Brahmavihara

• Pāli: {{transliteration|pi|cattāri brahmavihārā}}
• {{langx|si| සතර බ්‍රහ්මවිහාරා }} (sathara brahmavihārā)
• {{bo|t=ཚད་མེད་བཞི།}} | (Wylie: {{transliteration|bo|tshad med bzhi}})

{{transliteration|pi|Brahmavihārā}} may be parsed as "{{transliteration|pi|Brahma}}" and "{{transliteration|pi|vihāra}}", which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes".{{cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.208.than.html|translator=Thanissaro Bhikkhu|title= AN 10.208: Brahmavihara Sutta: The Sublime Attitudes|year=2004|website=Access to Insight}}

{{transliteration|pi|Apramāṇa}}, usually translated as "the immeasurables", means "boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable".Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921–25, Pali-English Dictionary, Pali Text Society. When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the loving {{transliteration|pi|Brahma}} (gods).{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Harvey|title=An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|page=104}}

Other translations:

• English: four divine abodes, four divine emotions, four sublime attitudes, four divine dwellings.{{sfn|Bodhi|2012|p=1618}}
• East Asia: ({{CJKV|t=四無量心|p=Sì wúliàng xīn|j=四無量心|r=shimuryōshin|k=사무량심|v=Tứ Vô Lượng Tâm|l=four immeasurable states of mind, from apramāṇa-citta}}), ({{CJKV|t=四等(心)|p=sì děng|l=four equalities/universals}}), ({{CJKV|t=四梵行|p=sì fàn xíng|l=noble Brahma-acts/characteristics}}).W.E. Soothill and Lewis Hodous, 1937, [https://mahajana.net/texts/soothill-hodous.html A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms].
• {{bo|t=ཚངས་པའི་གནས་བཞི་|w=. tshangs pa'i gnas bzhi}} (four {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihara}}) or {{bo|t=ཚད་མེད་བཞི|w=tshad med bzhi}} (four immeasurables).

The four {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}} are:

1. Loving-kindness (Pāli: {{transliteration|pi|mettā}}, {{langx|si|මෛත්‍රිය (maitriya)}}), or active good will towards all;
2. Compassion (Pāli and {{langx|si| කරුණා (karuṇā)}}) results from {{transliteration|pi|metta}}, identifying the suffering of others as one's own;
3. Sympathetic joy (Pāli and {{langx|si| මුදිතා (mudita)}}) results from {{transliteration|pi|metta}}: the feeling of joy because others are happy, even if one did not contribute to it, as a form of sympathetic joy;
4. Equanimity (Pāli: {{transliteration|pi|upekkhā}}, {{langx|si| උපේක්ෂා (upekshā)}}): even-mindedness and serenity, treating everyone impartially.{{cite book |author=Merv Fowler |title=Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7UKjtA0QDwC |year=1999 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-898723-66-0 |pages=60–62 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey |title=An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XAgAwAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-85126-8 |pages=154, 326 }}

The {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}} is a pre-Buddhist Brahminical concept, to which the Buddhist tradition gave its interpretation.{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey |title=Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA247|year=2001|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-4726-4 |page=247 }} The Digha Nikaya asserts that according to Buddha, "{{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}} is "that practice," and he then contrasts it with "my practice" as follows:

{{quote|...that practice [namely, the mere cultivation of love and so forth, according to the fourfold instructions] is conducive not to turning away, nor to dispassion, nor quiet, nor to cessation, nor to direct knowledge, nor to enlightenment, nor nirvana, but only to rebirth in the world of Brahma.

...my practice is conducive to complete turning away, dispassion, cessation, quieting, direct knowledge, enlightenment, and nirvana – specifically the eightfold noble path (...)

|The Buddha, Digha Nikaya II.251|Translated by Harvey B. Aronson{{cite book|author=Harvey B. Aronson |title=Love and Sympathy in Theravāda Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYn7WsDccU0C&pg=PA71 |year=1980|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1403-5 |page=71 }}}}

According to Richard Gombrich, an Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, the Buddhist usage of the {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}} originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude towards other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now. The later tradition took those descriptions too literal, linking them to cosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahma world.{{sfn|Gombrich|1997|p=84-85}} According to Gombrich, "The Buddha taught that kindness – what Christians tend to call love – was a way to salvation.{{sfn|Gombrich|1997|p=62}}

