Dear Friends, After several days exploring the fire element – warmth, energy, and transformation – we pause today to cultivate joy. In this context, joy is not about excitement, achievement, or trying to feel good. It is closer to a steady warmth – a gladness that can arise when energy is balanced and life is allowed to unfold… Read More »
Dear Friends, In exploring the third effort of cultivating wholesome states that have not yet arisen, I invite you to listen to a talk by Gil Fronsdal that weaves this teaching together with the brahma vihara of mudita (appreciative joy). In this talk, Gil highlights how the proactive effort to cultivate wholesome states can emerge from a foundation… Read More »
Dear Friends, With wise effort, we want to abandon unhelpful states and cultivate helpful ones. There are many ways to cultivate these beneficial states, including the Brahma Vihara practices of metta (kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (appreciative joy), and upekkha (equanimity). Today, we’ll focus on mudita! Mudita is the capacity to feel happiness or gladness, to delight in someone’s… Read More »
Dear Friends, Here we are, near the end of the month, and we have covered all the recordings from the retreat with Jill and DaRa. Some highlights from the last couple of weeks: The practice of appreciative joy (mudita), and that gratitude (wow thanks) is a supportive ally in cultivating this joy in the joy of others, as… Read More »
Dear Friends, In Guided Meditation – Mudita, DaRa offers some opening comments, then sparks some generosity and gratitude through a story and reflection, and leads an appreciative joy practice that radiates joy to beings in all directions. She says we’re up to something radical here by intentionally cultivating joy, gladdening the heart. There are many joyful moments in… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the latter part of the talk on Sympathetic Joy, Mudita, DaRa describes some of the impediments and allies of mudita, appreciative joy. The impediments include judgment, comparing, prejudice, demeaning, envy, avarice, selfishness, boredom. Thinking about boredom as an impediment to mudita is interesting! When we stop paying attention to the little things in life, and… Read More »
Dear Friends, Today and tomorrow, I’ll turn to DaRa’s talk on Sympathetic Joy, Mudita. Mudita is a way of cultivating joy. It’s sometimes translated as sympathetic joy, appreciative joy, altruistic joy, empathetic joy. It’s a joy that arises when we can resonate with someone’s happiness and success. Here’s a little story that wakes up this quality of joy… Read More »
Dear Friends, Continuing today with the talk on “The Brahma Viharas for Insight and Wisdom,” this time sharing some of Jill’s imagery when talking about the the many ways a kind heart can be expressed and respond wisely in the world. As Jill mentions, through our meditation practice, we can use a range of techniques to help make… Read More »
Dear Friends, There’s a poem by Jack Gilbert called “A Brief for the Defense” that has this reflection: We must risk delight. … We must havethe stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthlessfurnace of this world. To make injustice the onlymeasure of our attention is to praise the Devil. Jack Gilbert, “A Brief For The Defense”https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brief-for-the-defense/ The… Read More »
Dear Friends, When the Buddha was giving instructions to his son, Rahula, one of the teachings was “Develop the meditation of appreciation. For when you are developing the meditation of appreciation, resentment will be abandoned.” This is the heart quality of muditā. In her book, Lovingkindness, Sharon Salzberg tells us that this practice of muditā is a way… Read More »
