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| Translations of Brahmavihāra | |
|---|---|
| English | four divine abodes |
| Pali | cattāri brahmavihārā |
| Burmese | ဗြဟ္မဝိဟာရတရားလေးပါး |
| Chinese | 四無量心 (Pinyin:sì wúliàng xīn) |
| Japanese | 四無量心 (Rōmaji:shimuryōshin) |
| Khmer | ព្រហ្មវិហារ (UNGEGN:prôhmâvĭhar) |
| Korean | 사무량심 (RR:samulyangsim) |
| Lao | ພົມວິຫານ (phomwihan) |
| Sinhala | සතර බ්රහ්ම විහරණ (sathara brahma viharana) |
| Tibetan | ཚངས་པའི་གནས་བཞི་ (tshangs pa'i gnas bzhi) |
| Tagalog | Blahmabihala |
| Thai | พรหมวิหาร (RTGS:phrom wihan) |
| Vietnamese | Tứ vô lượng tâm Bốn Phạm trú 四無量心 四梵住 |
| Glossary of Buddhism | |
Thebrahmavihārā (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of Brahma") is a series of fourBuddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as thefour immeasurables (Pāli:appamaññā)[1] orfour infinite minds (Chinese:四無量心).[2] Thebrahmavihārā are:
According to theMetta Sutta, cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a "Brahma realm" (Pāli:Brahmaloka).[3]
Brahmavihārā may beparsed as "Brahma" and "vihāra", which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes".[4]
Apramāṇa, usually translated as "the immeasurables", means "boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable".[5] When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the lovingBrahma (gods).[6]
Other translations:
The fourbrahmavihārā are:
Thebrahmavihārā is a pre-BuddhistBrahminical concept, to which theBuddhist tradition gave its interpretation.[11][12] TheDigha Nikaya asserts that according toBuddha, "brahmavihārā is "that practice," and he then contrasts it with "my practice" as follows:[11]
...that practice [namely, the mere cultivation of love and so forth, according to the fourfold instructions] is conducive not to turning away, nor to dispassion, nor quiet, nor to cessation, nor to direct knowledge, nor to enlightenment, nor nirvana, but only to rebirth in the world of Brahma.
...my practice is conducive to complete turning away, dispassion, cessation, quieting, direct knowledge, enlightenment, and nirvana – specifically theeightfold noble path (...)
— The Buddha, Digha Nikaya II.251, Translated by Harvey B. Aronson[11]
According toRichard Gombrich, anIndologist and scholar ofSanskrit,Pāli, theBuddhist usage of thebrahmavihārā originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude towards other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now. The later tradition took those descriptions too literal, linking them tocosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" byrebirth in the Brahma world.[13] According to Gombrich, "TheBuddha taught that kindness – what Christians tend to call love – was a way tosalvation.[14]
In theTevijja Sutta, "The Threefold Knowledge" in theDigha Nikāya or "Collection of the Long Discourses", a group of youngBrahmins consulted LordBuddha about the methods to seek fellowship/companionship/communion withBrahma. He replied that he knows the world ofBrahma and the way to it, and explains the meditative method for reaching it by using ananalogy of theresonance of theconch shell of theaṣṭamaṅgala:
A monk suffuses the world in the four directions with a mind of benevolence, then above, and below, and all around – the whole world from all sides, completely, with a benevolent, all-embracing, great, boundless, peaceful and friendly mind ... Just as a powerful conch-blower makes himself heard with no great effort in all four [cardinal] directions, so too is there no limit to the unfolding of [this] heart-liberating benevolence. This is a way to communion with Brahma.[15]
TheBuddha then said that the monk must follow this up with an equal suffusion of the entire world with mental projections of compassion, sympathetic joy, andequanimity (regarding all beings with an eye for equality).
In the twoMetta Suttas of theAṅguttara Nikāya,[16] theBuddha states that those who practice radiating the four immeasurables in this life and die "without losing it" are destined for rebirth in a heavenly realm in their next life. In addition, if such a person is a Buddhist disciple (Pāli:sāvaka) and thus realizes thethree characteristics of thefive aggregates, then after his heavenly life, this disciple will reachnibbāna. Even if one is not a disciple, one will still attain the heavenly life, after which, however depending on what his past deeds may have been, one may be reborn in ahell realm, or as an animal orhungry ghost.[17]
In another sutta in theAṅguttara Nikāya, the laywoman Sāmāvatī is mentioned as an example of someone who excels at loving-kindness.[18] In theBuddhist tradition she is often referred to as such, often citing an account that an arrow shot at her was warded off through her spiritual power.[19]
The four immeasurables are explained inThe Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), written in the fifth century CE by the scholar and commentatorBuddhaghoṣa. They are often practiced by taking each of the immeasurables in turn and applying it to oneself (a practice taught by many contemporary teachers andmonastics that was established after the Pāli Suttas were completed), and then to others nearby, and so on to everybody in the world, and everybody in all universes.[20]
A Cavern of Treasures (Tibetan:མཛོད་ཕུག,Wylie:mdzod phug) is aBonpoterma uncovered byShenchen Luga (Tibetan:གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ,Wylie:gshen-chen klu-dga') in the early eleventh century. A segment of it enshrines aBonpo evocation of the four immeasurables.[21] Martin (n.d.: p. 21) identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of theZhang-Zhung language.[22]
Before the advent of theBuddha, according to Martin Wiltshire, the pre-Buddhist traditions ofBrahmāloka, meditation, and these four virtues are evidenced in both earlyBuddhist and non-Buddhist literature.[23] TheEarly Buddhist Texts assert that pre-Buddha ancient Indian sages who taught these virtues were earlierincarnations of theBuddha.[23] Post-Buddha, these samevirtues are found in theHindu texts such as verse 1.33 of theYoga Sutras of Patanjali.[24]
Three of the four immeasurables, namelymaitrī,karuṇā, andupekṣā, are found in the laterUpanishads, while all four are found with slight variations – such aspramodā instead ofmuditā – in Jainism literature, states Wiltshire.[25] The ancient IndianPaccekabuddhas mentioned in the early BuddhistSuttas – those who attainednibbāna before theBuddha – mention all "four immeasurables."[23]
According to British scholar ofBuddhismPeter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the fourbrahmavihārā meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition".[12] TheBuddha never claimed that the "four immeasurables" were his unique ideas, like "cessation, quieting,nirvana".[11]
A shift inVedic ideas, fromrituals tovirtues, is particularly discernible in the earlyUpanishad thought, and it is unclear as to what extent and how earlyUpanishad traditions andSraman traditions such asBuddhism andJainism influenced each other on ideas such as "four immeasurables", meditation, andbrahmavihārā.[23]
In an authoritative Jain scripture, theTattvartha Sutra (Chapter 7, sutra 11), there is a mention of four right sentiments:maitrī,pramodā,karuṇā, andmādhyastha:
Benevolence towards all living beings, joy at the sight of the virtuous, compassion and sympathy for the afflicted, and tolerance towards the insolent and ill-behaved.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)For students of Tibetan culture in general, themDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan. (Some of the shorter but still significant sources for Zhang-zhung are signalled in Orofino 1990.)