In the Tevijja Sutta, "The Threefold Knowledge" in the Digha Nikāya or "Collection of the Long Discourses", a group of young Brahmins consulted Lord Buddha about the methods to seek fellowship/companionship/communion with Brahma. He replied that he knows the world of Brahma and the way to it, and explains the meditative method for reaching it by using an analogy of the resonance of the conch shell of the {{transliteration|pi|aṣṭamaṅgala}}:

{{quote|A monk suffuses the world in the four directions with a mind of benevolence, then above, and below, and all around – the whole world from all sides, completely, with a benevolent, all-embracing, great, boundless, peaceful and friendly mind ... Just as a powerful conch-blower makes himself heard with no great effort in all four [cardinal] directions, so too is there no limit to the unfolding of [this] heart-liberating benevolence. This is a way to communion with Brahma.{{cite book|title=Majjhimanikaya|translator-first1=Kurt|translator-last1=Schmidt|publisher=Kristkeitz|location=Berlin|year=1978|page=261|translator-first2=Tony|translator-last2=Page}}}}

The Buddha then said that the monk must follow this up with an equal suffusion of the entire world with mental projections of compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (regarding all beings with an eye for equality).

In the two Metta Suttas of the Aṅguttara Nikāya,{{cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.125.than.html|title=AN 4.125: Metta Sutta: Good Will (1)|translator=Thanissaro Bhikku|year=2006|website=Access to Insight}}

• {{cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.126.than.html|title=AN 4.125: Metta Sutta: Good Will (2)|translator=Thanissaro Bhikku|year=2006|website=Access to Insight}} the Buddha states that those who practice radiating the four immeasurables in this life and die "without losing it" are destined for rebirth in a heavenly realm in their next life. In addition, if such a person is a Buddhist disciple (Pāli: {{transliteration|pi|sāvaka}}) and thus realizes the three characteristics of the five aggregates, then after his heavenly life, this disciple will reach {{transliteration|pi|nibbāna}}. Even if one is not a disciple, one will still attain the heavenly life, after which, however depending on what his past deeds may have been, one may be reborn in a hell realm, or as an animal or hungry ghost.{{cite web|title=AN 4.125: Metta Sutta: Loving-kindness |translator=Ñanamoli Thera |url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.125.nymo.html |website=Access to Insight |year=1998}}

In another sutta in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the laywoman Sāmāvatī is mentioned as an example of someone who excels at loving-kindness.{{sfn|Bodhi|2012|p=112}} In the Buddhist tradition she is often referred to as such, often citing an account that an arrow shot at her was warded off through her spiritual power.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Sāmāvatī|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names|year=1938 |publisher=Pali Text Society |location=Wilts|volume=2}}

The four immeasurables are explained in The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), written in {{CE|the fifth century}} by the scholar and commentator Buddhaghoṣa. They are often practiced by taking each of the immeasurables in turn and applying it to oneself (a practice taught by many contemporary teachers and monastics that was established after the Pāli Suttas were completed), and then to others nearby, and so on to everybody in the world, and everybody in all universes.{{Cite book|last=Mishra|first=N. K. Singh and A. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7xOAQAAIAAJ&q=%22immeasurables%22+oneself+%22others%22+%22world%22|title=Global Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophy|date=2010-01-01|publisher=Global Vision Publishing House|isbn=978-81-8220-294-8|language=en}}

A Cavern of Treasures ({{bo|t=མཛོད་ཕུག|w=mdzod phug}}) is a Bonpo {{transliteration|bo|terma}} uncovered by Shenchen Luga ({{bo|t=གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ|w=gshen-chen klu-dga'}}) in the early eleventh century. A segment of it enshrines a Bonpo evocation of the four immeasurables.{{cite web|url=https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/comparison-of-buddhist-traditions/the-four-immeasurables-in-hinayana-mahayana-and-bon|last=Berzin|first=Alexander|year=2005|title=The Four Immeasurable Attitudes in Hinayana, Mahayana, and Bon|website=Study Buddhism|access-date=June 6, 2016}} Martin (n.d.: p. 21) identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of the Zhang-Zhung language.{{cite web|url=http://ir.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/1286/1/SER15_004.pdf|last=Martin|first=Dan|title=Comparing Treasuries: Mental states and other mDzod phug lists and passages with parallels in Abhidharma works by Vasubandhu and Asaṅga or in Prajñâpâramitâ Sutras : A progress report|publisher=University of Jerusalem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628000301/http://ir.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/1286/1/SER15_004.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-28|access-date=March 1, 2010|quote=For students of Tibetan culture in general, the mDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan. (Some of the shorter but still significant sources for Zhang-zhung are signalled in Orofino 1990.)}}

