This eight-week course explores two of the four divine abodes. These are the beautiful boundless emotions described by the Buddha. We will take them up both as a meditative training and a daily life reflection used to transform the weight and inertia of our afflictive states of mind.
For this course, participants are encouraged to purchase Sharon Salzberg’s book, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness.
Audio
Study Resources
- Four Reflections for Week 1 and 2, by Mark Nunberg
- Samadhi or Stability of Mind: The strengthening of the five jhanic factors and the abandoning of the five hindrances, by Mark Nunberg
- Four Stages of Metta Practice, by Mark Nunberg
- UNDERSTANDING THE PRACTICES OF THE FOUR DIVINE ABODES – Buddhist Studies Page
- What is Metta Meditation? , By Sharon Salzberg
- Liberating Emotions, by Ajahn Sumedho
- The Practices of the Divine Abodes: Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, and Equanimity, By Mark Nunberg
- Triumph of the Heart , By Joseph Goldstein, Tricycle, SPRING 2008
- 11 Benefits of Loving-Friendliness Meditation, By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
- Mudita?: Sharing in Joy A Chapter from Ajahn Sucitto’s book, ?Meditation: The Way of Awakening
- Liberating the Mind through Sympathetic Joy, by Sharon Salzberg
- The Nature of Compassion, by Sharon Salzberg
- She Who Hears the Cries of the World, By Christina Feldman
- Cultivating Compassion: How to love yourself and others, By Thich Nhat Hanh
- An Appropriate Response: When we practice compassion, we embody an impossible vow, By Christina Feldman and Chris Cullen
- Understanding Equanimity: The Secret Ingredient in Mindfulness, by Sharon Salzberg
- Equanimity, by Gil Fronsdal
- Equanimity in Every Bite, By Shaila Catherine
- Evenness of Mind: Upekkha? Pa?rami?, From Ajahn Sucitto’s book: Parami, Ways to Cross Life’s Floods
- The Secrets of Pronoia, Rob Brezsny
- The Four Sublime States: Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity, Nyanaponika Thera
- Systematic cultivation of Mudita, from the Sankha Sutta: The Conch Trumpet, Tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Mudita: The Buddha’s Teaching on Unselfish Joy, Four essays by Nyanaponika Thera, Natasha Jackson, C.F. Knight, and L.R. Oates
- Mudita: Guided Meditation, Guy Armstrong
- Mudita as a factor leading to liberation, from the Nissaraniya Sutta: Means of Escape, tr. Thanissaro Bikkhu
- Mudita, From: “The Heart Awakened – Three Essays”, by Eileen Siriwardhana. Bodhi Leaves No. 93. Buddhist Publication Society. Kandy, Sri Lanka
- Head & Heart Together Bringing Wisdom to the Brahma-viharas, Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Happiness is Possible, Sally Clough Armstrong
- Happiness, Jane Kenyon
- Going Down a Hill on a Bicycle, Henry Beeching
- Compassion Curriculum, An interview with GESHE THUPTEN JINPA from Inquiring Mind
- Afternoon on a Hill, Edna St. Vincent Millay
- The Practices of the Divine Abodes by Mark Nunberg
- So Much Happiness by Naomi Shihab Nye
- A Perfect Balance: Cultivating equanimity with Gil Fronsdal and Sayadaw U Pandita, Tricycle, WINTER 2005
- Salzberg_Chapter 9 on Equanimity
- The Buddha’s Smile: Cultivating Equanimity by Andy Olendzki