Mark Cooper

Mindfulness and meditation in the midst of life

A meditation on the Brahmaviharas

I recently led a meditation on the four Brahmaviharas, tuning into their boundless aspect particularly. This is a style of Brahmavihara meditation that's based on the suttas, in which you don't find the stock phrases about sending metta to various categories of beings.

Radiating the Brahamaviharas in the six directions.

Let's ground ourselves by feeling the contact between our body and the seat, or our feet on the floor.

We're going to meditate for about 20 minutes, progressing through each of the four Brahmaviharas. These are four qualities of the heart often known as "the divine abodes". They are:

  • goodwill or friendliness
  • compassion
  • joy, particularly joy for the wellbeing of others
  • equanimity.

We're going to imagine the heart as a lamp. This lamp has six glass sides with six shutters, and we can open each of these shutters one at a time to let the light radiate outwards in that direction:

  • in front of us
  • to the left of us
  • behind us
  • to the left of us
  • above us
  • below us.

As we do this, beginning with goodwill, we may feel that the heart wants to shift into the next Brahmavihara quality. This can be viewed as part of a natural progression.

Goodwill, friendliness

We start by bringing to mind a feeling of goodwill, letting that radiate from the heart in front of us. We then move through each of the six directions, allowing the quality to move out into the vast expanse around us.

Compassion

At some point the feeling of goodwill may wish to turn into compassion. Because we wish others well, we feel compassion when they suffer. We now radiate compassion in the six directions, one at a time. If the heart wishes to stay with the feeling of goodwill, this is fine.

Joy

Eventually, we may feel a sense of beauty in caring for others. The heart may feel uplifted. By opening to suffering we also open to the possibility of happiness, of joy. We can't close down to just one thing, so when we push suffering away, we also push joy away. Now we radiate joy in the six directions.

Equanimity

Having felt joy, and with the subsidence of that joy, the predominant feeling of the heart is one of peace. Coolness. Equanimity. A wise, loving awareness. We now reflect this in the six directions. And then, for the final part of this meditation, we radiate equanimity in all six directions at once.

Ending reflection

Open your eyes, come back to the room, to the feeling of the body sitting. And if you felt blocked at any part of that meditation—like there was a specific distraction, or you couldn't resonate with one of the heart qualities—then make a note of that, maybe write it down and reflect on how, if you return to this meditation in the future you might approach this difficulty.

Feedback I received from participants

  • Language of space and spaciousness might have helped to name that dimension of this meditation for people.
  • Spend more time grounding the body.
  • Reassure people that if they're not feeling the quality it's OK.
  • Might help to spend more time introducing compassion.
  • Well-timed and well-paced.
  • People seemed to enjoy the feel of it.
  • Thinking of the Brahmaviharas as flowing into each other was new and revelatory to people.