Before the advent of the Buddha, according to Martin Wiltshire, the pre-Buddhist traditions of {{IAST|Brahmāloka}}, meditation, and these four virtues are evidenced in both early Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature.{{cite book|author=Martin G. Wiltshire |title=Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism: The Emergence of Gautama as the Buddha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WXmmkYQf4RwC&pg=PA248 |year=1990|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-009896-9 |pages=248–264 }} The Early Buddhist Texts assert that pre-Buddha ancient Indian sages who taught these virtues were earlier incarnations of the Buddha. Post-Buddha, these same virtues are found in the Hindu texts such as verse 1.33 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.Quote: {{lang|sa|मैत्रीकरुणामुदितोपेक्षाणां सुखदुःखपुण्यापुण्यविषयाणां भावनातश्चित्तप्रसादनम्}} — Yogasutra 1.33; {{cite web|url=https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_yoga/yogasuutra.html?lang=sa|title=Patanjali Yogasutra|website=SanskritDocuments.Org}}

Three of the four immeasurables, namely {{transliteration|sa|maitrī}}, {{transliteration|sa|karuṇā}}, and {{transliteration|sa|upekṣā}}, are found in the later Upanishads, while all four are found with slight variations – such as {{transliteration|sa|pramodā}} instead of {{transliteration|sa|muditā}} – in Jainism literature, states Wiltshire.{{cite book|author=Martin G. Wiltshire |title=Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism: The Emergence of Gautama as the Buddha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WXmmkYQf4RwC&pg=PA248 |year=1990|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-009896-9 |pages=241–242 }} The ancient Indian {{transliteration|pi|Paccekabuddhas}} mentioned in the early Buddhist Suttas – those who attained nibbāna before the Buddha – mention all "four immeasurables."

According to British scholar of Buddhism Peter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the four {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}} meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition". The Buddha never claimed that the "four immeasurables" were his unique ideas, like "cessation, quieting, nirvana".

A shift in Vedic ideas, from rituals to virtues, is particularly discernible in the early Upanishad thought, and it is unclear as to what extent and how early Upanishad traditions and Sraman traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism influenced each other on ideas such as "four immeasurables", meditation, and {{transliteration|pi|brahmavihārā}}.

In an authoritative Jain scripture, the Tattvartha Sutra (Chapter 7, sutra 11), there is a mention of four right sentiments: {{transliteration|sa|maitrī}}, {{transliteration|sa|pramodā}}, {{transliteration|sa|karuṇā}}, and {{transliteration|sa|mādhyastha}}:

{{quote|Benevolence towards all living beings, joy at the sight of the virtuous, compassion and sympathy for the afflicted, and tolerance towards the insolent and ill-behaved.}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Citation | last=Bodhi | first = Bhikkhu | year = 2012 | title = The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya| publisher = Wisdom Publications | location=Boston | isbn=978-1-61429-040-7}}
• {{Citation | last =Gombrich | first =Richard F. | year =1997 | title =How Buddhism Began | publisher =Munshiram Manoharlal}}

{{refend}}

• {{annotated link|Karuṇā}}
• {{annotated link|Metta}}
• {{annotated link|Mudita}}
• {{annotated link|Upekkha}}

• Buddhas Reden (Majjhimanikaya), Kristkreitz, Berlin, 1978, tr. by Kurt Schmidt
• Yamamoto, Kosho (tr.) & Page, Tony (revision) (2000). The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. London, UK: Nirvana Publications.

• [https://media.amaravati.org/dhamma-books/the-sublime-attitudes-a-study-guide-on-the-brahmaviharas The Sublime Attitudes: A Study Guide on the Brahmavihāras] - Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (2014)
• [https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/comparison-of-buddhist-traditions/the-four-immeasurables-in-hinayana-mahayana-and-bon The Four Immeasurable Attitudes in Hinayana, Mahayana, and Bon] - by Alexander Berzin (2005)
• [https://www.lotsawahouse.org/indian-masters/buddhagupta/four-immeasurables-commentary An Extensive Commentary on the Four Immeasurables]- by Buddhagupta
• [https://www.buddhanet.net/bvihar.htm The Four Sublime States] by the Venerable Nyanaponika Thera.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060819075238/http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/immeasurables_love_compassion_equanimity_rejoicing.html The Four Immeasurables]
• [https://tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=A_Cavern_of_Treasures_and_Shenchen_Luga_(1017_AD) A Cavern of Treasures and Shenchen Luga (1017 AD)]

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