Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  Rejoice!

  This week, before you retire to bed each night, write a list of three to six achievements, fortunate events, or successes that you personally experienced today. Recognize both trivial and important events; write down anything that comes to mind without judging it. Perhaps you discovered the perfect setting for the toaster, successfully balanced your checkbook, or finished a difficult project. Notice the good things in your life; recognize the frequent little accomplishments that fill your days.

  Then, in a second column, write another list of three to six achievements, fortunate events, or successes that you witnessed in other beings. Perhaps you saw a squirrel find a stash of acorns, a student earn a perfect test score, a former lover get married, or a colleague receive an award. Let the recognition of other people’s good luck and success bring joy to your heart.

  There are many little lucky moments every day. When you focus on good fortune, causes for happiness become apparent everywhere. If a friend wins at a card game, are you delighted for her or do you sulk at your own defeat? When neighbors build an addition to their house or cultivate a terrific rose garden, are you pleased or do you compare their accomplishments with your own and feel poor in comparison? If you go out to lunch with two friends, one of whom can eat anything she wants without gaining weight and the other just lost twenty pounds and looks terrific, how do you respond? Are you genuinely happy for the driver in front of you who got the perfect parking spot? Practice responding with wholehearted joy, uncontaminated by comparison, and without interjecting competitive justifications that imply, “I am happy for you, but I deserve it more.” Muditā entertains no sense of entitlement, and no thoughts such as, “but what about me?” It is a simple affirmation of happiness, accomplishment, and good fortune.

  In contrast to its far enemies that habitually dampen joy—namely, jealousy, envy, comparison, blame, and chronic judging—muditā produces a very sweet quality of happiness that encourages sharing. It is balanced, not excessive like its near enemies exhilaration and giddiness. When you trust that happiness is not a scarce commodity, you find that rejoicing with the good fortune of anyone and everyone becomes an effective antidote to discontent.

  EQUANIMITY

  Equanimity (upekkhā) refers to the capacity to see all beings without prejudice or partiality, and requires that hatred toward enemies and infatuation toward friends be relinquished. This profound impartiality clears the agitation of preference and personal wishes and brings a cool, refreshing balance to consciousness. As a divine abode, this manifestation of equanimity is directed toward how you relate to beings. It stabilizes mettā, karuṇā, and muditā, and it prevents these joyful factors from becoming imbalanced or excessive.

  Equanimity is a state free of attachment, aversion, and reactivity; it is not indifference. Developed through a contemplation of causes and effects, equanimity practice highlights the understanding that everything occurs due to causes and that everyone will inherit the fruits of their own actions. Equanimity does not reject people or conditions. It enhances a profoundly balanced attention, permitting wisdom to guide actions without the corrupting influences of fear, anger, and greed. It cultivates the ability to remain equally close to all things—both the painful and the pleasant. Imagine the peace that will be possible when you relate to all beings without the agitation of like or dislike, preference or prejudice. This deep peace of equanimity takes the struggle out of existence.

  An Impact on Life

  In your daily life, notice your reactions and preferences regarding the people you encounter. Observe how kindness is expressed in your behavior and when a balanced countenance pervades your relationships. Who do you like or dislike, admire or judge, tend to avoid or seek out? Are you sad when you see a friend struggling with problems that you know you cannot fix? Are you angry to see crimes and violence as reported in the news? Do you feel excessive responsibility to care for younger siblings even after they have grown to adulthood? Do you overreact to the dilemmas and difficulties of friends? Can you refrain from meddling in the married life of a daughter? It is beautiful to care about people and want to help them, but there are many occasions when all you can do is to cultivate patience, tolerance, and equanimity. Appreciate the people who test the mettle of your equanimity, for they are the ones who challenge you to bring these immeasurable qualities into the down-to-earth reality of everyday encounters. Equanimity practice encourages a balanced mind toward all living beings. Let the effects of this meditation practice spill over into your daily life.

  A COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING

  Skillful meditators who choose the divine abodes as their primary meditation subjects will discover a rich training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom that leads ultimately to liberation. This practice involves the initial cultivation of mettā, and then extends the good will through the cultivation of compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.

  When the Buddha taught mettā to the monks who were disturbed by fear in their forest retreat, he contextualized loving-kindness in the path of awakening.140 The cultivation of mettā incorporates upright conduct, is imbued with mindfulness, concentrates the mind, penetrates the illusion of self, and leads to the deathless liberation. It cannot be separated from intention, mindfulness, and the goal of awakening.

  Loving-Kindness as an Immeasurable Deliverance of Mind

  Loving-kindness represents a social attitude that is outwardly directed and can radiate boundlessly throughout the universe, encompassing all living beings. When the mind is filled with mettā, you care for all beings as the right hand cares for the left: without selfishness, without greed, and without hate. Those of you who have previously established jhāna based on a kasiṇa have already had an intimate experience with the expansive potential of consciousness. Those who have attained the immaterial absorptions will already know the infinite qualities of mind. Cultivating mettā, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity provides another vehicle for expanding consciousness.

