Four Immeasurables

Dan Harris interviews Joseph Goldstein on the Ten Percent Happier Podcast "Three Mindfulness Strategies."  Harris talks about a "standard practice" of meditation that I'd never heard of:  the Brahma viharas or the "four immeasurable heavenly abodes": loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, sympathetic joy.  

Because the god Brahma is said to dwell (vihara) in these four forms of love, they are known as Brahmaviharas, translated in English as “divine abidings.” They are "the four immeasurables" because they refer to four boundless qualities, which literally have “no measure” (apramana), are equanimity (upekkha), love (metta), compassion (karuna), and joy (mudita).

I recognized all of these as distinct practices/meditations in the 40 Days of Meditation with Tara Brach and X.  It's interesting that they're related and part of a specific practice.  What I had experienced was American meditation teachers pulling them apart for ease of teaching.  Loving kindness meditation, as I've experienced it, focuses on love and compassion and aims towards joy.  Equanimity seems to precede (?) the others or ground it and is reflected in daily basic mindfulness practice.

I like the name "the four immeasurables."  It has the essence of magic... Strega Nona's pasta pot, the fountain of youth.  Immeasurable can be "not usefully counted or measured" or it could mean "so big that it can't be measured" (the promise of meter-less electricity!) (space!) or both.  It makes me consider if these things are like an electrical socket to be plugged into or something that shouldn't be spoken of in the same way that measurable things can be.

Here are some details I found when I read about this practice in this Tricycle article.

Equanimity is freedom from powerful reactions, positive or negative, to another person or an event—the ability to be even-minded toward everyone, no matter how they behave.

Boundless love, in contrast to clinging and attachment, is the wish for everyone everywhere to have happiness and its causes.  

Boundless compassion, which is distinct from being overwhelmed by emotion, is the wish that everyone everywhere be free of pain and its causes. It banishes desire.   

Boundless joy, not to be mistaken for frenzied exultation, is delight in others’ happiness. It banishes jealousy and stabilizes our capacity for engagement.