37 Empathetic Joy (1)

Teaching pt1: Empathetic joy is taking delight in others’ virtues. As the only one of the 4 immeasurables which involves cultivating an emotion, empathetic joy also serves as the antidote to the near enemy of compassion, grief and despair. Given the prevalence of low self-esteem and guilt, it is also useful for many of us to take delight in our own virtues which is considered virtuous in buddhist teachings. Meditation: empathetic joy. Moving along the timeline from childhood to the present day, recall the kindness others have shown you. With each out breath, light emanates gratitude and rejoicing. Moving along the timeline from childhood to the present day, recall the kindness you have shown others and your cultivation of heart and mind. With each breath, light emanates gratitude and rejoicing, filling body and mind. Direct your attention to someone in particular or whoever comes up, and take delight in his/her virtues. With each out breath, light emanates gratitude and rejoicing. Teaching pt2: Discouragement and depression may come in two forms: 1) those which arise from a cause, spike, and fade out or 2) those which you are just bringing to the world. The same goes for gratitude. Over the years, Alan has seen that for people living in the spirit of gratitude, their practice always goes well whereas for people who complain a lot or are just plain grumpy, their practice seldom goes well, regardless of their intelligence or renunciation. As the Dalai Lama said, “It is better to find one fault in yourself than a thousand faults in another.” Why is this so? It is possible for us to fix that one fault in ourselves and that is cause for rejoicing. Meditation starts at 6:56