Divine Abidings

[Babadhari]

i found this chart on Dhammawiki and it is a subject i would like to read more about
for too much of my life i have been consumed by negative emotions affecting those closest to me in an unwholesome way.

loving-kindness is characterized here as promoting the aspect of welfare.
Its function is to prefer welfare.
It is manifested as the removal of annoyance.
Its proximate cause is seeing loveableness in beings.
It succeeds when it makes ill will subside, and it fails when it produces (selfish) affection.


. Compassion is characterized as promoting the aspect of allaying suffering.
Its function resides in not bearing others’ suffering.
It is manifested as noncruelty.
Its proximate cause is to see helplessness in those overwhelmed by suffering.
It succeeds when it makes cruelty subside and it fails when it produces sorrow.

Gladness is characterized as gladdening (produced by others’ success)
Its function resides in being unenvious.
It is manifested as the elimination of aversion (boredom).
Its proximate cause is seeing beings, success.
It succeeds when it makes aversion (boredom) subside, and it fails when it produces merriment.

. Equanimity is characterized as promoting the aspect of neutrality towards beings.
Its function is to see equality in beings.
It is manifested as the quieting of resentment and approval.
Its proximate cause is seeing ownership of deeds (kamma) thus:
“Beings are owners of their deeds. Whose [if not theirs] is the
choice by which they will become happy, or will get free from suffering,
or willnot fall away from the success they have reached?”
It succeeds when it makes resentment and approval subside,
and it fails when it produces the equanimityof unknowing,
which is that [worldly-minded indifference of ignorance] based on the house life.

[Purpose]
97. The general purpose of these four divine abidings is the bliss of insight
and an excellent [form of future] existence. That peculiar to each is respectively
the warding off of ill will, and so on.

For here loving-kindness has the purposeof warding off ill will,
while the others have the respective purposes of warding off
cruelty, aversion (boredom), and greed or resentment.
And this is said too:
“For this is the escape from ill will, friends, that is to say,
the mind-deliverance of loving-kindness …
For this is the escape from cruelty, friends, that is to say, the
mind-deliverance of compassion …
For this is the escape from boredom, friends,that is to say
the mind-deliverance of gladness …
For this is the escape from greed, friends, that is to say,
the mind-deliverance of equanimity”


taken from ' CHAPTER IX — THE DIVINE ABIDINGS ' of The Vishuddimagga translated by Bhikku Nanamoli
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... on2011.pdf

to those i have offended or hurt i ask your forgiveness.....
love all, serve all

[Dhammanando]

There is a mistake in the chart.

The near-enemy of compassion is not 'pity'. In fact the very idea of there being some difference between compassion and pity is quite a recent development in the English language; it's a distinction invented by purveyors of pop psychology and inherited by some North American vipassanā teachers. Before the twentieth century the two words were virtually synonymous, notwithstanding their very different provenance and early semantic history. In the texts the near-enemy of compassion is given in some sources as sorrow (soka) and in others as unpleasant mental feeling (domanassa-vedanā).

[Babadhari]

thank you for the correction Bhante

[santa100]

For further info. on those near and far enemies, refer to Vism IX, pg 312-313: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... on2011.pdf

[Babadhari]

thanks santa,

[The Near and Far Enemies]

98. And here each one has two enemies, one near and one far.
The divine abiding of loving-kindness has greed as its near enemy
since both share in seeing virtues.
Greed behaves like a foe who keeps close by a man, and it easily finds an opportunity.
So loving-kindness should be well protected from it.
And ill will, which is dissimilar to the similar greed,
is its farenemy like a foe ensconced in a rock wilderness.
So loving-kindness must be practiced free from fear of that;
for it is not possible to practice loving-kindness and feel anger simultaneously

99. Compassion has grief based on the home life as its near enemy,
since both share in seeing failure.
Such grief has been described in the way beginning,
“When a man either regards as a privation failure to obtain visible objects cognizable by the eye that are
sought after, desired, agreeable, gratifying and associated with worldliness,
or when he recalls those formerly obtained that are past, ceased and changed, then grief arises in him.
Such grief as this is called grief based on the home life” (M III 218)
. And cruelty, which is dissimilar to the similar grief, is its far enemy.
So compassion must be practiced free from fear of that;
for it is not possible to practice compassion and be cruel to breathing things simultaneously.

100. Gladness has joy based on the home life as its near enemy,
since both share in seeing success. Such joy has been described in the way beginning,
“When a man either regards as gain the obtaining of visible objects cognizable by the eye that are sought …
and associated with worldliness, or recalls those formerly obtained that are past, ceased, and changed, then joy arises in him. Such joy as this is called joy based on the home life” (M III 217)
. And aversion (boredom), which is dissimilar to the similar joy, is its far enemy.
So gladness should be practiced free from fear of that;
for it is not possible to practice gladness and be discontented with remote abodes and things connected with the higher
profitableness simultaneously.

101. Equanimity has the equanimity of unknowing based on the home life as
its near enemy, since both share in ignoring faults and virtues.
Such unknowing has been described in the way beginning, “On seeing a visible object with the
eye equanimity arises in the foolish infatuated ordinary man, in the untaught
ordinary man who has not conquered his limitations, who has not conquered
future [kamma] result, who is unperceiving of danger.
Such equanimity as this does not surmount the visible object.
Such equanimity as this is called equanimitybased on the home life” (M III 219).
And greed and resentment, which aredissimilar to the similar unknowing, are its far enemies.
Therefore equanimity must be practiced free from fear of that; [320] for
it is not possible to look on with equanimity and be inflamed with greed or be resentful simultaneously.

[Mkoll]

Dear kitztack,

Ven. Nyanaponika and Ven. Ñāṇamoli wrote BPS Wheels 6 and 7: "The Four Sublime States" and "The Practice of Loving-Kindness (Mettā)".

http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Wheels/wh006.html

[mikenz66]

They may be a little easier to read here:
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh006-p.html
and a PDF version is available: http://www.bps.lk/library_wheels.php

They are also here:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... el006.html
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... el007.html


Mike