  Mettā is described in the Buddhist canon as an immeasurable deliverance of mind that is exalted, without hostility, without ill will. It is characterized as immeasurable, because kindness expands consciousness infinitely and because the beings that mettā embraces are countless. A mind absorbed by mettā offers a powerful glimpse of the immeasurable quality of consciousness and an exquisite, though temporary, experience of mind free from the corruptions of desire, hate, and self-preoccupation.

  A Labyrinth of Phrases and Categories

  Meditators who are just beginning to establish loving-kindness may dedicate considerable time to nurturing mettā, by repeating the mettā phrases and carefully addressing the sequence of specific categories. You may use the traditional four phrases introduced earlier in this chapter, or condense the recitation to just one phrase, such as, “May you be happy and well,” or “May I be happy, peaceful, and free of suffering.” Feel free to compose your own mettā phrases, but they should be simple and reflect the basic wish that all beings share—to be happy and not suffer. Personally, I use longer reflective phrases when inserting mettā into busy daily life, and short pithy phrases when using mettā as a jhāna practice. I generally recommend that students begin by reciting the four traditional phrases until the quality of mettā arises and the image of the person for whom you are wishing happiness becomes clear. Then focus on just one phrase. You will quickly find phrasing that resonates well for you.

  Begin this practice by cultivating good will toward yourself. Start with a few minutes of contemplating your own genuine wish to be happy and not suffer. Although jhāna cannot be attained with self as the object, you can use yourself as the example, and since you know your own wish to be happy, you can extend that same authentic wish toward others.141

  Next, cultivate mettā toward a person whom you respect, admire, or feel gratitude toward, such as a teacher or benefactor. It is best not to use a relative or a close friend who might trigger either worry or attachment. For all the categories, use living pe
ople for whom there is no sexual attraction. Contemplate people when they are happy, doing something worthwhile, and are at their best. Conjure the image of this person’s happy smiling face, and repeat the phrases while seeing a vivid image of the person. The confluence of the meaning of the phrases, such as “may you be well and happy,” with a clear visualization of the person in a happy moment, develops a palpable quality you will learn to recognize as mettā. Once mettā arises toward one benefactor, add a second respected person, then a third, and continue until you have cultivated loving-kindness toward five to ten individuals in this category and then in each of the following categories.

  The third category, that of dear friends, may include close friends, family members, and associates—people that you generally like. This category poses the challenge of wishing well to people you care for and with whom you are intimate, without triggering attachment, personal affection, or worry.

  The fourth class of people includes anyone who occupies a neutral place in your life—people whom you neither like nor dislike. Often students remember a store clerk, a neighbor, or someone they have recently met but are indifferent toward.

  The fifth class of beings includes anyone for whom you harbor hostility and anger. There is no need to conjure up hated ones if you can’t recall someone who infuriates you. If there is no one that you hate, then you may choose someone who merely annoys you, or simply skip the category.

  The individuals in your classifications are fluid and will change; the placement merely reflects current attitudes toward certain people. This exercise should not stereotype or pigeonhole individuals. One meditator’s respected person may be another person’s neutral or hostile person; a dear friend may slide into the enemy category at some point in time. These classifications provide a simple way to create an order of beings, beginning with those toward whom it is easy to develop mettā and then progressing to those toward whom it is more difficult.

  Standard Mettā Sequence

  The following progression, from easy to difficult, structures a sequential training in mettā that gradually extends good will toward all kinds of beings, those that are respectable and familiar, as well as those who are unknown or untrustworthy:

  self

  respectable person or benefactor

  dear friend

  neutral person

  enemy or hostile person

  all beings by way of twelve classes and ten directions.

  Mettā as the Subject of Jhāna Concentration

  With mettā as a jhāna practice, attention will be entirely focused on mettā directed toward each person, unseduced by thoughts about personality, activities, history, or personal details. Notice the development of mettā. The mind will become glad and content, rapture and happiness will automatically fill consciousness, there will be no distractions, and your mind will easily absorb into jhāna. Develop mettā without wavering or interruption. This contemplation of mettā generates intense rapturous happiness and makes the mind extraordinarily conducive to concentration. Notice the difference between mettā and the other pleasant feelings that arise simultaneously with concentration.

  To deepen concentration, try to stay very steady with the pure and boundless quality of mettā that is available, without bias, for each and every being. Systematically working through the categories stimulates boundless love. Once you have established mettā with five to ten individuals in each category, you may discover that the categories seem equal. Love extends effortlessly to everyone; your energy remains balanced while you are wishing happiness toward dear friends and toward hated ones. Mettā arises just as rapidly toward respected persons as toward neutral persons. Eventually a profound evenness will permeate your boundless pure intention of good will.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 8.2

  Cultivating Mettā as a Jhāna Practice

  1. Begin the meditation by establishing concentration with the breath, a kasiṇa, or the meditation subject of your choice.

