally. Whoever comes
to mind, visualize that person and
allow them to rest gently in your heart
and mind.
Focus on a particular gain
or source of joy in this person's
life. (Don't get stuck searching for
some
absolute, perfect happiness or enormous
success. Whatever
good fortune or happiness of theirs that comes to your mind, work with that.)
Say
one or more of the phrase to yourselves
silently. Allow these
thoughts
to be
reflected
in that vision of your friend. "May your happiness and good fortune
not leave you""May your happiness not diminish." "May
your good fortune continue."
As you say the phrases, delight in
thoughts and aspirations. Remember that mudita is appreciative joy.
Move through the sequence of
people: A friend ior loved one, a benefactor,
a neutral person, an "enemy",
all beings.
Above,
below, and all around, unobstructed, without hostility or hate.
Whether standing, walking,
sitting, or lying down,
as long as one is alert, one should be
resolved on this mindfulness. This is called
a sublime abiding here and now. Buddha
When we direct appreciative joy toward
someone who is suffering a great deal, the relationship
between sympathetic joy and compassion figures more
strongly.
Can we can find within another's life some little happiness,
something that is bringing them satisfaction, or faith,
or maybe just an opening for changing
a
circumstance that is causing them pain? By rejoicing over any auspicious feature
in their life we can be practicing mudita even toward those who are in great
pain.
Sending mudita purifies your own mind
of the tendencies toward envy or jealousy, even if
you can't find anything to rejoice over.
This practice can ccc the possibility of your becoming less secure in relationship
to another when their fortunes change and the tendency to resent them arises.
Mudita mediation and you
Traditionally,
sympathetic joy is practiced in sympathy with others,
not in terms of oneself. What
is essential
to develop in terms of oneself are the abilities
to rejoice and to have gratitude. Remember the reflection
on good things you have done, or acts of generosity
you have performed—it is important to be able
to take delight in these, and to be able to distinguish
that delight from conceit. Remember the reflection
on the good within you, and the rightness of your
wish to be happy, along with your understanding of
a path
to happiness—this is a source of exceptional
gratitude.
