Joyful Heart: Exploring the Four Immeasurables
Session 3 - Empathetic Joy & Equanimity
David Oromith · 58 minutes · recorded June 11, 2024
In the guided practice in empathetic joy we rejoice in our own good qualities, a loved one's happiness, and the kindness of strangers. David describes mudita as harder to sustain than it looks, distinguishes it from envy and cynicism, and tells how seeking joy in a local park helped him through depression. He then teaches equanimity, showing how we sort people into loved, neutral and disliked, and how true equanimity extends equal warmth to all three, unlike the flat indifference that mimics it.
Anger and aversion Attachment and craving Depression and low mood Distraction and attention Empathetic joy (mudita) Equanimity Loving kindness (metta) The four immeasurables