  2. Contemplate your own wish to be happy and not suffer. Then consider, “Just as I want to be happy and not suffer, so other beings share the same wish.” Using yourself as the example, begin to generate mettā by reciting the phrases and saturating yourself with kind intentions. You may start by reciting the set of four phrases, and then focus on just one phrase. After some minutes of directing mettā toward yourself, begin the systematic progression, individual by individual, category by category, phrase by phrase.

  3. Recite the set of four phrases (introduced in meditation instructions 8.1) while holding the image of a respected person in mind. Take the time to clarify the image of the person. Then focus on just one phrase and one respected individual. Concentrate on the meaning of this wish, and select an image of the person that fits with the phrase. It could be the smiling face of the person, or an expression appropriate to the wish of safety or freedom from distress that might dovetail well with the specific phrase. Let both the meaning of the phrases and the image of the person become very clear and steady. Work with the phrases, image, and individual until undistracted concentration is established, the hindrances are absent, the jhāna factors are strong, and you reach the threshold of absorption.

  4. When mettā is strong, resolve: “May my mind be absorbed in mettā,” and intensify your focus on the individual being with a pure attitude of good will. The being toward whom you are developing kindness is classically considered the object for this meditation.142 In jhāna a radiant field may be more apparent than the particularities of the face; the experience of mettā might eclipse the distinctness of the image of the person. You will, however, still retain the sense of the person to whom you are directing mettā: the concept of that person is an integral aspect of this meditation practice. The persons or beings that you are seeing are the causes for the arising of mettā; they are the spark for mettā’s glory. As explained in the Visuddhimagga, the “object is a single living being or many living beings, as a mental object consisting in a concept.”143 Mettā practice is not an abstract, self-indulgent, or narcissistic feeling; it is not generated based on generalized ideals of kindness. As a wise attitude toward beings and the wish for their welfare, mettā develops in response to the thought of an actual being.

  5. As concentration strengthens, attention will be steady without the repetition of verbal phrases—you will tune in to the frequency of mettā and remain riveted to this field of kindness. The phrases will cease in absorption, and the image of the face of the being who is your object may, or may not, remain vivid—either is fine. As the force of mettā builds through the intensity of this one-pointed attention imbued with mettā, the first jhāna may arise. Allow consciousness to unify with mettā and its object, and dwell in the first jhāna. It will be characterized by the five jhāna factors of applied and sustained attention, rapture, joy, and one-pointedness, and include the manifestation of vivid loving-kindness.

  6. After abiding in the first jhāna with mettā for a respected person as object for as long as you wish, emerge from absorption. Direct attention to the heart base—you may see the face of the being to whom you were directing mettā reflected in the mind door. Discern the jhāna factors, and reflect on the disadvantages and advantages of the first jhāna in the same manner performed previously (see meditation instruction 4.3).

  7. Apply the same approach to attain the second jhāna with the same respected person and the same phrase, and then the third jhāna with the same respected person and the same phrase. Mettā has the capability to raise the mind to the third jhāna, but not higher. The happiness that is intrinsic to mettā prevents the intensification of equanimity, which characterizes the fourth jhāna and immaterial states.144

  8. After successfully attaining the first, second, and third jhānas with a respected person, repeat the process with additional benefactors. After attaining all three jhānas with five to ten benefactors and one phrase, choose a second phrase and cultivate mettā through the three jhānas with this next phrase toward five to ten respected being
s. And then do so with a third phrase, and then the fourth phrase. In this way mettā and concentration will grow vibrant and clear.

  9. To accomplish so many steps, you will need to shift between jhānas very quickly—perhaps remaining in each jhāna for only a couple of minutes. Some meditators stereotype meditation as a slow and grueling process; however, when concentration is strong it becomes easy to shift quickly between objects. Try to work with ten beings in the respected category, ten beings in the dear friends category, ten beings in the neutral category, and ten in the hated ones group. Attain the three jhānas with each of the four phrases. Work with all the categories—you can do this if you are willing to try it fast! Enjoy this light and playful connection with the categories of beings. This approach is likened to a circus horse that darts quickly around and through all the areas of the circus ring; likewise, the meditator quickly moves through all the delimited categories of beings.145

  Breaking Down the Boundaries

  For those who have already suppressed the hindrances and established jhāna with other objects, mettā will arise quickly. Therefore, instead of sustaining long absorptions, in this jhāna sequence you will dissolve the separations between types of beings and emphasize an equality of good will toward beings in all the categories.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 8.3