The Four Immeasurables
Lissa Coffey
The Four Immeasurables are a series of virtues and Buddhist meditation practices designed to cultivate those virtues. They are also called the four sublime attitudes, as they are good qualities to possess in god measure. They form a sequence of Buddhist virtues recommended in the Brahmavihara Sutta.
-Metta/Maitri: loving-kindness. “The wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy.”
-Karuna: compassion. “The wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering.”
-Mudita: sympathetic joy. “The wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings.”
-Upekkha/Upeksha: equanimity, or learning to accept both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others. “To not distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind, not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness, or agitation.”