Live Session Summary, Sunday, October 2, 2022: It was good to be with you today for our Live session from Kansas City. The theme of the session was 'how the Buddha's heart practices can support us in difficult times.' I spoke about how the four heart practices—known as Brahma Viharas, 'divine abodes' or our best home—of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic or altruistic joy, and equanimity can help us open and free our heart—and engage wisely and compassionately with the suffering around us without bringing more conflict and division into the world.
•In the practice of loving-kindness, we cultivate an attitude of unconditional friendliness to all beings. The training to open our heart begins with ourselves and a loved one, friend, or benefactor—and as we build our capacity to open to suffering and befriend all experience, expanding the circle outward to include 'neutral' and 'difficult' people and all beings. Loving-kindness—and the other heart qualities—is said to be boundless and immeasurable: there is no limitation on how widely our intentions of kindness and friendliness can extend, nor on the number of people and beings who can be included in our care, compassion, and wishes of well-being. In fact, the more we cultivate an open heart, the more capacity the heart has to open further.
•When we cultivate compassion—the response of an undefended heart in the face of suffering—we build our capacity to meet suffering wherever it arises. Compassion begins with ourselves—opening to our own suffering. If we are caught up in craving or fear, we will not be able to open to the suffering of others. When the heart is open and unobstructed, there is a natural caring, friendliness, and concern for others and the wish to do all we can to alleviate their suffering.
•The third of the heart qualities is traditionally expressed as 'appreciative joy' or 'sympathetic joy', meaning joy in the happiness of another. In the words of Buddhist teacher Christina Feldman, 'It speaks of our capacity to celebrate, honor, and rejoice in the happiness and well-being of another.' (Feldman, Boundless Heart, p 84)
•Equanimity, the fourth of the heart qualities or divine abodes, is a quality of steadiness, balance, evenness of heart/mind that helps us meet the ups and downs of life without being swept up or overwhelmed. 'A simple definition of equanimity… is the capacity to not be caught up with what happens to us' (Gil Fronsdal).
Cultivating these heart qualities—'four faces of love' (Fronsdal)—helps us open and transform our own heart and strengthens our capacity to meet the challenges we face in the world. As we let go of afflictive states and our heart opens, there is a natural wish to open to others' and the world's pain with compassion and wisdom.
I shared Martha Postlethwaite's 'Clearing' and 'Walker' by Antonio Machado. Please let me know if I missed anything. I'm having a rest day on Monday before continuing to the next leg of the road trip—to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Have a lovely week and hope to see you at our next Live session at 9am eastern next Sunday.! Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏼 🌻
