January 30 – A family of qualities

Dear Friends,

As this month of reflection draws to a close, I’m going to circle back to the beginning of the book, where Christina Feldman presented how these practices work together to support one another:

Kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are a family of qualities that support, strengthen, nourish, and balance one another. Immeasurable kindness teaches us a way of being in this world that is no longer defined by ideas of friends and enemies, by likes and dislikes, preferences and demands for reciprocation. Boundless friendliness is the root of compassion and protects it from despair and partiality. Kindness guards equanimity from falling into indifference.

Compassion protects kindness from falling into sentimentality or becoming only a state of elation, always recollecting the reality of the immensity of sorrow in the world. Compassion, rooted in kindness, becomes selfless and protects joy from forgetfulness. Compassion extends the remit of kindness and turns it into altruistic and healing action.

Joy is needed to temper the raw edges of sorrow and pain encountered as our hearts tremble in the face of sorrow and anguish. Joy brings ease and rest into our endeavors to bring the origins of suffering to an end. The joyful heart tempers pain and suffering with the remembering of that which is well and unbroken, even in the midst of distress, and guards the compassionate heart from being overwhelmed by sorrow.

Equanimity brings to kindness and compassion patience and steadiness; equanimity balances joy, protecting it from wandering into the emotional extremes of exuberance, just as joy softens and brings serenity to equanimity. Equanimity allows us to act without becoming preoccupied with the results and outcomes of our actions. It is a quality of strength and inner poise that allows us to respond to the world of experience without fear and hesitation.

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Now that we’ve had an opportunity to reflect on each of these qualities, we can perhaps see, through our own experience, how this is true for us.

There are many ways we practice and cultivate these qualities. There are a variety of phrases, there is the radiating method, there is just an embodied knowing.

Ayya Anandabodhi had a talk last fall in which she talked about the four qualities and describes different ways to practice. She encourages us to find our way in – even if it’s only a little glow to start.
“Creativity with the Brahma Viharas – Finding a way to access the heart qualities and letting them transform your life”
https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/379/talk/52243/

If you do enjoy the radiating method of practice, Anandabodhi led a practice that cultivated all four qualities here:
https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/379/talk/49513/

As it’s the last Wednesday of the month, the https://saskatooninsight.com/ will be cultivating the heart qualities in our meditation practice. Please join us, if you’re able – either in person or where ever you are – knowing that we’re practicing together with an intention to liberate the heart, with an intention to speak, think, and act with kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. (Added bonus if you can join us in person, perhaps you can stay for tea and try a variation of the cookie recipe I mentioned last week, this time made with maple syrup instead of honey.)

Warm wishes,
Andrea