Buddhism and the Four Limitless Qualities
Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity
Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön believes that the four limitless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity can help to free all beings from their suffering.
In her book Comfortable with Uncertainty, Chödrön states that by practicing the four limitless qualities, people can train themselves not to hold back, to see their biases in order to stop feeding them.
Such a practice will allow them to move beyond their fear of feeling pain, Chödrön believes, adding, "This is what it takes to become involved with the sorrows of the world...to extend loving-kindness and compassion, joy and equanimity to everyone - no exceptions."
The Limitless Quality of Loving-Kindness
Chödrön acknowledges that it can be difficult to move from a state of aggression to unconditional loving-kindness.
She suggests that individuals start with what's familiar - that they seek out the tenderness that is already a part of them. They should first recognize their own current abilities to feel goodwill, to experience gratitude and appreciation.
"Whether we find it in the tenderness of feeling love or the vulnerability of feeling lonely is immaterial. If we look for that soft, unguarded place, we can always find it," Chödrön explains.
Chödrön believes that individuals can help to awaken loving-kindness by using meditative chants in which they specifically invoke loving-kindness practices. She suggests that the chants being with the individual awakening loving-kindness in himself or herself and then working up to including all beings throughout the universe.
The Limitless Quality of Compassion
In the same way that people can nurture their ability to love, they can also nurture their ability to feel compassion. However, Chödrön acknowledges that compassion is more challenging because the person must be willing to feel pain, which requires the training of a warrior.
Chödrön points to the suggestions of 19th-centruy yogi Patrul Rinpoche for arousing compassion. He suggested that people imagine beings in torment, such as an animal about to be slaughtered or an armless mother watching her child being swept away by a raging river. "For most of us, even to consider such a thing is frightening. When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain."
Chödrön says that the key to feeling compassion is to "stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion." Those who practice compassion should let the fear soften their hearts, rather than harden them to resistance. Through the practice of compassion, people can become more honest and forgiving about themselves, allowing them to do the "courageous work of opening up to suffering."
The Limitless Quality of Joy
When people set up the conditions in their lives to cultivate growth, they begin to feel joy. This results from not giving up on themselves and from beginning to experience their own warrior spirits. To experience joy, individuals should train in rejoicing and appreciation.
Chödrön recommends that they start with a three-step meditative chant similar to the following: "May I not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering. May you not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering. May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering."
Chödrön believes that the appreciation and joy found in such words can help people connect with their own basic goodness - and the strength that this brings - so they can abide in the wide-opened, unbiased nature of their minds.
To find joy, however, individuals must be fully connected to the details of their lives. They must be paying attention, and through this attention, appreciating themselves and the world around them. "This combination of mindfulness and appreciation connects us fully with reality and brings us joy."
The Limitless Quality of Equanimity
When people practice loving-kindness, compassion, and rejoicing, they are training in thinking bigger, which cultivates their unbiased state of equanimity. Without the quality of equanimity, they limit the other three qualities because they remain stuck in their habits of likes and dislikes, acceptance and rejection.
Cultivating equanimity is an ongoing process in which the warrior learns to open the door to all. At first, certain guests might cause a reaction of fear or aversion, in which case the individual should open the door only a crack and feel free to shut it when necessary. Eventually, though, the warrior welcomes them all. "Equanimity is bigger than our usual limited perspectives," says Chödrön. "It's the vast mind that doesn't narrow reality into for-or-against, liking-or-disliking."
Individuals who practice equanimity should try to catch themselves before they feel attraction or aversion, before their reactions become rigid or negative. T
hey must think larger than right or wrong. Indeed, all four limitless qualities - loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity - take the individual from the limited to the limitless. After all, "Through softening, the barriers come down."
Pema Chödrön and the Four Limitless Qualities
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The Four Limitless Qualities of Buddhism
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