A helpful Buddhist concept is Mudita or sympathetic joy. It is closely connected to Metta (loving-kindness). It is an exercise in feeling joyful when others achieve something that brings them happiness. I am going to talk about Mudita tonight (if anybody turns up, Alice Springers are strange in that respect) as a part of the ten week Metta focus.
It is ingrained in people to feel a pang of jealousy when the Other has luck or achieves something. Our first split second reaction is to feel a little of envy and spite that not we but them are the lucky, fortunate one on the receiving side. The more sophisticated we are the sooner we can suppress this little hairy devil Monkey Mind.
It is easy to find joy in the achievements of close ones, ones children for example, but to feel the same joy for a complete stranger is more complicated. However, just as Metta is a skill and not an inborn quality or talent, so is Modita. At first it will feel a bit forced and fake to practice Modita, but it will settle itself as a habit in the mind soon after the first practice and it is, just as Metta, extremely beneficial for the practitioner as well as for the receiver. The doublesided ax of Metta and Modita sharpens the mind and soon after the beginning of the practice we will notice subtle changes in ourselves and the way others react to us.
The Brahma Vihara Organization has the following on their website:
Mudita strengthens the capacity to experience joy and happiness. It is likened to a flower at full bloom. It is the ability to appreciate something as it is blooming and releasing the fragrance of its happiness, without falling over the edge into a sceptical sardonic reaction such as "What is the point? It will only last for a moment." The practice of mudita lifts the heart out of its preoccupation with insufficiency. As a result, the buoyant energies of gratitude and generosity begin to restore the human spirit.
The near enemy of mudita is exuberance. Exuberance is an overly excited, even manic state. It is the sense of deprivation grasping at moments of joy.
The far enemy of mudita is resentment. Mudita is the medicine for the poisons of jealousy, envy and derision. Mudita heals the cruel urge to suppress happiness. With the cultivation of mudita we tap a reservoir of joy by sharing times of happiness and good fortune.
Mudita is exemplified in the mother-child connection when the child begins to express its own creative nature. Mudita is the ability to join and support this expanding spirit. The Buddha taught that one of our challenges is to cultivate mudita even in a world full of misery.
http://www.brahmaviharas.org/mudita.htm
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