Cattāri Brahmavihārā

“If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness. If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!” -The Dalai Lama

Today is the uposatha and I am fortunate enough to be able to observe it in peace. I have missed the passed few dice the ending of Ramadan due to a combination of poor will power and strange circumstances.

I listened to a recorded livestream of Ajahn Achalo again in which he talking about the brahmaviharas and how to cultivate them. He didn’t spend so much time on mudita during that portion of the b talk but later, when asked about rebirth, he mentioned that only those beings capable of removing in merit dedicated to them can receive and be helped by it. As such, the Ajahn said, it we never developed this facility in life, we would likely not be about to receive dedications off merit in the next.

I have decided to spend twenty minutes on each of the Brahmaviharas each day which is 80 minutes of meditation a day. This, plus the 10 I do on other subjects, means I am committing to 90 minutes of meditation a day. Really, not that I devote almost the same amount of time to physical fitness I would be ashamed to let my Dhamma practice slip into second place.