Product Code Database
The (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of Brahma") is a series of four Buddhism virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Pali: ) or four infinite minds (Chinese language: 四無量心). The are:
According to the Metta Sutta, cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a "Brahma realm" (Pāli: ).
may be [[parsed|parsing]] as "" and "", which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes".
, usually translated as "the immeasurables", means "boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable".Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921–25, Pali-English Dictionary, Pali Text Society. When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the loving (gods).
Other translations:
According to Richard Gombrich, an Indology and scholar of Sanskrit, Pali, the Buddhism usage of the 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 to cosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahma world. According to Gombrich, "The The Buddha taught that kindness – what Christians tend to call love – was a way to salvation.
In the Tevijja Sutta, "The Threefold Knowledge" in the Digha Nikāya or "Collection of the Long Discourses", a group of young Brahmin consulted Lord The Buddha about the methods to seek fellowship/companionship/communion with Brahma. He replied that he knows the world of Brahma and the way to it, and explains the meditative method for reaching it by using an analogy of the resonance of the conch shell of the :
The The Buddha then said that the monk must follow this up with an equal suffusion of the entire world with mental projections of compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (regarding all beings with an eye for equality).
In the two Metta Sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya,
the The Buddha 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: ) and thus realizes the three characteristics of the Skandha, then after his heavenly life, this disciple will reach . 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 a Naraka, or as an animal or Preta.
In another sutta in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the laywoman Sāmāvatī is mentioned as an example of someone who excels at loving-kindness. In the Buddhism 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.
Three of the four immeasurables, namely , , and , are found in the later Upanishads, while all four are found with slight variations – such as instead of – in Jainism literature, states Wiltshire. The ancient Indian mentioned in the early Buddhist Sutra – those who attained nirvana before the The Buddha – mention all "four immeasurables."
According to British scholar of Buddhism Peter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the four meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition". The The Buddha never claimed that the "four immeasurables" were his unique ideas, like "cessation, quieting, nirvana".
A shift in Vedas ideas, from Ritual to Virtue, is particularly discernible in the early Upanishads thought, and it is unclear as to what extent and how early Upanishads traditions and Sraman traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism influenced each other on ideas such as "four immeasurables", meditation, and .
In an authoritative Jain scripture, the Tattvartha Sutra (Chapter 7, sutra 11), there is a mention of four right sentiments: , , , and :
|
|
