The Four Faces of Love: The Brahma Viharas

[Aloka]

The Four Faces of Love: The Brahma Viharas

An article by Gil Fronsdal.

https://www.insightmeditationcenter....rahma-viharas/


Any thoughts?

[justusryans]

Well, he certainly made the Divine Abidings more accessible to me. I’ve not read or listened to anything that even was close to as informative to me.

It sort of reminds me of Plato in the “Symposium”. Thank you Aloka for such a great thread.

[Aloka]

I was looking at the above article again just now - and I think the Brahma Viharas are especially inspirational during challenging times.




some links:

https://suttacentral.net/arv10/en/anandajoti

https://suttacentral.net/kp9/en/amaravati

[Genecanuck]

Hello Aloka,

I appreciated the fact that you shared “The Four Faces of Love, The Brahma Viharas” article along with the Brahma Viharas links in this thread.

I often encounter these concepts from various sources but it is not always evident that the Brahmaviharas are interdependent experiences and not distinct from one another.

Gil Fronsdal's article and the links you provided made them more coherent and accessible. They are definitely inspirational during challenging times.

Many thanks.

Kind Regards,

Gene

[philg]

One of my two core meditations is Loving Kindness, which follows the pattern of 'Meditating on the Brahmaviharas' in the article. It teaches that loving kindness is nothing if not for everyone, whether you like them or not. It is unconditional. I finish with visualisation practice where metta in the form of white light spreads out across the world, freely available to everyone. This helps with the last part of the article, taking it off the mat into everyday life.