Brahma Viharas

[Bokusei]

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this.

I've been looking in to the brahma viharas recently and I was wondering how this teaching fits into the soto or wider zen tradition. Obviously it is implicit to an extent, but is there an explicit rendering of the buddha's teaching on this in Mahayana?

Thanks for any insights into this in advance.




Gassho

Bokusei

SaT
ToDaY

[Kokuu]

Hi Bokusei

I have practiced Brahma Vihara/Four Divine Abodes meditations in Theravadin and Tibetan traditions but you are right that in Zen it is more of an implicit practice. Through Zazen we just sit with what is and as body and mind drop away love and equanimity develop naturally as we realise the lack of separation between ourself and others and learn to see the impermanence and emptiness of all experience.

More specifically, we have a metta practice at Treeleaf which someone will doubtless have a link to! This is normally done at the end of practice or the end of the day but could be made into its own longer sit.

One of my teachers described the Brahma Viharas as basically love + equanimity. When love meets suffering, it becomes compassion. When it meets joy, it takes the form of sympathetic joy.

B Alan Wallace writes from the perspective of the Tibetan Gelug tradition but his book The Four Immeasurables is one I got a lot out of. More Zen related, Zoketsu Norman Fischer wrote Training in Compassion as a guide to developing these kinds of positive emotional states.

Active compassion - giving and being active in the world and our community - is another way Treeleaf encourages the development of love. Love is not something you feel but something you do.

I hope some of this helps.

Deep bows for your practice
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Bokusei]

Thank you Kokuu, I'll look into those.

I have been following the Treeleaf metta practice for a while, but as you know, that is only part of the divine abodes (or however you prefer to translate them).

I like the way you capture the meaning of the viharas in the pragmatism of action.

Thank you again




Gassho

Bokusei

saTToday

[Jundo]

Hi Bokusei,

I agree with what Kokuu says, and we do not undertake a specific meditation practice on the Viharas (usually listed as loving-kindness/benevolence, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity). However, I might emphasize that these themes fill our Practice even here, both in the offer of Metta and "Nurturing Seeds" ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?6540-RECOMMENDED-DAILY-Nurturing-Seeds-PRACTICE

... but also as a general flavor of Practice in most of what we do. Every situation in life is an "Opportunity to Practice" any and all of these.

We also emphasize the very closely related Bodhisattva Virtues, which you read here ...

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?17227-Whattsa-Who-sa-Bodhisattva-%28A-Sit-a-Long-Series%29

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[Bokusei]

Thank you Jundo


Gassho

Bokusei

saTToday