Brahma Viharas

At the Greenhouse Holistic Center where I take yoga classes, there are a few teachers who focus the beginning of class on a short lecture about a philosophical or spiritual aspect of yoga. I really, really like this because I think the spiritual and mental sides of yoga are actually more important than the physical, but a lot of centers in the west have turned the practice into a physical activity to get a hot butt and tight abs. My favorite teachers come back throughout class to the mental and spiritual stuff and place a huge emphasis on learning about all the philosophies behind the tradition, and how to carry this mindset into your every day life.

So, a teacher I had the other day began class with a short lecture about the Brahma Viharas, a set of four concepts initially created in the Buddhist religion but now used in many circles. Even though it sounds a little hippy-dippy or too cheesy, if you actually think about them for even a few seconds, it can drastically alter your day for the much better. Give it a try over your breakfast and coffee or on your commute tomorrow. Just think about living that day with these ideas on the forefront and it really changes how you interact with people and how you feel in general.

The Brahma Viharas

Maitri: translates to "love," meaning acting with loving-kindness towards all, or wishing that "all sentient beings*, without any exception, be happy." Keeping this in mind can help us when we feel frustrated with someone else, or when someone bumps into us on the subway, or when a cab driver runs through the red light. Why get angry? Instead, send that person some love.

Karuna: translates to "happiness," meaning to hope and wish that all sentient beings will be free from suffering. Why hope the cab driver gets stuck in traffic and his business suffers because he's late to pick up his client and she calls someone else? Instead, hope that he will be free from suffering and will in the future hope the same thing for all others.

Mudita: translates to "joy," or "sympathetic joy," meaning to feel and express honest joy for the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings. If you could honestly rejoice in all the good things you and other people do, you'd be rejoicing all day long. What a happier way to live your life!

Upeksha: translates to "equanimity," meaning quite a few things. One is to regard all sentient beings as equal, not as friends or enemies or pals or strangers, but as people. Why be nice to someone because she is your friend, but mean to someone else because you don't know her? Also, it means to "accept both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure, equally, with detachment, for oneself and others." So someone says you did a great job on the presentation and you let yourself get all happy and ego-boosted, and then another person yells at you because you forgot something and you let yourself get bummed or pissed. Why?

Remember that all of these ideas are about other people AND yourself.

* Sentient Beings:
A being is declared to be sentient if he can physically suffer. It is characterized by the possession of a developed nervous system and brain. The group of sentient beings particularly includes vertebrae species: mammals (human and not), birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes.